Throughout webOS, there are many data entry fields that provide you a long list to scroll through to find the specific data you need, such as the Date and Time selections of a calendar event. While the list may be easy enough to scroll through in most cases, you can actually type in your selection as well. As you can see in the screenshot, selecting the "minutes" box to choose the start time of the calendar entry pops up the long list of times, but you can then just start typing to get the time you want. So, to get an entry that starts at 4:25, just type "2" then "5" on the keyboard. No visual indication will be given other than the changing numbers on the screen. You can also use this for text fields, such as the month. To get July, tap on the Month field and start typing "jul". You will initially see "Jun" in there (as that is the first selection that starts with "J"), but it will change to "Jul" as soon as you type the "l" key

A few notes:

• To get numbers, you do not need to hold down the Option (Orange/Silver) key for numbers. In the example above, to type in "25", just press the  key then the key
• You are only able to type in selections that are available. So, if you tried to type in "23", the "3" would cause the selection to become a "30" since that is the first available option that starts with a 3

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

The Option Key currently comes in two forms: Orange or Silver, depending on if you are on the original Pre or any other webOS device. Regardless of the color, that single keyboard key is quite versatile, allowing you to do quite a number of different thing throughout the operating system. In this week’s Tip Roundup, we explore some of the many uses you will find for this Option Key. Keep reading after the break to reexamine all those uses

read more

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

In this edition of PreCentral’s Tip Roundup, we focus on some keyboard shortcuts or keyboard combinations that are available as a result of the presence of a physical keyboard on all current webOS devices. For a complete list of published Keyboard Shortcut tips, click here. For a summary of the top tips, keep reading:

• Shift + Backspace
  • Provides the ability to delete an entire word instead of just a single character
• Shift + Enter
  • Tabs between fields on a variety of stock and 3rd-party webOS Apps (but sadly, not in the browser)
• Meta-tap (Gesture tap)
  • Press-and-holding the Gesture Area and then tapping on a keyboard key or an area of the screen to initiate a specific action (e.g. Copy/Paste)
• How to take a screen shot
  • Self-explantory!
• Accessing the USB Drive
  • Quick keyboard combination to activate the USB Drive mode, especially useful if your touchscreen is broken or unresponsive

Got any other great keyboard shortcuts or combinations not already covered by a PreCentral Tip?

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

When you are sending a text message to a person in your contact list, you normally just search for that contact in the TO field on a new SMS message (or just use Universal Search). But what happens if you want to send a message to a number not in your contact list? Or what if you are given a name or word to send the message to, but don’t have a phone dialpad in front of you to know what number each character refers to (e.g. 2 = ABC, 3 = DEF, etc). Luckily, webOS gives you the flexibility to address the message almost any way you want.

• Dial by number: If you wanted to send a message to 123456789, you can just start typing the numbers of your keyboard without the need to press the Option (Orange/Silver) key beforehand. As you can see in the top of screenshot, typing "ertdfgcvb" (the 123456789 keys on the keyboard) gives you an option to "SEND TO NUMBER".
• Dial by word: Many companies, however, will often tell you to send a text message to a word, which requires you to have a old-school telephone dialpad in front of you to know how to do that conversion. For example, Coca-cola’s MyCokeRewards tells you to text a code to "COKE" (2653). Even though the dialpad isn’t available in the Messaging App to refer to, all you need to do is just type the word in the "TO" field and the conversion is done in the "SHORT CODE" section. As you can see in the screenshot, the Short code for "ertdfgcvb" converts to 378334928.

Note that you can not mix-and-match these methods. So, if you want to send a text to 1-555-PALM-200, you will actually need to do the PALM-to-7256 conversion on your own.
 

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Typing with the physical keyboard on your webOS phone allows you quick access to any of the letters, numbers or symbols located on the keys just by using of the Option (Orange/Silver) and Shift ()keys. However, if you want to access a larger range of other symbols–including accented letters and smiley faces–you will need to use the  key on the bottom right of the keyboard. Keep reading after the break for details on how to use the key.

read more

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Setting a speed-dial in webOS allows you to use a single keyboard key to dial a specific pre-defined phone number (as previously discussed in this tip). Taking this one step further, you can easily set the corner letters on the keyboard (Q and P) for your two most important numbers so you can always access these numbers, even if you are in a position where you can not look down at your phone. Another option for you to quickly find a specific key is to use the F key because it has a slightly raised bump on it to indicate that it’s also the #5 key.

