Tips to BlackBerry Q5 Shortcuts

Working with text and controlling the cursor

Use the following cursor and text tips to help increase your efficiency when responding to emails, creating new documents and much more.

Controlling the cursor:

To get the cursor to a particular spot, tap the circle in the direction you’d like to move. For example, tap the right side of the cursor to move the cursor to the right, as shown in the screenshot below.

To highlight and select text:

• To select a word, tap and hold the word


• To shrink or expand your selection, move the cursor indicators manually


• To select text automatically, continue holding your finger to increase the selection size, e.g. word > sentence > paragraph.

To cut, copy or paste text:

• To copy text, tap and hold the selected text and select Copy 


• To cut the text, tap and hold the selected text and select Cut 


• To paste, tap and hold where you want to paste text and select Paste 

Home screen shortcuts

You can use the following shortcuts on your home screen to perform a number of actions:

• Make a call – Type “call contact’s name” or “call phone number”


• Send an email – Type “email contact’s name” or “email email address”


• Send a text message – Type “text contact’s name” or “text phone number”


• Start a BBM chat – Type “BBM contact’s name”


• Update your Facebook status – Type “Facebook status update”


• Post a tweet – Type “tweet tweet”


• Post a LinkedIn update – Type “LinkedIn status update”


• Add a note to BlackBerry Remember – Type “note note details”


• Add a task to BlackBerry Remember – Type “task task details”

Tips to BlackBerry Shortcuts

While viewing your list of messages

• Compose a message – Press C


• Search the BlackBerry Hub – Press S


• Next Unread Message – Press U


• Move to the top of the BlackBerry Hub – Press T


• Move to the bottom of the BlackBerry Hub – Press B

While in a message

• Reply – Press R


• Reply All – Press L


• Forward – Press F

These are other useful shortcuts
Open selected message          Depress Enter key
View message Inbox              Hold down Alt and I
View messages sent               Hold down Alt and O
View voicemail messages       Hold don Alt and V
View SMS text messages       Hold down Alt and S
View call logs                        Hold down Alt and P
View all your messages again  Hold down the Escape/Back key

Adding symbols and accented characters

To add a symbol or accented character, press and hold a key to see the available symbols along the bottom of the screen. You can also add other symbols by tapping the sym  key.

Adding and removing typing languages

Looking to add another typing language? Here’s how you can select up to three different languages and switch between them on the fly, or manually:

1. On the home screen, swipe down from the top of the screen


2. Tap Settings followed by Language and Input


3. Tap Input Languages followed by the Add/Remove Language icon along the bottom toolbar


4. Select the checkbox beside the languages that you want to enable