For versatility, nothing on your Palm webOS phone’s keyboard beats the Option key. You press it to enter the numbers, punctuation, and symbols that appear above the letters on the keys, but this multipurpose button has other tricks up its sleeve as well:
Toggle it -- To enter a series of alternate characters, press the Option key twice to lock it. Press it again to turn it off.
- Grab a screen -- Press and hold Option + Sym + P and your phone will capture what’s on your phone’s screen in .png format. You’ll find the image in the “screen captures” folder in the Photos app, where you can share and/or upload it.
- Share a web photo -- Found a picture on your favorite website that you want to share with a friend? Press and hold Option, then tap the photo to share the link, copy the URL, share the image or copy it to the Photos app.
- Move the cursor to where you need it -- To copy text, simply press and hold Option and drag your finger around the screen to insert the cursor where you want it. Then press and hold the shift key (up arrow) and drag your finger over the text you want to copy.
- Switch to USB Drive mode -- Press and hold Option + Sym + U after you attach your phone to your computer to quickly switch to USB Drive mode.
- Do a quick restart -- To perform a quick reboot to make sure your phone is running fresh, press Option + Sym + R. (Don’t worry, nothing will be erased. But should you want to do a full erase: Option + Sym + Power button.)
So give these tips a try. They’ll help you maximize your Options -- and your webOS experience.
Paul Araquistain, Palm PR
Shouldn't the selection for copy be shift (up arrow) rather than Sym?
Posted by: Richard | June 10, 2010 at 12:04 PM
Under "move the cursor":
"Then press and hold Sym and drag your finger over the text you want to copy."
WRONG - please correct this before too many people read it. It's "Press and hold SHIFT" to select text.
Posted by: aHaukas | June 10, 2010 at 12:07 PM
WebOS is the future!
Posted by: PowerUser | June 10, 2010 at 12:08 PM
Great tips - the hot key for taking a screenshot is extremely handy!
Posted by: Greg | June 10, 2010 at 12:15 PM
Yes, the shift key -- thanks for catching that!
Posted by: Paul A. | June 10, 2010 at 12:26 PM
I have my pre and Worked for sprint and sold it when it first came out. I wish this was some more common knowledge, basically the screen cap and the reboot, very useful to know. Thanks for sharing.
You guys should post a list of all the short cuts sometime.
Posted by: Jeremy Newton | June 10, 2010 at 12:27 PM
i don't think quick restart should be called quick, it takes quite a long time.
Posted by: will | June 10, 2010 at 12:35 PM
For some reason, I am unable to save photos from websites to my phone to be viewable in the photos application. Help please.
Posted by: Charles | June 10, 2010 at 02:55 PM
Thank you Palm i needed this :)
Posted by: Hafid Alfonso | June 10, 2010 at 09:45 PM
"press and hold the shift key (up arrow) and drag your finger over the text you want to copy".
Very important to me. Is not necessary to drag OVER the text, once you have the cursor where you want, you can drag you finger IN ANY area of the screen.
This is more accurate and very useful to drag BELOW the text because you can view what you are selecting.
Sorry for my english....
Posted by: pitsop | June 10, 2010 at 10:53 PM
if the palm pre is such a great phone to have, why doesn't it have flash player? I can't listen to certain videos and for my business that I have, I can't listen to messages that clients have left for me. I feel i've made a mistake with buying this phone. I should have bought a blackberry.
Posted by: marion | June 12, 2010 at 03:55 AM
Does anybody know why the Option key changed color from the Sprint version to the Verizon version? I prefer the orange number keys and option key because they were way easier to see.
Posted by: faith | June 13, 2010 at 12:23 PM
Marion,
First of all, Flash is not yet supported on Blackberry either because it's ADOBE who hadn't released it.
Secondly, You're going to go to Palm's official blog site to bash WebOS because Adobe has taken forever to release Flash 10.1? Seriously?
BTW, who leaves messages in flash format? That doesn't even make any sense.
Posted by: John | June 26, 2010 at 03:08 PM
How soon will we see Adobe Flash 10.1 for webOS? Adobe has indicated in a July press statement that they've released the finished version of 10.1 and the ball is in Palm's/HP's court. Come on Palm let's see that Flash.
Posted by: M. Miller | July 08, 2010 at 02:53 PM
M. Miller,
I think that Palm thought it would be getting Flash, when it was all talk. But, now that it is available on Android's Froyo, it doesn't seem like the Pre will ever have it. If you read the hardware requirements, the Pre falls short in screen resolution and cpu speed
Posted by: Mbalcher | October 14, 2010 at 04:43 PM