You can use your keyboard to quickly perform many tasks in iTunes. Shortcuts for common commands like Playback, fast access to your iTunes Library and playlist, iTunes menu shortcuts and, most importantly, control menu shortcuts can be extremely handy if memorized. So here's what an iTunes fan simply has to know about the shortcuts of his favorite media player.


Playback

Play the selected song immediately – Enter.

Stop or start playing the selected song – Space Bar.

Move forward or backward within a song – Control-Option-Arrow.

Listen to the next or previous album in a list – Option-Right Arrow or Left Arrow (or Option-click the Skip Forward or Skip Backward controls in the upper-left corner of the iTunes window).

Go to the next or previous song in a list – Left Arrow or Right Arrow (or click the Skip Forward or Skip Backward controls in the upper-left corner of the iTunes window).


Library and playlist shortcuts

Select or deselect all the songs in a list – Command-click the checkbox next to a song.

Create a playlist from a selection of songs – Shift-click the Add (+) button (Or drag the songs to the white area of the source pane).

Create a new Smart Playlist – Option-click the Add (+) button.

Reshuffle the current playlist – Option-click the Shuffle button.

Delete the selected playlist from your source pane without confirming that you want to delete it – Command-Delete.

Delete the selected playlist and all the songs it contains from your library – Option-Delete.

Delete the selected song from your library and all playlists – Option-Delete.


iTunes menu shortcuts

Open iTunes Preferences – Command-comma.

Hide the iTunes window – Command-H.

Hide all other applications – Option-Command-H.

Quit iTunes – Command-quit.


Control menu shortcuts

When a song is playing, play the next song in a list – Right Arrow.

When a song is playing, play the previous song in a list – Left Arrow.

Increase the volume – Command-Up Arrow.

Decrease the volume – Command-Down Arrow.

Mute the sound (song keeps playing) – Option-Command-Down Arrow.

Eject a CD – Command-E.

So, these are a few main keyboard shortcuts in iTunes. There are tons more, all of which you can check out in the iTunes help menu. Note that many items in iTunes (for example, songs and column headings) also have contextual menus. To see a contextual menu, press the Control key and click the item.

Equally important is knowing how to open iTunes in "safe mode," without external plug-ins, should you experience problems firing up the app. This is done by holding down Command+Option while opening iTunes. Hope you'll enjoy using iTunes even more knowing the basic keyboard shortcuts for using the player's best features.