Keyboard tricks, anyone?

I know you can hold down the "123" button, drag your finger over, select a number/symbol, let go, and it'll return you to the alphabet menu. Is it possible to do this with the second menu of symbols or not? I happen to need to type asterisks a lot and pausing to switch menus is taking me a while.

Also, while I was on this page, http://www.apple.com/iphone/tips/?c...e1210&cp=em-P0009468-171788&sr=em&psid=XXXXXX, under the "Learn some keyboard tricks" section, the image of the keyboard to the left shows an alternate setup for the keys different from that of my iPhone 4. Is this an OS change? Did they just mock the image? Can you edit what keys show up in which menu?

Thanks,
SG

 

Can anyone help me out?