Question of the morning: is your host the most absent-minded person on the planet? On Monday we published a list of secret codes for your BlackBerry, and on Tuesday I reviewed IntelliBerry, an application which, among other functions, allows you to quickly navigate among applications. I didn’t notice anything missing. It wasn’t until I randomly clicked around and landed on an Al Sacco article at CIO that I had that bop-your-forehead moment. I’d totally forgotten about a pretty awesome Alt shortcut.
Sometimes it seems like you’re trying to do a million things at once. Composing emails, checking sports scores, checking your calendar, making sure your to-do list is clear…you can be doing all this and more on your BlackBerry all at once. The most straightforward way to navigate among all these applications is to either hit the red End key and then find the next application in the menu, or to hit the Menu button and select Switch Application. Yet there’s an easier way.
Just as Alt+Tab switches among your PC application, the Alt key can make your BlackBerry navigation a bit smoother. To use this function you hold down the Alt key, click Escape once, and then scroll with your trackball. That’s all there is to it. Scroll over to the next application you will use, and release the Alt key. Now you’re there. Want to go back? Do the same thing.
This is probably the most functional Alt key function, at least in universally practical terms. If you’re multitasking on your BlackBerry, it’s an essential key sequence to remember.
