How To Use Gestures on the Blackberry Playbook
What are gestures? Well, they are basically anything you do on the device involving touching it with your fingers. Things like tapping an icon, swiping across the screen, etc. are all gestures.
Ah, but there is more. RIM, it would seem, added a few hidden gestures to the list, we all already know and love, involving beginning a swipe from off the screen’s edge and pulling your finger onto the screen. These little gestures actually do make using the device a little snappier, once you get the hang of them of course, but the question is, “How do I use them?”
No problem, in this video I’ll show you how to do just that.
Here’s a quick overview of the different gestures:
| Basic Gestures – These are ones you pretty much already know how, so long as you have used a touchscreen in the last 5 years or so. |
| Tap – A basic one that I guarantee you already know how to do (and you’re three year old child is a master at as well). This is the normal way to select anything on the screen. Simply tap it. Piece of cake. |
| Swipe – Another common gesture. You use it on pretty much all of your touchscreen devices, just like the tap gesture. This is for swiping up and down or left and right within an application or menu to select things. |
| Pinch to Zoon – Not AS common, but I’m pretty sure you’ve got this one covered as well, especially if you’ve ever seen an iPhone, Android, or iPad ever in your life. This is used to zoom in and out on any image, webpage, etc. |
| Advanced Gestures (Swipe from Frame Gestures) – There are basically 6 points from off the frame that you can start your finger from and bring into the screen from there that each do a different function. |
| Swipe from Top – This brings up the settings or options for the current application. If on the homescreen this brings up the device’s general settings. |
| Swipe from Bottom – This brings up a look at all the open apps and also brings up the app drawer. |
| Swipe from Top Left Corner – Brings up the notification bar when in an app. |
| Swipe from Top Right Corner – Brings up the notification bar when in an app. |
| Swipe from Bottom Left Corner – Brings up the keyboard. |
| Swipe from Bottom Right Corner – Might be utilized in certain apps. |
What do you guys think? Would these gestures make life easier for you?
This is part of our Blackberry 101 section. Head to the entire collection of Blackberry 101 posts here.
