Are you using these YouTube Shortcuts?
Many people know YouTube has shortcuts, but I wanted to bring some light to several that I don’t think get the attention they deserve.
But before we dive into the shortcuts... one quick mention:
Don't use the Spacebar to Play/Pause
Okay, okay, you can still use the Spacebar, but there are much better shortcuts out there. The problem with Spacebar is it has multiple responsibilities depending on what is selected that cause inconsistent behavior. Often you'll have to select the video with your mouse to get it to pause.
Keyboard Shortcut Action SpacebarPlay/Pause when the seek bar is selected. Activate a button if a button has focus.
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...
Instead, use K to Play/Pause videos
Unless you have explicitly placed your cursor in a text box (searching for a video or commenting), K will always play/pause the video. It is much more reliable than Spacebar.
Try it, you'll love it.
J and L to skip back and forward 10 seconds
J, and L are my next most used shortcuts. L is great for quickly moving around a video and skipping embedded ads or other just plain boring parts. J is great for jumping back to something you missed, or if you simply got a bit too L happy.
L — Skip forward 10 seconds
J — Skip back 10 seconds
, and . to move forward or backward a single frame at a time
When a video is paused, press . or , to move forward or backward (respectively) a frame a time. This is great for catching Easter eggs in some creators’ videos or breaking down what happened in fast clip.
F to Fullscreen
This one is pretty straight forward: Press F to fullscreen a video, press F again to unfullscreen it.
0 to restart a video
I don't find myself using this one as often, but it's great to know it's there. If you would like to restart a video from the beginning, press 0 on your keyboard.
If you want even more…
If these whet your appetite and you want to see a comprehensive list of all the shortcuts available, check out this article on YouTube Help.
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