Apple Final Cut Pro X: Reader Interface Suggestions

In January, 2018, I asked my newsletter subscribers to suggest interface improvements for Adobe Premiere Pro CC and Apple Final Cut Pro X. 53 readers from around the world submitted more than 200 suggestions.

Here are their responses for Final Cut Pro X, listed in no particular order. Almost everyone expressed their love for the software, but…

Aside from cleaning up the formatting, I didn’t make any changes to the comments. I found all these comments fascinating and hope you enjoy them, as well.

Thanks!

Larry

P.S. I have forwarded a copy of these comments to the Final Cut development team at Apple, in hopes they can add some of these to their next series of updates.

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SUGGESTIONS

Larry Jordan

• Scrolling timeline
• Movable markers
• Timeline, not clip, markers
• Larger or floating Timeline Index
• Larger or floating timecode display
• Adjustment layer for visual effects

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Dennis Andrews

Shortcuts for Custom Workspaces

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Don Hertz

Keyframing. Make it more like After Effects.

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Meagan Margaret Thomas

While I like roles, I would also like tracks, as that is what the rest of the world (and I do mean world) of Video Production uses.

Roles are powerful, they’re great, but I would like a button, one for Video, one for Audio that if you pressed it, your roles would display as tracks.

Probably would never happen, but, for most Video Pros this would make using FCPX a lot easier.

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Brian Thomas

Here’s one for us multicam people: allow more flexibility for the multicam window, the Angle Viewer, please.

Currently we’re allowed a rigid 2, 4, 9 or 16 on each pane and each thumbnail has to be the same size. I frequently use 5 camcorders or maybe 10 (I really did recently but I had to borrow the last one) but the point is I’d like to size each of the thumbnails according to my needs at any particular point in the edit. To go one step further I’d even like to ‘save’ a particular arrangement (in the same way that we can ‘save’ so many other things in FCPX) so I could reuse it or another one on another day.

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Alan Nesbitt

I was brought up on 1” and BetaCam Linear Tape – to – Tape Editing, Avid and earlier versions of FCP when I worked in educational multimedia here in Northern Ireland and in retirement I have more time to enjoy the technology using FCP X.

I appreciate having Source and Timeline together in the Interface and I know it is easier to use shortcuts like ‘E’ BUT I do miss the feel of grabbing the source with the mouse and dropping it in the Timeline ie Program window as opposed to the timeline itself. Options on the viewfinder window eg insert kept the whole process clear. It really felt that the source was actually dropped into the program.

I know this was not part of the new style X which was moving on but I wonder now that a high level of success has been reached, would Apple let us have back that small but original feeling of editing program material.

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Peter Snowdon

1. My biggest gripe with FCP 7 and X is the lack of a moving timeline as you are playing. This was such a basic feature of earlier non Apple edit systems that it is still unbelievable to me that nothing has been done about it. It is always the first thing people comment on when they come to a mac system and is a real head scratching moment for them. It could be available as an option surely – and I can guarantee that 90% would use it.
2. Select all clips forward tool
3. Moving timeline in Play (as previously stated)
4. Be able to delete projects from timeline. It can get very cluttered especially if you keep dipping into different Libraries as I do with multi jobs on the go.
5. After closing and reopening, I want it to keep the projects that are open as they were before closing. Very irritating to have to reopen projects again.
6. Would like a ‘workbench’ to save commonly used titles, transitions, etc. I had this on the first edting system I had in 1992 and it was brilliant. FCP 7 you could use bins for this I think. I want to see a greater ability to lift things from the Timeline and put them in the Browser for future use.
7. Want to be able to change the default on the Gap in Preferences or in anywhere.

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Tim Helms

I would like to see a HUD for FCP X like in Motion 5!

I would also like seamless integration into Logic like the seamless integration between FCP X and Motion…even making effects and generators, etc.

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Stu Aull

PLEASE: some sort of one-click (heck, I’ll accept TWO-step…) way to SAVE an effect/transition into a user-created FAVORITES folder within the FX browser a la FCP 7!?