Does anyone else have any good systems for using speeddials?

Thanks to our own Jonathan Ezor for suggesting this tip

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

The Option (Orange/Silver) key and the Shift Key () expand the available characters that you can use when typing with the physical keyboard. The Option key gives you access to all the symbols and numbers on the top-right of each key, while the Shift key allows you type with CAPITAL letters. There are three basic ways to use these keys, and while the results of each key are different, using them is identical:

1. Press once — If you press the Option or Shift key once, a blue dot () or blue up arrow (), respectively, will appear underneath the cursor. Then, the very next key you press will provide the corresponding number/symbol or CAPS letter for that key. After that, the keyboard will revert back to normal operation.
2. Press twice — If you press the Option or Shift key twice in a row, a black dot () or black up arrow (), respectively, will appear underneath the cursor. The keyboard will then be locked in to the corresponding mode until you press either the Option or Shift key again.
3. Press-and-hold — If you press-and-hold the Option or Shift key, any keys you then press will provide the corresponding numbers/symbols or CAPS letters, respectively, until you let go of the Option or Shift key. Unlike the two methods above, that there will be no onscreen indication that you have pressed these keys.  Note that in many "type to search" areas of webOS (e.g. Email Search, Universal Search), the press-and-hold method is the only way to perform a search that starts with a number or symbol

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

We’ve been speculating about how Palm would pull off a tablet or other keyboard-lacking device, and that of course would require some manner of virtual keyboard. While Palm clearly didn’t announce any sort of addition to webOS with the reveal of 2.0 earlier this week, that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t happen. In fact, an anonymous tipster pointed out to us that the /etc/palm/luna.conf file in the webOS 2.0 SDK contains not just a reference to a virtual keyboard, but subsection all to itself titled [VirtualKeyboard]. There’s one value in that subsection, VirtualKeyboardEnabled=false, and right now the SDK doesn’t have any files that would be enabled by changing that value to true. But this is still a sign that Palm is indeed prepping a keyboardless slate device, and we won’t see it until webOS 2.0 hits. Or maybe 2.0 will bring the virtual keyboard to devices like the Pre…

UPDATE: Due to this leak, Palm has decided to suspend processing of new applications to the Early Access Program. Developers up to this point only needed to be registered with the Palm Developer Center and have an app in the App Catalog for apply for access. According to webOSdev on Twitter, Palm is currently reevaluating their restrictions on access to early releases of the SDK (developers are required to sign an NDA) and may reopen admission to the Early Access Program in the future. For the sake of all developers, we hope that happens soon.

UPDATE 2: Palm has reopened developer admissions, saying on Twitter "We’re accepting early access admissions again. No reason to make everyone pay the price here."

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Two things that differentiate the hardware of webOS devices and that of all other mobile phones are the presence of both a physical keyboard and the Gesture Area. While the Gesture Area can be used to perform a Back Swipe, a Forward Swipe, or a variety of other gestures, it can also be used for keyboard shortcuts (called a Meta-tap). All you need to do is hold down one finger anywhere on the Gesture Area and then press the corresponding keyboard key for any given shortcut. And how do you know what the shortcuts are? Well, all you need to do is go into any Application Menu by performing a downward-swipe from the top left corner of the screen and look for the Bulls-eye + Letter combinations.

The most common use of the Meta Tap is for Copy/Paste. All you need to do is highlight the text that you want (or use a Gesture + A to "Select All"), perform a Gesture + C to copy (a "Selection Copied" dashboard notification will appear), put your cursor where you want to paste, and then perform a Gesture + V to paste. And this is not constrained to just the app you are working in…this even works across apps!

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Setting a Speed Dial is a great way to quickly call up to 23 of your most common contacts. Once set, all you need to do is open the keyboard and press one key on the keyboard to access that number. Keep reading after the break to learn how to set these speed dial entries.

read more

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>