Using the SYM key
by Adam Marks on 11/9/2010 | ; Tags: tip a day, keyboard, keyboard shortcuts, option key, symbols, shift key, SYM key | 19 comments
by Adam Marks on 11/9/2010 | ; Tags: tip a day, keyboard, keyboard shortcuts, option key, symbols, shift key, SYM key | 19 comments
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.
- In any editable text field, pressing the
key will bring up an onscreen box with almost 150 additional characters, including 3 different smiley faces all the way at the end.
- You can swipe up and down to scroll through the list and tap on the symbol you want, but that can be a tedious exercise.
- To narrow down your search, you can press a keyboard key right after you press the
key. This will limit your results, based directly on the letter or number of the keyboard key.
- Once you have your narrowed down list, you have two options on how to select your desired symbols. You can tap the symbol on the screen, or you can keep pressing the same keyboard key until the desired symbol is highlighted and then press the
key again to insert that into your text field.
- Note that you can also press the Enter key (
) to choose the symbol, but that may provide some unintended results, such as prematurely sending your SMS message from the Messaging App.
- You can also press-and-hold the
key, continually press the desired keyboard key until you get to the symbol you want, and when you let go that symbol will be inserted into the text. (Thanks to pcworld in the comments for this piece of information)
Here are a few examples of the available symbols (note that some symbols may be attached to multiple keys)
- T/3 = ™ ³ ¾ (™ for the T, ³ and ¾ for the 3)
- C/8 = © ç Ç ¢ (they all look like a C)
- H/$ = € £ ¥ ƒ (types of money, just like the $)
- Y/( = ÿ ý Ÿ Ý ¥ [ ] { } < > « » (accented versions of "y", various forms of brackets for "(" )
- K/: = :-) :-( ;-)
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