[aussie99]

Hi all,

After many years using other phones, I've now got the BB Torch, my first BB.

Some issues I have in comparison, which I'm hoping aren't really issues.

1- No dedicated full-stop/period key (in the physical keyboard). You have to press alt-M. That's a massive pain.

2- I can't type consecutive digits (in the physical keyboard). You need to hit alt before every digit. It can drive you nuts when texting or emailing a phone number.

3- The calendar appointments don't show up on my homescreen, even on the day. Can this be changed?

4- How does the colour lights/flashing for different events work? How can it be tweaked? I've heard of an app for this, any ideas?

5- Phone won't let me download large (over 2MB!) files, eg a video that was emailed to me. Does that sound right? Can that be changed?

6- I have gmail/email set up. Is there an easy way to turn it off when battery power is very low?

7- When logging in to gmail via the browser (for a different account), the time is incorrect. How do I fix that?

Thanks for your patience, guys.

[Shadow_S2K]

For issue number 1 just hit the space bar twice to add a period after each sentence.

For your number 2 problem just hit "alt" and the button next to the zero with the up arrow to lock in numbers.

Answer to number 4 is an app called BerryBuzz. Search for it in the crackberry app world.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[aussie99]

Shadow:

For 1, that won't work when typing a web address, which is what I should have said I was referring to. I did know about the double space trick in general.

For 2, Thank you! Slight pain, but still good.

4, will check.

Thanks.

[Shadow_S2K]

If you are typing in a web address in the BB browser, hitting space bar will add a period

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[aussie99]

Very cool, Shadow, did not know that.

Is there somewhere I can find a list of all keyboard tricks?

NEW QUESTION:

Is there an easy and quick way to turn off ringer/turn on vibrate only? Like in the Palm there is a physical button on top of the phone.

Or do you have to go through setting etc etc?

[Shadow_S2K]

I'm not sure where there is a list...but I'm sure a search might generate lots of tips and tricks.

On the home screen you can acess your profile settings. Where you see the speaker looking thing (directly accross from the magify glass universal search). You can scroll select or touch to select it and it will bring up all your profile settings. That would be the easiest way to change your profile.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[talberry]

NEW QUESTION:

Is there an easy and quick way to turn off ringer/turn on vibrate only? Like in the Palm there is a physical button on top of the phone.

Or do you have to go through setting etc etc?

Yes there is actually.. You could try holding the "Q" key on the keyboard. It should toggle between normal and vibrate mode

[aussie99]

@Shadow:

Thanks again.

@talberry:

Good one. Thanks. (I note it toggles between the last two used profiles.)

[xDAKx]

Is there somewhere I can find a list of all keyboard tricks?

While I'm not aware of any one good list for all BlackBerry keyboard shortcuts, I ended up finding most of my tricks from a video put up by a carrier in my home country (Orange in the UK) when the Curve 8320 was the newest device, you can find it .

A few which I can suggest,

Pressing Alt and your RIGHT cap/cap lock key (the key with "aA (arrow)") will put you into caps lock.

Torch only: Pressing the "aA (arrow)" key on either side of the virtual keyboard will do the same thing, put you into caps lock, press either one of the buttons on the virtual keyboard again to exit from that mode.

Pressing Alt and the LEFT cap/cap lock key will put you into number lock mode, You can then press any of the number keys without having to go to Alt each time, this also lets you use any of the symbols without having to use alt or use the "sym" key.

Alt+Right a/A+Backspace will do a soft reboot of the device, This does not work on the virtual keyboard, only the physical one.

Pressing the BlackBerry button and holding it for three seconds brings up the application switcher, which you can quickly move between apps and view which apps are running in the background with, This can also be achieved with BlackBerry Menu, "Switch Application" however the button trick is generally quicker.

Pressing the Mute key (right key on the top of the device) while in the music player will pause your music/video/media without having to switch the device screen on, pressing it again will resume.

Pressing the "$/(speaker)" key will allow you to put a call on mute while in a call, pressing it again takes the caller off mute.

I'm sure there are others, but that's all I could come up with at 3:50 in the morning.

[shansmi]

the calendar is on the home screen by default. select the notification area by scrolling ia the trakpad and then click the trakpad. either that or touch the notification area. your next 3 calendar events will appear... if you want more than that, try a 3rd party theme.

[5picker]

5. I believe most of the download/upload limitations are set by the carrier and/or RIM (BIS). No way to change.

6. The only way to turn off email push is to turn off data, something you may not want. manage connections > mobile network options > data services=off

You could set a email filter that would block that account but it would be a HUGE pita to do it for just when the battery is low.

