One Touch Volume on Touchbar?

[ipodlover77]

Am I overlooking something or is there a hack to put the volume increase/decrease buttons directly on the tb? Currently, the only thing I can find is the volume button, which you then press and that point you're given the slider to adjust the volume. Problem is, that makes it a two step process. I know you can choose to just hold the button icon and slide up and down but I like the granular controls of individually increasing or decreasing one notch at a time. The only way to do this is set up the touch bar to show the function keys which at that point you lose the unique ability of the touch bar.

To recap, is there any possible way to use the unique ever changing touchbar while customizing it to reflect the individual increase and decrease volume buttons?

 

[MrGuder]

Good question and one I tried to ask in another thread but couldn't get the words out right. lol

 

[pshifrin]

You can do it with Better Touch Tool. I've been using this app to create custom touchbar buttons on all different kinds of apps and there are "global options" I just created a volume up button.

 

[xraydoc]

Am I overlooking something or is there a hack to put the volume increase/decrease buttons directly on the tb? Currently, the only thing I can find is the volume button, which you then press and that point you're given the slider to adjust the volume. Problem is, that makes it a two step process. I know you can choose to just hold the button icon and slide up and down but I like the granular controls of individually increasing or decreasing one notch at a time. The only way to do this is set up the touch bar to show the function keys which at that point you lose the unique ability of the touch bar.

To recap, is there any possible way to use the unique ever changing touchbar while customizing it to reflect the individual increase and decrease volume buttons?

You don't have to tap the volume button and wait for the slider, then move your hand over to the slider itself. Simply press the volume button and slide back and forth. One step process.

 

[deadworlds]

As others have said, hold your finger on the volume button, drag left/right to adjust volume.

 

[Mxbzz]

You don't have to tap the volume button and wait for the slider, then move your hand over to the slider itself. Simply press the volume button and slide back and forth. One step process.

He may have mentioned that in his fourth sentence, and wanting the volume up/down as individual keys instead of a slide bar.


OP-- I haven't found a way to have the volume keys permanently on the TB, but the comment about BetterTouchTool sounds promising. I think I want this for the display brightness. I didn't realize how much I used those keys until they weren't easily accessible for me on the TB.

 

[XSharp]

As others have said, hold your finger on the volume button, drag left/right to adjust volume.

This is the answer.

 

[ThisBougieLife]

You can set the Fn button to display the function controls, so you hold it down and get the volume buttons. For me it's not a big deal because I always prefer to adjust the volume in smaller increments and that requires holding down option + shift anyway.

But no, as of now, there's no way to have the up/down buttons display without displaying all the function controls or without third party software.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

Use the slider control icon for volume and brightness. That will save you space on the bar for other things.

 

[MrGuder]

You can do it with Better Touch Tool. I've been using this app to create custom touchbar buttons on all different kinds of apps and there are "global options" I just created a volume up button.

So on this video he creates a touch icon for direct link to a website on the touch bar using Better Touch Tool.

But my question is can you create a volume up and volume down icon on the touch bar (like he did) that will be "fixed" to the touch bar so it doesn't go away and always stays on the touch bar?

 

[ipodlover77]

Good question and one I tried to ask in another thread but couldn't get the words out right. lol

Ended up having to just use the function keys layout. I truly hate using the slider volume. Hopefully the option to add volume buttons will eventually come. Till then, its like using a nTB model with just two extra usb c ports.

 

[MrGuder]

Ended up having to just use the function keys layout. I truly hate using the slider volume. Hopefully the option to add volume buttons will eventually come. Till then, its like using a nTB model with just two extra usb c ports.

Yeah, hopefully they implement this with an update.

It appears that keeping the touch bar fixed with fixed keys does exist, because on this video, jump to time 6:51 and he shows you what happens to the touch bar when your using bootcamp windows, well look at the touch bar and you will see a fixed volume up and down (separate keys- fixed) and you will see brightness up and down separate keys-fixed. So the option is there, it's just only available when using windows inside the mac. Otherwise when using the mac you will only get the slider volume key fixed not separate up and down volume keys that will stay fixed at least that is how I'm seeing it on the videos.

