Is there a combination of;

Alt+ ?

to lock keyboard
as I want to use the dedicated side & Front buttons for other purposes

Wirelessly posted (8700g: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0) BlackBerry8700/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

From the home screen tap "K" to lock the keyboard IF you have set "Dial from Homescreen" set to NO at Phone , Options , General Options.

Thanks that leaves side button free for calendar now

find all the shortcuts at my tips site.

Wirelessly posted (Thumpers 8700c: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0) BlackBerry8703e/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Endorsement for Stinsondog's FAQ - it's awesome. Also, I have dialing from the home screen set to Yes and still have this functionality. Press and hold K to dial a stored number, just "tap" the K to lock my keyboard. Enjoy...