Keyboard and mouse controls reduce the amount of movement between the video windows and the playback panel during an analysis. The shortcuts below were checked against the current VidSync source on July 30, 2026.
Focus and modifier keys
Move the pointer over a video to bring that video window to the front and give its overlay keyboard focus. Playback commands that use Command or Option are forwarded to the synchronized playback controls. Plain arrow keys and Delete act on the selected point or annotation in the focused video. A table or text field can respond differently when it has focus.
⌘ = Command ⌥ = Option or Alt ⇧ = Shift Ctrl = Control → ← ↑ ↓ = Arrow keys
Video playback
| Action | Shortcut | Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Play forward or pause | ⌘ + ↑ | Starts all videos that respond to the synchronized controls, or pauses them if they are playing. |
| Play backward | ⌘ + ↓ | Plays all synchronized videos backward. |
| Step one frame | ⌘ + → ⌘ + ← | Steps all synchronized videos forward or backward by one frame. |
| Step with the mouse | Scroll toward you Scroll away from you | Steps forward or backward by one frame. Over a synchronized video overlay, the wheel steps the synchronized videos together. Over an unsynchronized player view, it steps that clip alone. |
| Play at normal speed while held | ⌥ + → ⌥ + ← | Plays forward or backward until the keys are released. |
| Play at advanced rate 1 while held | ⌥ + Ctrl + → ⌥ + Ctrl + ← | Uses advanced playback rate 1 until the keys are released. |
| Play at advanced rate 2 while held | ⌥ + ⇧ + → ⌥ + ⇧ + ← | Uses advanced playback rate 2 until the keys are released. |
| Play forward at an advanced rate | ⌘ + 1 ⌘ + 2 | Starts forward playback at advanced rate 1 or 2. |
| Play backward at an advanced rate | ⌘ + Ctrl + 1 ⌘ + Ctrl + 2 | Starts backward playback at advanced rate 1 or 2. |
| Step by the configured amount | ⌘ + ⌥ + → ⌘ + ⌥ + ← | Steps forward or backward by the amount and units set in the advanced playback controls. |
| Cycle to the next video | Spacebar | When a video overlay has focus, selects the next clip and brings its video window to the front. |
Advanced rates and step amounts are set in the playback panel. Rate 1 and rate 2 can be assigned different speeds or sampling intervals for the study.
Adding and selecting screen points
| Action | Mouse control | Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Add an input | Left-click | Records a measurement screen point, annotation, calibration point, or distortion point according to the active tab and current selection. VidSync ignores the click when the required Object, Event, calibration frame, or other context is absent. |
| Select the nearest visible item | Right-click | Selects the nearest visible point or annotation handled by the active tab. This is the usual first step before nudging or deleting an overlay item. |
| Snap a new input to a nearby feature | ⌘ + left-click Mouse button 4 | Moves the new input to the nearest feature detected by VidSync. This is useful for the centers of high-contrast calibration marks and checkerboard corners. Check the resulting position in the magnified preview. |
Nudging a selected item
Right-click near a visible point or annotation to select it, then use the arrow keys to move it. The nudge distance is set in VidSync Preferences. Distortion points, calibration clicks, measurement screen points, and annotations all respond to the arrow keys when the corresponding tab and video window have focus.
A measurement screen point can be nudged only while the videos are at the frame and master timecode where that point was created. VidSync offers to return to the original timecode if the point is visible but the current time differs. Calibration clicks can be nudged while the video is at the selected calibration frame.
What Delete removes
The scope of Delete depends on the active tab and the control with keyboard focus.
| Context | Result |
|---|---|
| Lens Distortion tab, selected overlay point | Deletes the selected distortion input point. |
| Calibration Frame Input, selected overlay point | Clears that camera’s screen click for the calibration node. The node’s coordinate definition remains in the list. |
| Measurement tab, selected overlay point | Deletes the screen click from the focused video clip. The VidSync point, its Event, and a corresponding click in another camera remain unless separately deleted. |
| Annotation tab, selected annotation | Deletes the annotation. |
| A data table has focus | Invokes that table’s delete action for its selected row. Depending on the table, this can remove a complete point, Event, Object, or definition rather than one screen click. |
For the full hierarchy and deletion rules, see Measuring Objects and Events in VidSync. The Calibration, Distortion Correction, and Annotations pages describe the corresponding point types.