 

[Cache]

Ended up having to just use the function keys layout. I truly hate using the slider volume. Hopefully the option to add volume buttons will eventually come. Till then, its like using a nTB model with just two extra usb c ports.

You can tap the volume icon, wait for the slider to pop up and subsequebtly tap the icons to the left and right of the slider to do what you want.

 

[MrGuder]

Ended up having to just use the function keys layout. I truly hate using the slider volume. Hopefully the option to add volume buttons will eventually come. Till then, its like using a nTB model with just two extra usb c ports.

You might already know about this but I just found out from this video you can designate the FN key (bottom left) to show the expanded Control Bar. I know it's a 2 step process but at least you can access separate keys for volume up and down. This video shows you how to set it up jump to time 5:56

Also check out Quarter Step Audio
jump to time 9:34 of this video, I think that is the best option.

 

[MrGuder]

So just an update, I went to Best Buy today and played around on the 2016 15" MacBook Pro. I went into keyboard preferences and went to the FN key settings and changed the drop down to always show expanded touch bar control then opened a safari tab to browse the net and the touch bar is fixed with volume up and down separate buttons so you can tap each one in quarter increments. Then I went to YouTube to open a video to see if it would still stay expanded and it did so this is really a non issue.

If you want the expanded control touch bar to always show regardless what you doing it works. Also you make this setting I mentioned you don't have to hit the FN bottom left key to get the expanded control it will always show. The volume up & down and brightness up & down and keyboard back lite up & down button are all there. This is a great feature for those that want those dedicated keys to always show.

 

[ipodlover77]

So just an update, I went to Best Buy today and played around on the 2016 15" MacBook Pro. I went into keyboard preferences and went to the FN key settings and changed the drop down to always show expanded touch bar control then opened a safari tab to browse the net and the touch bar is fixed with volume up and down separate buttons so you can tap each one in quarter increments. Then I went to YouTube to open a video to see if it would still stay expanded and it did so this is really a non issue.

If you want the expanded control touch bar to always show regardless what you doing it works. Also you make this setting I mentioned you don't have to hit the FN bottom left key to get the expanded control it will always show. The volume up & down and brightness up & down and keyboard back lite up & down button are all there. This is a great feature for those that want those dedicated keys to always show.

One extra step but for some reason if this is the best method for the time being, I prefer the hold fn to see the volume buttons rather than seeing the volume slider.

 

[MrGuder]

One extra step but for some reason if this is the best method for the time being, I prefer the hold fn to see the volume buttons rather than seeing the volume slider.

I think it's something you will get use to and before long you won't even notice it takes a nano second to hit the FN key. There is some give and take when introduced to a whole new control strip like this one. I actually liked it and could see me using this to its advantage. I wasn't crazy about the screen dimness after 3 clicks down and the keyboard works for me except I didn't like the click sound.

 

[HumboldtRick]

Am I overlooking something or is there a hack to put the volume increase/decrease buttons directly on the tb? Currently, the only thing I can find is the volume button, which you then press and that point you're given the slider to adjust the volume. Problem is, that makes it a two step process. I know you can choose to just hold the button icon and slide up and down but I like the granular controls of individually increasing or decreasing one notch at a time. The only way to do this is set up the touch bar to show the function keys which at that point you lose the unique ability of the touch bar.

To recap, is there any possible way to use the unique ever changing touchbar while customizing it to reflect the individual increase and decrease volume buttons?

I figured it out. Under System Preferences > Keyboard, you just need to use the pull down menu for "Touch Bar shows" and choose Expanded Control Strip. That pretty much gives you the old top row on the keyboard. Doesn't give you the application-specific options. That doesn't bother me because I find the Touch Bar to be useless.