Chances are at that one point or another you’ve run into a YouTube video – most likely on Facebook or on a site like Senior Planet. Here are some tips and tricks for making the most of your viewing experience, from getting rid of ads to watching full-screen.

While these tips are specific to YouTube, you’ll find many of the controls we talk about on videos that originated on other video platforms.

Viewing Basics: How to Watch Video Full Screen

Bigger is better. To make your video screen larger, simply click the icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the video player.

To exit full-screen mode, just press the Escape (ESC) key on your computer, which you’ll usually find at the top left of your screen.

Viewing Basics: How to Play and Pause or Stop the Video

Play and Pause/Stop controls on the video player use the same icons as cassette players used to.

To play the video, press the carat-shaped Play button at the bottom left of the video player

Need to take a break? To stop it or pause the video, press the Stop/Pause button. Then press Play again when you’re ready to resume.

How to Mute the Video Sound

Hate the sound of that ad? You can mute and un-mute audio on your video by clicking the button near the bottom left of your video player; it looks like a bullhorn. When you see the little “x” next to the Mute icon, you know your sound is muted. To un-mute, just click the icon again.

How To Get Rid of Ads

As they say, nothing in life is free. That’s true for some videos on YouTube. There are two types of video ad:

• Ads that show before the video you want to see starts.

You can “skip” these ads after a specific number of seconds and continue on to your video by simply pressing “Skip Ad” when you see it in the bottom right of the video player. (Before you see “Skip Ad” you’ll see a countdown of the minutes left before you can skip.)

• Ads that pop up over the video you’re watching.

You can close these ads by clicking the little “x” Close button at the top right of the ad.

Ready? Check out our “63 Minutes of Aging With Attitude.”