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Darcy Peters

I find the interface’s grays and soft whites to be challenging to see at times. (I don’t have the best vision) It would be nice to have some options to make the interface a little brighter, or perhaps with enhanced contrast settings.

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Jean-Claude Rowland

I prefer the interface of FCPX 10.2, with 10.3 it’s all over the place.

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Hans Douma

After all these years keyword support in FCPX is still very basic. Staying consistent in using keywords is next to impossible, because FCPX is sadly missing a central keyword repository for defining and assigning keywords.

Although when adding keyword to a clip the keyword window is showing existing keywords as you start typing, it is then only looking for existing keywords in clips of events that have been open since you started FCPX.It is therefor very easy and most likely to end up with similar keywords where you actually mean the same thing. I find this very confusing and it makes the search on keywords very unreliable. It is about time Apple brings FCPX up to speed in the area of metadata management

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Philip Snyder

1. Frequently and for no apparent reason, the customized metadata in my Events (Start, End, Frame Size, Codec, etc.) re-sets to the default categories (Content Created, Camera Angle, Camera Name, Video Roles, etc.) settings. Therefore, I have to keep re-setting my metadata to my custom settings.
2. Frequently, the metadata in my Events goes dark. Eventually, after clicking on other Events, it returns. Other editors have complained about this well. It wastes time.
3. After shutting down FCP X and then re-opening the app., a different Event than the one I had left open is often displayed. For example, when I closed FCP X, I had left the Project Event open with a particular Project that I had been working on highlighted. When I re-started FCP X, my Select Take Event was open with one of the Select Take clips highlighted instead. This forced me to take time to close the Select Take Event, open the Project Event and search for the correct Project. In addition, Projects in the Event are often jumbled in random time code order necessitating me to re-order them. All this is fixable but is a waste of time. It was never a problem in FCP 7 or any of the legacy versions.
4. After adding a color effect in the Inspector such as Color Wheels and the undoing it, FCP X often crashes. Note: Trashing preferences seems to correct this but I’ve had to do this repeatedly.

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Simon Morice

So far, the user has very little control over the XML interface. I have been trying for a long time, and with complete lack of success, to get Apple to publish the XML schema needed to swap data between FCP X and Filemaker Pro. You’ll know that Walter Murch used a database to extend the utility of FCP in earlier iterations. It depended upon precisely this XML document.

Since Apple own both FCP and Filemaker it would seem a very sensible and easy thing to do. The benefits would enable us to make even better use of metadata and open up the development of utilities that we can only dream about for now. Linking scripts and transcriptions to shots and sequences, paper edits and performing calculations on projects etc.

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Greg A.K.A. The Nobleman

I would like to see Final Cut Pro X bring back the very rewarding Media Manager that was in Final Cut 7. It was really nice to media manage projects from the timeline instead of saving hundreds of unused Gigs of footage. This would be very nice especially when one would like to archive a project for safe keeping.

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Bruno Debas

It would be nice to have the option to close any opened Synchronized clips, Multicam clips or project in the timeline. Once you open anything in the timeline it stays there opened. It would be nice to have the option to close and empty the timeline.

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Tom Cummings

Quickly scroll to a typeface in the selection list by typing in the first few letters of the name.

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Scott Newell

I don’t know if this is an interface thing or new feature, but I’ll put in my 2 cents worth.

When you go to import media, there should be a search box that lets you put in the name of the file you are looking for. FCP7 had it and it was VERY handy. Now, I have to go to Spotlight, find the location of the desired file and figure out what folder it’s in. Then back to import media and manually locate it. What a time waster. I can’t be the only one who misses this dearly!

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John Anglim

Is it just me or did we lose the ability to mix audio in real time during the change over to FCP X?

This probably comes out of my radio and music mixing days, but I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the ability to drop a music clip down on the timeline, hit play, grab that track’s fader, and mix in real time. Key frames dropped down onto the track automatically. FC6&7 did it really well.

