How familiar are you with the free open source media center software, Kodi (once called XBMC)? Since its release in 2002, Kodi has continued to grow by leaps and bounds and expand its capabilities to please users.
Now listed among the most popular open source media software available, Kodi is can play almost any media file type you try on it. You can watch movies, listen to music, browse through pictures, watch and even record live TV using Kodi. It’s a well-established and foundational software that many media center users consider to be the best.
Kodi is powerful enough and advanced enough for the most technical user. Its active community has continued to customize and advance the software. It can now be used for a huge variety of devices and works with Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux, Raspberry Pi and many others.
Over 70 language choices are available on Kodi, and it also boasts an impressive collection of free addons to make watching movies, keeping up with sports, and finding your favorite TV programs a cinch. These addons exponentially increase the media software’s power and usability, and with an active community still at work, more are likely to be available all the time.
The user interface Kodi provides is sophisticated and highly customizable. You can choose your Kodi skin to enhance your experience, and tailor the media center’s display and interaction to exactly fit your preferences. You will find plenty of options that will work smoothly on your device and changing them around is easy to do.
Of course, with so much going on, you will find it helpful to learn some of the basics of using Kodi. Mastering the most commonly-used Kodi keyboard shortcuts can be especially helpful to increase your ease of use and enjoyment.
This article will give you a quick introduction to 20 of the most valuable Kodi keyboard shortcuts.
General Shortcuts
First, you’ll want to know how to do basic things like start or stop songs, videos, etc. using the shortcut keys. You can also control audio and volume and toggle back and forth to the menus or displays you want to see using some of the following keys.
- Play
P—To start listening to your music or to start watching your selected video or program, just press ‘P’. It’s as easy as that.
- Pause/Play
Space—Ready to get the popcorn going? You can pause a video and start it back up when you’re ready by simply tapping the ‘space’ bar, just as you can when using YouTube and VLC.
- Stop
X—Pressing the ‘X’ key will stop your video. Kind of fitting, isn’t it: Just stop already. X.
- Rewind
R—You can even rewind with a shortcut key, at a controlled speed. Want to see that incredible scene one more time? Tap the ‘R’ key and rewind the video at 2x speed.
Want to zip back to that conversation right near the beginning and double-check your first impressions? Tap the button twice and you’ll be rewinding at 4x speed.
Just want to enjoy that guy’s shocked expression once more? Tap the ‘left’ arrow key and the video will jump back 30 seconds.
- Fast Forward
F—The fast forward shortcut key works very similarly to rewind. You can skip ahead in a movie or music video by pressing the ‘F’ key. Once fast forwards at the speed of 2x. Twice fast forwards at the speed of 4x. And once again, you can tap the ‘right’ arrow key to skip ahead just 30 seconds.
- Volume Control
Plus, and Minus—This should be easy to remember. You can crank up the volume of whatever you are listening to by pressing the plus (+) key, or turn it way down low by tapping the minus (-) key. Just keep tapping until it’s ear-splitting or silent.
- Audio Delay Control
A—Not many things are as frustrating as trying to watch a video that isn’t synced with its own audio. Thankfully, Kodi has a shortcut key to help you work this out.
If your video isn’t syncing with your audio, you can press the ‘A’ key to sort it out.
- Subtitles On and Off
T—Subtitles are definitely one of those things you want to have full, easy control over all the time. You will need to go to the subtitle settings area on the Kodi software to configure it to work from the shortcut key.
Once you have done this, turning subtitles on or off is as simple as tapping ‘T’.
- Move Between Full-Screen and Window Mode
Slash—Kodi’s default mode is to open in full screen. If you would like to open other programs or apps while continuing to use Kodi, you can toggle over to window mode and back to full screen by using the slash (\) shortcut key.
- Previous Menu or Home Screen
Esc—It’s also nice to have a shortcut for returning to previously opened menus, all the way to the Kodi home screen. Instead of clicking back through multiple screens, just press the ‘Esc’ key to get to where you want to be.
- Shutdown
S—In a hurry to exit the program or shut down the system? There’s a shortcut key for that too. Tap the ‘S’ key for a couple of options: One is for simply exiting Kodi, the other is for shutting down or hibernating your entire system with one click.
- Screenshot
Taking a screenshot of the video you have playing has never been easier, and you have a couple of different options.
Ctrl+S—The first Kodi keyboard shortcut for taking a screenshot is a combination of the ‘Ctrl’ key and the ‘S’ key. When you press this shortcut, it will open a dialog box asking you where you would like for the shot to be saved.
Prt Sc—The second shortcut option allows you to save the screenshot to a clipboard. Just press the ‘Prt Sc’ key at the top of your keyboard. When you’re ready to retrieve the shot, open Paint and tap two keys at once, ‘Ctrl’ and ‘V’.
- Zoom/Aspect Ratio
Z—Kodi even has a simple shortcut for adjusting the resolution of the video you are watching to enjoy the most clarity.
Tap the ‘Z’ key, and the aspect ratio of the video will be adjusted. Tap it again, and it will be adjusted again, and you can determine which resolutions (for example 320 by 240 or 1024 by 768) give you the best picture.
Picture Shortcuts
You can use Kodi for enjoying your picture collection as well as listening to music and watching videos. The following shortcuts make it easy to flip through your images and zoom in and out.
- Next Picture
Period—To scroll from one picture to the next without trying to keep the cursor in the right place, just click the period (.) key.
- Previous Picture
Comma—Whoops, you’ve got to see that one again. Flip back to the previous picture by pressing the comma (,) shortcut key.
- Zoom Picture from 1 to 9
Numbers—To zoom in or out of your images with a specific size in mind, you can simply press the number keys, 1 through 9, depending on how much you want to go in. Zoom in with larger numbers, out with smaller ones.
- Zoom In
Plus—Of course, you can also zoom in a bit at a time by pressing the plus (+) key as many times as necessary.
- Zoom Out
Minus—Or zoom out a bit at a time by pressing the minus (-) key as often as you please.
Platform-Specific Shortcuts
A few specific shortcuts exist for use with Windows, Mac, etc. We’ll take a look at a couple of them below.
- Windows
Windows Key—If you’re using Windows, and need to navigate the system but don’t want to exit Kodi, all you have to do is press the Windows key, and you will be able to access whatever options you need to outside of Kodi.
- Mac
Kodi has quite a few shortcut keys for use with Mac. Here are a few basic ones.
Cmd+Q—To quit the program, press the ‘Cmd’ and ‘Q’ keys at the same time.
Cmd+H—To minimize/hide your session on Kodi, simply press the ‘Cmd’ and ‘H’ keys together (to hide) or the ‘Cmd’ and ‘M’ keys at once (to minimize).
Cmd+S—Finally, to take a Kodi screenshot on a Mac, all you have to do is press the shortcut keys ‘Cmd’ and ‘S’.
Hopefully this list and accompanying explanations of Kodi keyboard shortcuts will make navigating Kodi simpler for you and help you get the most out of your sessions. This is a powerful and creative software that you should definitely enjoy utilizing fully.
Try out these shortcut keys and enjoy your videos, pictures, music and much more to the fullest with Kodi.
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