Control QuickTime Player Using Keys

The following keyboard shortcuts let you control QuickTime Player without touching the mouse:

• Space: Start playback, or stop it if it’s already playing. 

• Up/Down cursor keys: Increase/decrease playback volume. 

• Option+ Up/Down cursor key: Maximize/mute playback volume. 

• Left /Right cursor keys: Hold down to cue in slow-motion back and forward. Tap to advance frame by frame. 

• Command+ Left /Right cursor keys: Start cueing backward and forward; Space restores playback to normal (repeated presses of the cursor keys while still holding Command will speed up cueing). 

• Option+ Left/Right cursor keys: Move to beginning or end of movie file. 

• Command+ + / - : Increase/decrease the size of the playback window ( Command+ 1 restores it to its actual pixel dimensions).

Stop the Dock from Getting Broken

It’s very easy to accidentally re-size the Dock when using a Mac or delete icons from it. All it takes is a misclick of the mouse. The following two commands typed into a Terminal window will “freeze” the Dock, making it impossible to re-size it or to remove/rearrange/add icons:

defaults write com.apple.dock size-immutable -bool TRUE 
defaults write com.apple.dock contents-immutable -bool TRUE;killall Dock

To “unfreeze” the Dock so you can resize it and add/remove/rearrange icons, issue the following two commands in a Terminal window:

defaults delete com.apple.dock size-immutable 
defaults delete com.apple.dock contents-immutable;killall Dock