Nokia E73 Mode tips & tricks: The QWERTY keyboard shortcut guide

I have yet to find a front facing QWERTY keyboard device that is better than the Nokia E73 Mode (see our E73 Guide page). I have gone through nearly all the recent Eseries front facing QWERTY devices (E61, E61i, E71, E71x, and E73) and IMHO Nokia has just about reached perfection with the E73 Mode. I find the slight curvature, defined default primary keys, and material to be even better than the E72 and am not sure what else can be done to make it better. Given that the keyboard is so prominent on the device, why not use it to its fullest and that is the intent of this Tips & Tricks post. Check out all of the QWERTY keyboard shortcuts found in the manual, from user feedback, and from various sites around the Internet. These have all been tested on the E73 Mode, but most will apply to the other front facing QWERTY devices as well. If you have a tip that is missing, please let me know and I will test it and then add it to this list if it works with the E73 Mode.

Standby screen keyboard shortcuts

These are shortcuts that are available from the standby screen. Some of these can be customized in the settings too.

• Press and hold the Sym key to toggle Bluetooth.
• Press and hold the space bar to toggle the flashlight (probably the coolest shortcut of them all).
• Press and hold the Ctrl key to toggle silent and normal profiles.
• Just start entering text to smart filter your contact list.
• Press and hold the * to launch Music Search.
• Press and hold 0 to launch the web browser.
• Press and hold 1-9 to initiate speed dial.
• Press and hold left soft key to initiate text message reader.
• Press and hold right soft key to initiate voice commands.
• Press and hold Home to view the task manager.
• Press and hold Calendar to create a new appointment.
• Press and hold Contacts to enter a new contact.
• Press and hold Email to create a new text message.
• Press and hold End/Red key to disconnect data connections.
• When the phone display is off and locked, press and hold the center action button on the directional pad to display the date, time, and profile status.

Phone call shortcuts

• To dial something like 1-800-NOKIAXP: Enter 1800 as you normally would, then press the Fn key (diagonal arrow), then press Shift twice, type NOKIAXP, and press the Call/Green key to dial.
• Press the small button between the volume buttons to mute the call.
• Use the left and right soft keys to manage speakerphone, noise cancellation, etc.

Text input field shortcuts

Whether you are in notes, word processor program, or other area where there is an empty text box, here are some shortcuts you can use.

• Press the Sym key to access the symbol pop-up selector grid.
• Press the Fn key to toggle between different modes (numbers, number lock, letters) where you can see the status in the upper right corner.
• Double press the Shift key to enable Caps lock.
• Press Shift and back space to delete characters forward (to the right) of the cursor.
• Hold Shift and move direction pad left, right, up, and down to select text.
• Press Ctrl and C to copy selected text. The soft keys will also change for another method.
• Press Ctrl and V to paste selected text. The soft keys will also change for another method.
• Press Ctrl and X to cut selected text.
• Press Ctrl and A to select all.

S60 web browser shortcuts

• Press 1 to open a cool dynamic toolbar. You can also long press the action button on an empty area of a web page to open this toolbar.
• Press 2 to search the web page.
• Press 3 to go back to previous page.
• Press 4 to name the bookmark and save the page to bookmarks.
• Press 5 to open a slick grid showing the keypad shortcuts.
• Press 6 to refresh/reload the page.
• Press 7 to toggle full screen mode.
• Press 8 to view a page overview, fully zoom out.
• Press 9 to open the URL entry box.
• Press * to zoom in.
• Press 0 to go to the home page.
• Press # to zoom out.

Nokia Messaging/Email shortcuts

• Press Backspace or D to delete a message.
• Press O to open an email message.
• Press C to compose an email message.
• Press R to reply to an email message.
• Press A to reply to all.
• Press F to forward a message.
• Press U to mark as unread.
• Press M to move a message.
• Press I to collapse/expand all days of messages.
• Press Z to send and receive now.
• Press S to search email.
• Press H to access the help area.
• Press B to go to the bottom of an open message.
• Press T to go to the top of an open message.
• Press J to go up a page within an open message.
• Press K to go down a page within an open message.
• Press N to go to the next message.
• Press P to go to the previous message.
• Press E to accept a meeting invite.
• Press G to tentatively accept a meeting invite.
• Press V to decline a meeting invite.
• Press W to jump to the sort options box.
• Press Shift and Return to mark/unmark a single message.
• Press Shift and Up or Down with the directional pad to mark multiple items.

Ovi Maps shortcuts

• Press Shift to zoom in.
• Press Backspace to zoom out.
• Press the Space bar or 0 to go to current position.
• Press Return to open location menu (show details, share, save, send).
• Press 1 to select map, satellite, or terrain view.
• Press 2 to tilt map down.
• Press 3 to toggle 2D and 3D modes.
• Press 4 to rotate map/compass counterclockwise/left. Keep pressing to continuing rotation.
• Press 5 to toggle aligning map north.
• Press 6 to rotate map/compass clockwise/right.
• Press 8 to tilt map up.
• Press 9 to view keyboard shortcuts.

Calendar shortcuts

• Press N to create a new appointment.
• Press W to change to week view.
• Press D to change to day view.
• Press A to change to agenda view.
• Press T to change to task/to-do view.

There are 3rd party application specific keyboard shortcuts too, such as those in Opera Mini. If you want to know some of these, please list the app and I will update this post with the most popular and continue to turn this into a full E73 QWERTY keyboard shortcut repository.

I would like the ability to assign application shortcuts to the keyboard from the standby screen (press and hold), but you can easily launch them with voice commands now via a keyboard shortcut so there is a way to quickly get to your apps.

As I was assembling this list, I came to realize there were many shortcuts I was unaware of and plan to put into practice. Have you ever seen a device with so many keyboard shortcuts? If you can learn all of these you can really turn the E73 Mode into an efficient device, don’t you agree?

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