Windows Media Player and space bar pause
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2009年11月27日 7:32Caiobrz had an excellent and longstanding user question: why doesn't Windows Media Player globally support space bar as pause? I thought it'd be good to give it its own thread for any interested.
Those of you who have used Windows Media Player way back in the day may recall that the simpler Windows Media Player 5.x/6 (mplayer2.exe) did actually support the space bar as a global "play/pause" button. But WMP6 (as we'll call it) does not support TABbing between UI elements, which is generally an important piece of accessibility. And likewise - once you've TABbed to a UI element, you select that element with ... the space bar. As such, the player hijacking any press of the space bar to mean Play/Pause would block accessibility. Plus - what if you're editing metadata? Does a space there mean you want a space in "PaulSimon" or does it mean you want to pause the clip because your boss came in? Hopefully you can see that there are constraints, regardless of their merit, as to why space bar does not act as a global "play/pause" button.
However, feedback reached the right ears and as of WMP11 (and WMP12) if the UI focus is on the relevant clip in the playlist OR on the play/pause button - space bar will indeed act as a Play/Pause button when you're viewing the clip. Clearly this isn't as useful as a "global" hotkey - but it's about the most meaningful possibility available.
So when you're playing a clip in the player - either have the focus on that clip in the playlist OR on the play/pause button in the player's controls, and you should indeed see the space bar acting as play/pause for you.
Disclaimer: The above is solely my own interpretation in my own words. I always solely represent and speak for myself. :)
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2009年11月27日 9:33Adding pause by spacebar would be redundant because wmp12 already has full integration with standard media control buttons on dedicated media keyboards and mice and other HID.Press the media play/pause buttons that are located elsewhere on the keyboard else press ctrl-p which isn't hard AND goes along with the rest of wmp's ctrl based controls.That said, yes wmp should have more accessible controls to fall in line with all the major free media players out there... it just doesn't, imo, need it. Why have a triply redundant control scheme?
exploring wmplayer 12 secure internet sharing -
2010年12月6日 0:14This reason is completely ASININE. It is the key for play/pause for practically everything excepting some Flash web players, because pause is extremely important and the key is extremely large. But on WMP it does NOTHING. I had to witness my tech-idiot dad watching a DVD with the graphical controls sitting idle over the video so that he could hit the pause button using the touch pad... because apparently companies are still making laptops that require one to hold Fn to use the media functions.
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2011年1月20日 6:49
Adding pause by spacebar would be redundant because wmp12 already has full integration with standard media control buttons on dedicated media keyboards and mice and other HID.
Because space is easier to access suddenly / faster and more precise for accurate pause needs / is the only choice when you are eating and just have a single clean finger / the user doesn't use a keyboard with media keys? Or just because it won't hurt anybody? Will redundant shortcuts hurt you or eat more ram from your system? Meh...
Press the media play/pause buttons that are located elsewhere on the keyboard else press ctrl-p which isn't hard AND goes along with the rest of wmp's ctrl based controls.
That said, yes wmp should have more accessible controls to fall in line with all the major free media players out there... it just doesn't, imo, need it. Why have a triply redundant control scheme? -
2011年2月25日 22:48Thank you.
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2011年3月2日 9:49
Who ever decided to change things up a bit because it's redundant to use the space bar as a pause/play action is a moron! This is one, of many reason, i don't use WMP or RealPlayer because of this simple thing left out due to their own individual interests instead of what is the most convenient.
Using space bar, I don't have to look at my keyboard to pause something. Pressing Ctrl+P, I do have to look just to make sure I got the right keys. A 5 year old would be able to give you tips on this, why couldn't the people at Microsoft do the same?
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2011年3月3日 17:49It isn't due to being redundant, it's due to being already in use. You can't make your car's gas pedal generally be your turn signal because it's already in use as a gas pedal. As noted in my write-up, space bar is used as a UI selection action which is required by accessibility.
