What was misleading to me was the ps3 gameplay guide. Guide
From this it displays how the numbers keys are for the hot bar..no such luck. So I spent the day just trying to work around with key binds. Best I could come up with is to set the xhotbar to "toggle" and use (shift+1) as R2 then simply key press 1-8 (since toggle mode I can only use an 8 button bar at a time).
A lot of work to get there and could have worked but the key bind appears to use the controller button twice. Example: (shift+1) hot bar is now toggled on, then (key 3) to use "cure" (I bound to triangle)....I begin to cast but get interrupted and jump. Somehow it's telling my toon to cast and jump and the same command.
Back to the main topic, the existing system doesn't appear to be working as intended and would love if it was fixed to how the manual implies or redo the hotbar system.