If you've ever watched someone who's an expert at using a piece of software, you'll quickly notice they don't use their mouse as much as most people. They'll use something called "keyboard shortcuts" to move about the program quickly and smoothly. As easy as it is to use a mouse, it's not always the fastest route from point A to point B.

Most people who use a Blackberry Pearl will scroll to an item, press the pearl or Blackberry button, scroll down to the selection they want and press it again. That's a long process if you're in a hurry. It's not going to make or break your hectic schedule, but it does involve some unnecessary action you can soon depart with. You're about to learn a few of the keyboard shortcuts the pros use.

Keyboard Shortcuts

A lot of businesses will spell out their phone number to help you remember it. That's great for remembering but it's worthless for those of us using a Blackberry Pearl. If you compare the keyboard on your Pearl with one on a traditional phone, you'll notice the letters don't land on the same numbers.

So 1-888-HIT-RADIO just doesn't work. I've had to look at another phone to see what the numbers are supposed to be on my Blackberry. Not any more! If you start to dial the number from your home screen (1-888) and then press and hold the ALT key (that's the one in the lower left corner with the up and down arrows on it) and use the multi-tap feature you can spell out the phone number.

"Multi-tap" mean, if you want to use the 2nd letter on a key, you press it twice. For example, take out your Pearl and look at it. If you want to type a Y, you'd press the "2" key two times. The first press brings up the T and the second tap brings up the Y. If you ever have to type in a password using your Pearl, it works the same way.

If you want to make a payment using your phone with Verizon Wireless, you'd simply press #PMT and send, but not on a Pearl. Now, knowing what we just learned we can press # and then hold down ALT while we press "." twice, "9" once and "2" once. If that's confusing, take a look at your Pearl and see that this spells PMT using multi-tap. Press send and you're all set to make your payment.

Managing Your Messages With Shortcuts

Now lets look at faster ways to get around your messages on your Blackberry. The shortcut I use most frequently is the REPLY key when I'm looking at my list of messages. Here's how it works. If you're looking at your list of messages and you see something you should have replied to earlier, just press the "!" key. It's in the upper left corner of the keypad and shares the space with Q and W. This will instantly open up a reply message. Type your message and press send. Done.

Normally you'd have to select the message, open it, press the Blackberry button, scroll down to reply and press the pearl button. Kind of a pain when instead you can just press ! and start typing your message. You can reply to all by pressing "?" key or if you want to forward a message just press "." on the right side of the keyboard. Commit those to memory and you'll save a lot of time.

Here's another quick tip that can save you hundreds of key punches. At the end of a sentence, instead of pressing ALT and "." just double space and your Blackberry will add in the period automatically. This will speed up your typing considerably since it doesn't require the use of both hands. If you're ever typing an email address, you can do something similar. Just press space where the @ symbol goes and Blackberry adds it automatically.

One more little tip that will help you sort through all of your messages on your Blackberry Pearl. With your list of messages open, try holding down ALT and pressing "S". This will show you just your SMS messages. Hold ALT and press "P". That's just a listing of your phone messages or your call log. Hold down ALT and press "V" and you'll see a list of your voice mail messages. Hold ALT and press "I" and you'll only see your incoming messages. When you're done, press the escape key and you're back to your default view of messages.

I've found, if I try to learn too many shortcuts at one time, I never really master them. So, instead, just focus on these few I've given you and you'll have them memorized in no time at all. These are so powerful and are useful so often, they really will speed up your navigation on your phone. Than you can move on to more important things.