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2011年3月3日 23:152 zachd if an alt+shift combination separately works for every app so I understand ypur mind about a "car pedals". For example I can press a power botton on my computer and send that one to hibenation state and not only powering off although! that button is "a power button" :) MS comunity loves to underfill any their app. Maybe it's fear of "eurocomissions". give a green light for third-party programmers.. So that programmers begird that OS, don't they? :) be pay tribute to Marketing Specialist and analyst who works in microsoft.
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2011年6月5日 17:19
Your reasoning, if it really can be considered to rise to that level, is wrongheaded and bizarre. That behavior you describe above, where space is used to select -- I don't even know what you're talking about. Does anyone outside of microsoft have any idea what that is or how to use it?
But here's what really chaps my rear, if you click on the slider in media player, space will pause/unpause.
If, however, you alt-tab away from media player and then immediately alt-tab back, space does absolutely nothing unless you go and reclick the bar. Useless. Could you educate me why this is in my interest?
As pointed out here numbers of times, space is the biggest freaking key in sight. Many laptops don't have play/pause buttons. Every other music player on the planet uses space to play/pause. And nobody has any idea what you're talking about saying space serves some other indispensable function.
Fix the problem already!!!
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2011年6月7日 15:05
Yes, many people know what I'm talking about as regards the spacebar. Go have your mouse break and you'll see it in action. You being unaware of other people's needs doesn't change their needs. =] Heck, you already trying to use the spacebar instead of the mouse already shows you trying to use a small subset of the kind of functionality in question. =]
Interesting idea, cool feature, the current compromise is what you have. Sorry: if there are further betas of WMP/WMP-including-products in the future, it would be good to mention in beta feedback your support for this at that time... but short of that, I don't really see this going anywhere.
Note that I'm probably more on Your Side than many other people on the planet. You can 'shoot the messenger' by calling a current reality wrongheaded and bizarre, but I'm not really sure how productive that is. =]
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2011年6月7日 20:27The Windows Media Player Plus! plug-in includes an option to let the space bar play/pause anytime. After installing the plug-in, you can go to Tools - Plug-in properties - Windows Media Player Plus! - Hotkeys - Local Hotkeys to enable the option (press Ctrl+M if you don't see the Tools menu).
Tim De Baets
http://www.bm-productions.tk -
2011年7月4日 8:25And again some 3rd party plugin required to enable VERY BASIC functionality in MS product. And again no x64 support.
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2011年7月4日 8:29That's all very well, but we should not forget one simple fact: using space bar to play/pause IS CONVENIENT. If something is convenient for user and is possible to implement properly (look into any other media player, there are other players as (or even more) complex than WMP that still support spacebar pause) it should be implemented.
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2011年8月7日 5:56
Yes, many people know what I'm talking about as regards the spacebar. Go have your mouse break and you'll see it in action. You being unaware of other people's needs doesn't change their needs. =] Heck, you already trying to use the spacebar instead of the mouse already shows you trying to use a small subset of the kind of functionality in question. =]
Interesting idea, cool feature, the current compromise is what you have. Sorry: if there are further betas of WMP/WMP-including-products in the future, it would be good to mention in beta feedback your support for this at that time... but short of that, I don't really see this going anywhere.
Note that I'm probably more on Your Side than many other people on the planet. You can 'shoot the messenger' by calling a current reality wrongheaded and bizarre, but I'm not really sure how productive that is. =]
I'm a professional windows developer of 15 years who just bought my first Windows 7 machine and I'm astounded and dismayed that not only is this obviously superior solution (the standard in netflix the largest single source of internet traffic not to mention youtube) not an option but that customizing your keyboard shortcuts is still not enabled by Windows. Talking to people who develop on Mac machines telling me about all the customization they can do it gets pretty embarrasing. I guess that's why Microsoft is getting its market share lopped off month after month. Good thing for them Ubuntu is such a PITA or the rate would probably double.It's nearly depressing to see Windows 7 has become more mouse-centric than XP was ... are NONE of their developers not mouse-happy lightweights?
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2011年8月13日 16:38To use your analogy, CHANGING the behavior of spacebar-as-pause is like having people used to using a gas pedal, but having the pedal do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING when they try a new car. To add my own analogy, the new gas pedal would be like pushing in the cigarette lighter and then hitting the turn signal. Completely nonintuitive.
