Front Row Key Commands
Although Front Row is designed for use with the Apple Remote, it’s easy to control it with the keyboard as well. For those of you who may be interested, I’ve compiled this list of keyboard shortcuts for Front Row.
Activation
| Enter Front Row | Command + Escape |
| Quit Front Row | Command + Option + Escape |
Note that if Front Row is not officially supported on your Mac, it may not always be running in the background, and the Command + Escape shortcut will not activate it. Launch Front Row manually on unsupported systems before using these shortcuts.
Menu actions
| Up | Up-arrow |
| Down | Down-arrow |
| Select | Space |
| Previous menu | Escape |
Playback controls
| Play/Pause | Space |
| Rewind | Left-arrow |
| Fast-forward | Right-arrow |
| Previous track | Command + Left-arrow |
| Next track | Command + Right-arrow |
Volume
| Volume Up | Command + Up-arrow |
| Volume Down | Command + Down-arrow |
Interested in controlling Front Row with a third-party remote? See my notes here.
March 16th, 2006 at 5:52 pm
question, while I don’t have a Front Row compatible mac nor access to one easily, can you navigate your media using your keyboard. Now I know you can (obviously looking above), but can you type the name of the file/folder you are looking for and have it jump to there?
March 16th, 2006 at 6:07 pm
Good question, but unfortunately no. The letter keys don’t seem to do anything. An excellent feature to request, though.
March 24th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
Another good suggestion would be to add keyboard shortcuts to rate the songs and showing ratings.
ex. hit num 5 to rate it 5 stars.
March 24th, 2006 at 6:26 pm
That’s actually doable with Applescript, and there are tons of scripts around for that. Use iKey or something similar to map the script to your number keys while in Front Row or iTunes and off you go.
April 8th, 2006 at 5:40 am
Exiting Front Row is done the same way as entering Front Row (Command + Escape) if you press (Command + Option + Escape) you will force quit Front Row!
Selection can also be done by pressing Return key.
April 8th, 2006 at 5:42 am
TIP: You can also control Front Row with a Sony Ericsson (.hid files) or by using Salling Clicker.
April 14th, 2006 at 12:04 am
A better way to quit Front Row:
Just quit like you do any other app: Command-Q
This quits out properly without using the force quit combination and without traversing up the menus.
April 23rd, 2006 at 6:23 pm
My findings:
I was actually looking to find the shorcut to set the rating on a song (and find that there isn’t on unfortunetely… sucks, I’m not installing 3 programs/softwares just for that) and found that:
Apple-Esc: turns on Front Row
Apple-Option-Esc: *Immediately* quits front row
Any non-binded key: Quits Front row nicely (with spinny effect etc.)
Up: Vol up
Down: Vol Down
Right: next track
hold right: fast forward
Left: Prev. track
hold Left: rewind
space/enter: pause/select
this is just for the iTunes/music control though. Basically totally intuitive. Not a single hidden feature either, like Ratings!
April 25th, 2006 at 8:38 pm
if one were to purchase a USB IR adapter, could one use the apple remote to control Front Row on a 12″ powerbook G4?
April 26th, 2006 at 10:16 am
One no.
One is better off with one Keyspan DMR.
June 18th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
Anyone know how to rate songs while in FrontRow?
February 18th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Hi
Anyone know the shortcut for sleep via the apple remote (hold down the play button for a few secs) I need a keyboard alternative.
February 18th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Option-Apple-Power or Option-Apple-Eject will sleep the machine.
Additional keyboard shortcuts can be found here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75459
February 18th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Thanks for the reply john. I’m looking for the delayed sleep with animation that the apple remote gives you so i can program my sony ericsson phone with it. I need the delay to disconnect the bluetooth remote link before sleeping otherwise if i try to exit the remote software on my phone it wakes the mac up again.
complicated i know