[jxk716]

Is there somewhere I can find a list of all keyboard tricks

Right from the horse's mouth:

http://docs.blackberry.com/en/smartp...s_38809_11.jsp

[BlackStormRising]

Right from the horse's mouth:

http://docs.blackberry.com/en/smartp...s_38809_11.jsp

Correct. Don't forget universal search on your Torch. Tap the search icon on the top right and type "shortcuts". This should display the help [?] icon and it will give you many useful shortcuts.

[BlackStormRising]

3- The calendar appointments don't show up on my homescreen, even on the day. Can this be changed?


On your home screen, tap the space between the speaker and search icons. Your events should drop down.

[BBThemes]

Correct. Don't forget universal search on your Torch. Tap the search icon on the top right and type "shortcuts". This should display the help [?] icon and it will give you many useful shortcuts.

as well as tapping the search icon, if youve got the keyboard out, then just start typing, no need to tap anything if the keyboards out

for 7, thats prob the time of the country where the server is (note if in usa then timezone for state the servers in) but i wouldnt know how to change that.

[Elite1]

as well as tapping the search icon, if youve got the keyboard out, then just start typing, no need to tap anything if the keyboards out

This is if you have Launch by Typing in your Home Screen Preferences set to Universal Search. If you have it set to Application Shortcuts like me, you can click S to launch Universal Search, then start typing.

Sincerely,
The Clarification Police

[Elite1]

I thought I would point out the terms we commonly use to refer to the various keys.
(That way I don't have to pound myself in the temples for every time I see "the arrow-up aA button" or things along those lines.)

ALT • The key that says alt
SPACE • If I have to tell you what this is, please hurl your BB out the window. While still holding it.
•MENU: The BB  logo key to left of trackpad
•ESC: The key to right of the trackpad is the Escape key
•SEND / END: Respectively the green phone & red phone keys to left & right of MENU & ESC
•DEL: key on right of keyboard with del & left-pointing arrow
•L.SHIFT: the Left Shift key in bottom left corner with up-arrow & aA
•R.SHIFT: the Right Shift key in bottom right corner with aA & up-arrow
•SYM: key to right of SPACE that says sym
•ENTER: key under DEL that enters info or skips down a line
•LOCK: button on top left of device
•MUTE: button on top right of device
•R.Conv Key: Convenience Key on right side of device

•ALT+L.SHIFT: NUM LOCK
•ALT+R.SHIFT: CAPS LOCK

[Elite1]

Alt+Right a/A+Backspace will do a soft reboot of the device

Correct, you'll see this referred to as ALT+R.SHIFT+DEL.

Pressing the BlackBerry button and holding it for three seconds brings up the application switcher, which you can quickly move between apps and view which apps are running in the background with, This can also be achieved with BlackBerry Menu, "Switch Application" however the button trick is generally quicker.

Correct, but by default it's really holding down MENU only about 1 second, unless you've really monkeyed with your key sensitivity settings.

Pressing the "$/(speaker)" key will allow you to put a call on mute while in a call, pressing it again takes the caller off mute.

NOOO!
It's actually pretty much the opposite result as this!

Pressing the $ key during a call will turn on the Speakerphone, and it will NOT Mute a call. Pressing again returns call to handset mode.

You can mute a call by pressing the MUTE button on top right of device. Pressing again un-mutes.

[Elite1]

CrackBerry has some BlackBerry 101 tutorials, including one on keyboard shortcuts:

CrackBerry.com | BlackBerry 101: Keyboard Shortcuts

This is an update for our 6.0 Browser shortcuts as a few have changed:

CrackBerry.com | Using Browser with OS6

I actually kept the 1st one bookmarked for the first year and a half I had a BB. Extremely handy to refer back to.

[aussie99]

Thanks for all your help guys. :-)

[Elite1]

Oh hey Aussie, I forgot to add one other thing.
To make numbers/punctuation, you already know you can click ALT then the key or ALT+L.SHIFT for NUM LOCK. And for capitalizing letters you can simply hold a key, click either SHIFT then the key, or ALT+R.SHIFT for CAPS LOCK.

What I don't think you know is that for making a few consecutive numbers/punctuation marks, you can hold down ALT with one thumb and press your desired keys with the other thumb. As long as you hold down ALT you'll get numbers/punctuation.
Likewise, while holding down either SHIFT you'll get all capital letters.

[skwij]

Also on the physical KB, just holding a key down will capitalise the letter.

[AJotr]

WOW - I am brand new to Blackberry (Torch 9800) and I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone who posted here - I think I got about 20-30 of my questions answered just by reading the posts in this one thread alone! Awesome!