I have to say that I somehow grew dear to YouTube. Again and again I find videos about electric unicycles, chess games or tutorials on software that interest me. It is fascinating how much video material you can find on this portal and how many people try to help others with the explanations - often without financial ulterior motives.
Chapter in this post:
Consume videos effectively with keyboard shortcuts
So that you can move effectively in the video player, you can help yourself with keyboard shortcuts that trigger various functions at the push of a button. I once made various lists that list such keyboard shortcuts, and put together the following table for you. Only those abbreviations are explicitly listed here that worked for me in the test with the YouTube player under Safari on the Mac.
| feature | Taste |
|---|---|
| Play and pause | Space |
| 5 seconds forwards or backwards | Cursor arrow left / right |
| 10 seconds forwards or backwards | J or L button |
| Jump to the start of the video | Key 0 (zero) |
| Jump to 10% to 90% of the video | Keys 1 to 9 |
| Volume 5% higher or more jealous | Cursor arrow up / down |
| Full screen mode on / off | Button F |
| Call up video in mini player | I button |
| Subtitles on / off | Button C |
| Go to the next video | SHIFT + N key |
| Go to the previous video | SHIFT + P key |
| Switching off the sound (mute) | M button |
| In the player buttons to the front | Tab key |
| In the player buttons to the back | SHIFT + tab |
| Select player buttons | Enter key |
| Font size of the subtitles larger / smaller | +/- button |
| One frame forwards / backwards in pause | Key ./, (period / comma) |
| Switch to cinema mode | Button T |
| Pan in spherical 360-degree videos | AWSD buttons |
| Zoom in on 360-degree spherical videos | +/- buttons |
| Call up the YouTube help page | SHIFT + ß (so "?") |
Operation completely without a mouse: the tab key helps
If you want to move around YouTube completely without a mouse, the tab key works quite well. With TAB and SHIFT-TAB you can move through all the buttons in YouTube and with ENTER you can change settings or activate and deactivate functions.
Shortcuts for 360-degree videos
Surely one or the other has seen a 360-degree video on YouTube. Not yet? Then here one example videofilmed from the wing of a glider.
If you watch such a video on the iPhone in the YouTube app, you can simply move the iPhone back and forth to change the angle. However, this does not work so easily on the Mac. That’s why there’s the Keyboard shortcuts A, S, W, D with which you can perform the appropriate pans.
Unsolved: Player speed set to “normal”
With the key combination SHIFT + the video will be accelerated to double the speed. Unfortunately I have not yet found a shortcut on my Mac to normalize the speed. Instead, you have to click on the gear with the mouse and adjust the speed there. If someone has an abbreviation that also works, please report it. The ubiquitous <and> only works for me to accelerate.
Keyboard shortcuts for macOS
At this point perhaps a reference to the little helper by Johann Szierbeck called "macOS Mojave keyboard shortcuts“. It contains many practical keyboard shortcuts for macOS and the included programs such as Pages, Numbers and Safari included. For those of you who would also like to work more effectively under macOS, the book should be a practical compilation.
So, keep watching YouTube! ;-)
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Jens has been running the blog since 2012. He acts as Sir Apfelot for his readers and helps them with technical problems. In his spare time he rides electric unicycles, takes photos (preferably with the iPhone, of course), climbs around in the Hessian mountains or hikes with the family. His articles deal with Apple products, news from the world of drones or solutions to current bugs.
Just awesome!!! Thank you very much for these great tips! Grandma Lydia from Switzerland
With pleasure! : D
How can this be exhibited? If I want to write a comment and I use it, does the mini player always open?
Hello Simon! Does this only happen in a certain browser? Or the same in Chrome, Safari and Firefox?
Control speed:
Shift + 0.25 faster. (Point)
0.25 slower Shift +, (comma)
Hello Enex! Thanks for the hint. I did not know. : D
This only works on a qwerty keyboard. To work around this, you can use the shortcut: fn x2 to change the layout to english, and then the shortcut with shift . and shift comma
. . . Control speed - unfortunately does not work on the MAC (or maybe different?)
Right, no longer works with me either. But all the rest still worked. I've just tried everything in Firefox under macOS Big Sur.
The most important thing is missing, how do I get into the search field? “/” sometimes doesn't work (macOS).
I believe the shortcut only works on Windows. I just went to YouTube in Chrome (macOS Big Sur) and when I say “?” type (i.e. SHIFT + ß), then an overview with keyboard shortcuts for YouTube appears. And there isn't one in there for the search box...so looks bad for your wish.
Mac slower? Found something yet? =)
For controlling the speed there is addon “Video Speed Controller” for Firefox and Chrome. Faster or slower by 0,1 with the D and S keys and that's much better than a 0,25 step.
Thanks, good tip!