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2011年8月13日 17:12
Wait a second. Accessibility, that's for people that are, like, physically disabled? People for whom it's difficult to press keys or use a mouse in the normal fashion, right? So suppose one of these people can barely control their shaking hands, like my mom's essential tremor. I bet they could still manage to slap the spacebar, a LOT easier than ANY other means of pausing playback. The 'accessibility' argument doesn't hold water, for me. It comes across as an excuse.
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2011年9月22日 16:19
I installed AutoHotKey and added this script in the AutoHotKey.ahk file
GroupAdd,mplayer,Windows Media Center
#IfWinActive,ahk_group mplayer
Space::Send,{Media_Play_Pause}
#IfWinActive
For Media Center, should be the same for Windows Media Player.
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2011年9月24日 5:24I can't see this going anywhere either, because zachd, you are an idiot =)
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2011年10月28日 6:17
Caiobrz had an excellent and longstanding user question: why doesn't Windows Media Player globally support space bar as pause? I thought it'd be good to give it its own thread for any interested.
Those of you who have used Windows Media Player way back in the day may recall that the simpler Windows Media Player 5.x/6 (mplayer2.exe) did actually support the space bar as a global "play/pause" button. But WMP6 (as we'll call it) does not support TABbing between UI elements, which is generally an important piece of accessibility. And likewise - once you've TABbed to a UI element, you select that element with ... the space bar. As such, the player hijacking any press of the space bar to mean Play/Pause would block accessibility. Plus - what if you're editing metadata? Does a space there mean you want a space in "PaulSimon" or does it mean you want to pause the clip because your boss came in? Hopefully you can see that there are constraints, regardless of their merit, as to why space bar does not act as a global "play/pause" button.
However, feedback reached the right ears and as of WMP11 (and WMP12) if the UI focus is on the relevant clip in the playlist OR on the play/pause button - space bar will indeed act as a Play/Pause button when you're viewing the clip. Clearly this isn't as useful as a "global" hotkey - but it's about the most meaningful possibility available.
So when you're playing a clip in the player - either have the focus on that clip in the playlist OR on the play/pause button in the player's controls, and you should indeed see the space bar acting as play/pause for you.
Disclaimer: The above is solely my own interpretation in my own words. I always solely represent and speak for myself. :)
I just finished watchig a movie using WMP12.
My opinion is as follows:1) Searching for any combination of keys while watching a movie(...) is inconvenient and hard to be done especially at home when its late night (dark around).
2) I really dont need the Spacebar to be used for Play/Stop fnc. It can be done by pressing any ONE else easy to find key. Give me one OR let me set one in the Settings menu. Of course not as deep as possible (according to the Plug-In solution described in this thread).Consider this:
- Spacebar is really an easy to find key.
- When the Spacebar is used as an select button - the same functionality can be fullfilled by the ENTER key.
- Any focus being active on an textbox (while you are editing some metadata - your "PaulSimon" example) can be detected and the Spacebar Play/Pause functionality overriden by letting the Spacebar behave as normal Spacebar key.
- I feel depressed of having that partly functional Play/Pause functionality. If I always have to check where in the window the focus is set, to be sure that pressing Spacebar wont do any other than Play/Pause action - what is so positive about that?Let me say - WMP development team made the users to use the Ctrl+.. combinations, and the same team can change that (as history after MP v.6 already showed us).
There is one saying in my land:
"Those who do want are searching for solutions, those who do not want are searching for reasons." -
2012年1月26日 21:59
LEAST-HELPFUL-THREAD-EVER
By the way, CTRL+P also pauses, there, I was just more helpful then ALL OF YOU!- 編集済み Skull Boy SNAFU 2012年1月26日 22:01 found alternative solution
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2012年8月17日 21:20I totally agree with you, it's so silly they don't support space bar as a play/pause button - and not even make it an optional setting to do so in Media Player. It's why VLC player is the default on my system :) Now I just need to install it on my GF's system and I won't ever be bothered by the poor design of Windows Media Player :D
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