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20 Most Useful VLC Player Keyboard Shortcuts
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Unarguably, VLC media player is one of the most used media player across all the platforms. It is called as a complete media player that supports almost any audio and video extensions on the earth. How about making your experience hell lotta better by utilizing some of the most commonly used VLC keyboard shortcuts? While right mouse click, UI and other options offer a great way to use the application, nothing can beat keyboard shortcuts. Although mouse took the most of the pain by providing a simpler way to navigate through the different user interface portion, keyboard shortcuts has an importance of their own. It makes your task faster than you might have anticipated it to be.
What Are the Most Often Used VLC Keyboard Shortcuts?
Instead of providing all the possible keyboard shortcuts for VLC media player, we’d rather concentrate on providing a most used list. They will not only make your productivity meet a new pinnacle, but will also make it fun to tinker with. In case, if you’re looking for some alternative to VLC player then take a look at this list. Also, we have provided an extensive list for the Mac users. Why not try them out and become VLC Ninja user.
| VLC Keyboard Shortcut | Function |
| Space bar | Play/ Pause |
| S | Stop |
| Ctrl+ Up Arrow | Volume Up |
| Ctrl + Down Arrow | Volume Down |
| Z | Zoom |
| M | Mute/ Unmute |
| F | Full Screen |
| Ctrl+ p | Preferences |
| Ctrl+ l | Open Playlist |
| N | Next item in Playlist |
| P | Previous item in Playlist |
| Ctrl + t | Go to time |
| Alt + Left Arrow | Short jump -10 sec |
| Alt + Right Arrow | Short jump +10sec |
| Ctrl + d | Open disc menu |
| Ctrl + f | Open folder |
| R | Random |
| A | Aspect ratio |
| C | Crop Screen |
| Ctrl + e | Audio/ Video Effects |
| Ctrl + q (or Alt + F4) | Quit |
Aforementioned commands are one of the most used keyboard shortcuts. Make sure you bookmark this post so you can refer the list at convenience. Advanced users can skip the below part, as it just explains the meaning of the above commands. Even, Windows 8 users can enjoy some of the best media players on their OS. VLC is expected to be available on Windows 8 platform soon.
Space bar: Space bar will let you easily pause or resume the music or video. It is one of the most used VLC keyboard shortcut.
S: Stop movie. It works only while playing a movie.
Ctrl + Up/Down Arrow: Quickly change the volume of the audio, video playlist or files. Even, one can use Ctrl + Mouse scrolls to adjust the volume level.
Z: Zoom the movie.
M: Quickly mute the volume of the player. You can unmute player by pressing the M button again.
F: Enjoy full screen movie by pressing the F key.
Ctrl + p: Opens a preference menu, which can be used to change theme, language preference and more. Even, you can definite Hotkeys fro preference setting. Under Hotkeys section, you will find more keyboard shortcuts which can be configured as well.
Ctrl + l: Jump quickly between main window and playlist. Playlist will allow you to manage your playlist subtly. Even, you can drag/drop files here to add to playlist.
N: Play the next item in the playlist.
P: Play the previous item in the playlist.
Ctrl + t: Would you like to go to a specific time of the video? If yes, then this VLC keyboard shortcut will help you a lot. Just enter the desired time and it will take you directly there.
ALT + Left/Right Arrow: A combination to jump into the video/audio play. It sets your +/-10 second from the original position.
Ctrl + d: Open disc menu if you wish to play files from DVD.
Ctrl + f: Open the entire folder containing your audio/video files or playlist.
A: Change the aspect ratio of the movies.
C: Crop movie screen by certain amount for better viewing.
Ctrl + e: Apply different audio+video effects to the currently playing media files.
Ctrl + q: We’re sure you are tired now. It’s time to close your VLC player by pressing this keyboard shortcut. Alternatively, you can also use Windows keyboard shortcut Alt+F4 to close it. Also check this list for more hotkeys.
Configure shortcuts
As mentioned earlier, you can also configure your own custom keyboard shortcut or hotkeys. Just press Ctrl + p and go to hotkeys tab to explore it. Even, you can navigate to it though visual interface, Tools –> Preferences –> Hotkeys.
Which and all VLC keyboard shortcuts do you use more often?
