Tips & Tricks for the Blackberry Curve Cell Phone

by Jon Faranda

Overview

Simply typing messages or navigating through the variety of applications on a smart phone can be frustrating for the inexperienced user, but if you learn the basic shortcuts and functions, you can make the most of your Blackberry Curve and get on your way to becoming a power user in no time.
Getting Started

The first things you should be aware of are the functions of the ALT and shift keys (shift keys have an upward arrow and the letters "aA" on them) near the bottom corners of the phone. Holding down the ALT key while typing will allow you to type the secondary characters for each button, and both of these keys are involved in many of the shortcuts for the Curve. If you have multiple applications open and you would like to switch between them without returning to the home screen, you can hold down the ALT key and press the back key. This will make a menu pop up in the middle of the screen listing all your open applications. Keep holding down the ALT key while you scroll through and find the right application. When you have found what you need, just release the ALT key to switch applications.

Messages

To make selections while typing a message, simply hold down the shift key and roll the trackball until you have highlighted the desired text. If you want to cut or copy this selection, press the menu key (the key just left of the trackball) and select cut or copy while the selection is still highlighted. To paste, simply hit the menu key again and select paste. If you need to put any special characters that are not on the keypad into your messages, you can hit the SYM button and a menu containing the most common symbols will pop up. Just highlight the one you need and press the trackball. If you need to type in other special characters, like an e with an accent mark, all you have to do is hold down that letter and roll the trackball until you find the character you are looking for.
Themes and Applications

There are a wide variety of free themes and applications available for the Blackberry Curve. To utilize these, you can either point your browser to their location, download and install, or download on your computer and install them through the RIM Desktop Manager. If you want to change your theme to one you have installed, you can do so by going to options and selecting Theme.