I think I just found the GREATEST shortcut on the Blackberry Pearl. This is going to revolutionize the way you use your Blackberry Pearl and speed up almost everything you do.

Switching Between Applications

Until I discovered this shortcut, when I was in an application and wanted to switch over to look at something else, I would have to do one of two very inconvenient processes.

Imagine you’re looking at your messages and your boss asks if you have some time on Friday at 2pm for a quick meeting.  You need to check your calendar, so you:

1. Click repeatedly on the escape button (the one to the right of the pearl with the arrow) until you get back to your home screen.  Find and then scroll over to the calendar icon and click on that.
2. Click on the menu button, scroll all the way down to “Switch Applications” and scroll over to the calendar and click the pearl button.

That’s an improvement over the first option, but nothing compared to this quick application change shortcut.

Let’s take the same scenario: you’re in your messages and need to check your calendar.  Here’s what you do:

1. Press and hold the ALT button (it’s just below the ZX key)
2. Press the escape key once
3. Scroll over to the the calendar icon
4. Release the ALT button

That’s it!  I’m a huge user of the ALT-TAB shortcut on a Windows machine and this is just as easy.  Give it a shot and you’ll agree, even though it seems so basic and simple, it changes the way you use your Blackberry Pearl.

As I mentioned in another post, Google Maps is one of the most important applications you could install on your Blackberry Pearl.

Once you’ve installed it, you’ll want to know all the shortcuts that make it much easier to use. Here’s what you’ll need to know:

Press 1 Zooms out

Press 3 Zooms in

Press 2 Toggles between map and satellite view

Press # Show search results

Press 4 Show previous search location

Press 6 Show next search location

Press 5 Scroll up

Press 8 Scroll down

Press 7 Scroll left

Press 9 Scroll right

Press 0 Show “My Location”

Press * List saved favorites

You can also use the pearl button to scroll left, right, up and down.

If you press the pearl button when you’re looking at your search locations a new menu will come up showing you more information about that location. This also has a listing of phone numbers and the ability to dial the business directly.

If you don’t have Google Maps on your Blackberry Pearl yet, you need it.

I’m always giving my thumb a major workout as I try to scroll through pages and pages of emails using the scroll ball on my Blackberry Pearl. I desperately needed a way to go from 2/3 of the way down my list of messages to the very top. I knew there was a way, I didn’t know it.

Here’s some keyboard shortcuts I found. I’d love to know of any others you may have.

PRESS 1 - Go to the top of your list of messages

PRESS 7 - Go to the bottom of your list of messages

PRESS 2 - Move up one message at a time.

PRESS 8 - Move down one message at a time.

PRESS 3 - Move up one day at a time.

PRESS 9 - Move down one day at a time.

PRESS 0 - Page down

PRESS 5 - Start a new blank message

PRESS * SYM - Go to your unread messages