Back in May, as part of the Twitter for BlackBerry® Beta Update, Sean included the handy shortcuts (hotkeys) to help users speed through the app; however, many of the hotkeys apply only to a full QWERTY keyboard. Luckily, there are shortcuts for us condensed QWERTY keyboard users with BlackBerry® Pearl™ 3G 9100 smartphones (please note that these are shortcuts for the 20-key variant of the condensed keyboard)! Check ‘em out:

Twitter for BlackBerry QWERTY Shortcuts

• ! (reply)
• ? (reply all)
• space (page down)
• . (forward)
• , (compose)
• 5 (refresh)

And the Alt-functions work just the same:

• Alt+0 (home)
• Alt+1 (mentions)
• Alt+2 (lists)
• Alt+3 (profile)
• Alt+4 (inbox)
• Alt+5 (find people)
• Alt+6 (search)
• Alt+7 (popular topics)

Craving more fast-typing tips? Check out Mark’s blog post on shortcuts for condensed QWERTY keyboards.

Since I’m also a huge fan of BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) – perhaps an understatement! – I wanted to share the must-know shortcuts for BBM as well:

BBM Shortcuts for QWERTY Keyboards

In a chat:

• ER (go to top)
• CV (go to bottom)
• QW (reply)

In the Group Picture Carousel:

• BN (next picture)
• OP (previous picture)
• DF (mark as favorite)

Other:

• Space (jump from recent updates to chats to contacts etc)

For even more shortcuts for your BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9100 smartphone, check out this article: Keyboard shortcuts for the BlackBerry Pearl 9100 smartphone

Also, stay tuned for shortcuts for the BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9105 smartphone!

Do you have any other shortcuts for the condensed QWERTY keyboards? Let us know in the comments!

However, my experience since has shown that shortcuts are often unknown to many users. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’d be demonstrating something to a customer at a tradeshow, only to be asked “How did you do that?” as I whisked my way through the message list and emails.

Now, many people will find that the keyboard shortcuts on a full QWERTY smartphone, like the BlackBerry® Bold™, to be fairly intuitive. “N” for the next message, “P” for the previous message, “R” to reply, and so forth. But when confronted with a SureType® keyboard, like those found on the BlackBerry® Pearl™ series , many customers assume there simply aren’t shortcuts on the SureType devices. The truth is though, they’ve just moved around a little. Not all of the shortcuts made it over from the full QWERTY keyboard, but the important ones that let you navigate your message list like a pro are still there.

The “key” (ha ha) to navigational shortcuts on SureType is to think of the number keys like a directional pad. Numbers on the top row are generally for moving up, and numbers on the bottom row are for moving down; functions are paired top to bottom and left to right as well. Here’s how it works:

1 – Move to the top of the open message, or the top of the message list (newest message)
7 – Move to the bottom of the open message, or bottom of the message list (oldest message)
3 – Move one screen up in the open message / message list
9 – Move one screen down in the open message / message list
4 – Open the previous message, or go to the previous day in the message list
6 – Open the next message, or go to the next day in the message list

Now, for the actual message functions, you’re just going to have to employ a bit of memorization. 

! – Reply to the current message
? – Reply to all to the current message
. – Forward the current message
, – Compose a new message

It might not seem like a big deal, but keyboard shortcuts make managing your messages easier, whether you’re running through an airport clutching your carry-on, or killing time waiting for your friends at the coffee shop. To get a full list of the shortcuts for your smartphone, you can either check your user guide or surf over to the website and look at the online documentation.

-Mark

EDIT: to include the full 4 / 6 shortcut list. Thanks James!