Top Five Tips for Virtual Keyboards

While BlackBerry devices distinguish themselves from the pack with their physical keyboard, the newer BlackBerry phones like Z10 and Z30 come with virtual keyboards. Most of us have our own preference for physical or virtual keyboard. So if you are not a big fan of virtual keyboards, but now need to get used to one, here is our list of top five tips for making life with virtual keyboards a little bit easier.

Turn the CAPS Lock On

While it is not advisable to send any text with CAPS lock on, as all CAPS is considered yelling, but if you must write in all capitals then this tip will come to your rescue. You need to press the up arrow or Shift key and hold it for a while. After a second or so, you will be able to see a small line below the Up arrow. The line shows that the CAPS Lock is on. Now you can go ahead and do as much online yelling you need to do. To turn the Caps Lock off, you need to tap the Up Arrow again.

Shortcuts for Browser

If you are surfing the internet on your BlackBerry, then the following shortcuts may come to your rescue.

• Access your History by pressing H.
• Press K to open your bookmarks.
• L key is your shortcut to refresh a webpage.
• N key will take you forward by one page
• P key, on the other hand, will take you back by one page.
• If you want to set reader mode, you will need to press the R key.
• S key will activate the search function on the page.
• You can zoom to the top of the page by pressing the T button.

Change the Location of Word Suggestion

By default, the word suggestions appear on the BlackBerry keyboard. However, if you are not comfortable with this set up, you can change the location of word suggestions. For this purpose you need to follow these steps.

• On Home screen, press Settings.
• Tap Language and Input. Proceed to press Prediction and Correction tab.
• Tap Portrait Mode drop down list and select In-Column if you want the word suggestions to appear above the keyboard. In-Letter will make the suggestions appear on the keyboard.

You can also choose to turn the suggestions off.

Keypress Pop-up

For this customization, tap Settings on the home screen. Go to Language and Input tab and tap Feedback. Follow Keypress Pop-Up and turn it on. This feature is useful if you type a lot of complex words.

Delete with a Swipe

Deleting a word is as easy as swiping your finger across the keyboard. If you need to delete a single word, swipe one finger from right to left. For deleting more than one word in a single instance, swipe two or three fingers from right to left. However, right to left motion is applicable to the left to right languages. For the languages flowing from right to left, you will have to swipe your fingers in the opposite direction.