It’s easy to find keyboard shortcuts when using an app on your Mac or PC. When you look at a function in a menu, you often see its corresponding keyboard shortcut, which you can use to speed things up. Websites, on the other hand, often don’t show you these shortcuts, although they are very present, forcing us to stumble upon them when we accidentally press a key. As a result, many websites have a master list of keyboard shortcuts, only hiding them behind a specific keyboard shortcut.
So what’s this secret shortcut to unlocking all hidden keyboard shortcuts? Shift + /. Or, of course,?
YouTube has a long list of hidden keyboard shortcuts
This button combination is your ticket to see the hidden list of keyboard shortcuts for your favorite websites. I first came across it while browsing YouTube – somehow I accidentally clicked Shift + /, and suddenly I was presented with this complete collection of keyboard shortcuts for the site. I already knew many of these shortcuts, as you may already know: K plays and pauses a video, J and L rewind and fast forward, respectively. However, other shortcuts may come as a surprise: you can rewind and fast forward frame by frame with, and. while paused. You can also slow down or speed up the playback speed with i> (Shift +,) and (Shift +.).
It’s worth scanning the full list to see if any of these keyboard shortcuts are new to you and if some of them might be useful during your next YouTube stream. As someone who takes screenshots on YouTube as part of their job, frame-by-frame scanning is especially useful.
Screenshot: Jake Peterson
Many websites also hide their keyboard shortcuts from users
It’s not just YouTube – other popular websites you use every day are hiding the keyboard shortcuts behind Shift + /. Twitter, for example, taught me that g + m launches DM, while uix can mute and block an account, respectively. Facebook also has a list of keyboard shortcuts: you may know that L likes a post, but did you know that you can use / to search Facebook, or that you can set the keyboard shortcuts at the bottom right of the changing window depending on what? Are you doing This is the most useful option I’ve seen so far.
Other websites I’ve found that have these lists of hidden keyboard shortcuts are Reddit, the Spotify web app, the WhatsApp web app, and Twitch. I’d love to know how many websites include these hidden keyboard shortcuts as an option, but it’s hard to find information on the subject. Until then, the best thing you can do is experiment with the websites you visit. It doesn’t seem to matter which browser you’re using (my shortcut works in both Chrome and Safari).
This feature is similar to how things work on the iPad with a keyboard connected: If you hold down the Command key, you’ll see a complete list of keyboard shortcuts for the specific application you’re using (there are many, too) .