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Adam Cohen

I just want FCP to have real solid edit points on the project timeline that don’t vanish (puff) if you click on the wrong part of the timeline and are then not retrievable! It’s SUCH basic, page 1, rule 1 of editing – creating edit points – I’m constantly having to use markers to substitute for them. Not clever and not funny! I can’t understand why all editors don’t protest! I’ve been using FCPX for 4 years now and this still drives me mad!

Oh, and I still miss the little audio mixes like I used all the time in FCP7 to smooth dialogue at speed. 1f or 2f sound mixes without having to use the fiddly tools in FCPX. Simple and instant!

Proper video and audio tracks would be great to keep things professional and orderly, but I know I can’t have those!

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AJV Video

I switch between three WORKSPACES on my two-monitor work station. I would like to be able to highlight my most used buttons on my tool bar with a color of my choice.

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Eugen Oprina

1. OMF export
2. Real round trip with Motion and Logic Pro
3. Video out from Motion

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Keith Woolford

1. Support for the direct import of AVI footage
2. Drag/Drop of favourite plugins/effects in to a specific folder
3. Ability to author a ‘DVD Studio Pro’ burn within FCP (yes, some of us still use this)

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Paul Kelleher

I often find it very difficult to grab the edge of the windows, I.e. browser window to make it wider or narrower. The “change” arrow does not appear easily as I mouse back and forth over the vertical window edge line.

Would love to be able to customize and store all the window sizes, ala FCP 7

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Lars Nelson

[Customize] camera stabilization, be able to preset amount of stabilization, my favorite is .25, way less than 1, or the 2.5 which is the default. This way one doesn’t have to do everything twice.

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Ryan Chaney

In the FCP X color corrector tool I’d love to see some sort of visual indicator of when you’re in Saturation mode vs. when you’re in Exposure mode, so thatyo you can know at a glance which tool you’re using. So many times I’ve went to adjust exposure but I’ve been in Saturation mode, or vice versa. The tools look identical, other than their little text name tags and it drives me nuts! My suggestion would be to have a different patterned grey background, or have the sliders be squares for one tool and circles for the other, or something like that… easily identified at a glance, without stopping to read which tab you’re on.

My other suggestion would be for FCP X to remember the sizes of the clips in the browser each time I start up the app. As it currently stands, every time I open FCP X all the browser clips are HUGE and I have to resize them smaller every. single. time. =( It’s menial and easy to fix, but it drives me crazy every morning when I come to work. Ditto with the Transitions/Effects browser down in the corner too.

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Lynn Beittel

I’m a long time user of FCP and recently upgraded to FCPX. I can’t believe there isn’t a decent authoring program for DVDs. I just figured out how to customize a DVD menu, but it’s really hard to preview the menu. I would like to see more control on creating and previewing menus. I think I’ll give Toast a go for authoring.

Also, when I export to Vimeo, I’m finding my export options are limited. Vimeo keeps complaining about my audio bit rate. Maybe this is operator error.

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Ben Curry

A very clear indication that you are in proxy mode. An icon or “PROXY” badge at the top of the Viewer perhaps?

An “Unused Clips” filter in the browser. The current “Unused” filter can show many unused portions of the same clip, making it confusing to find unused B-roll clips. If even a portion of a clip has been used, I don’t want to see it here.
A duplicate media warning on timelines.

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Karsten Schlüter

With high risk to get an ‘F – missing the point completely – MOTION needs a fundamental overhaul and I restrict myself, as you asked, to GUI, not features.

(Click to see a larger image.)

1.  Given the concept of ‘Layers’ (… instead of Nodes…), but nobody can explain to me, why the Layer List occupies screen-estate twice. Asks for some, fundamentally new layout…
2. That Generic Icons nonsense on the lower left… the submenu tells me, if I’m in Behaviors/Text Animations or …/Parameters. No need for tons of ‘gear-with-a-T’, ’empty gear’, etc. A better Preview would be of higher importance, imho.

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Shari Dyer

• Make the interface fonts bigger, or make a larger size an option.
• Change the color of active from blue to yellow – yellow is far more noticable.
• Go back to the old red unrendered line on the timeline.
• Return Photos/Sound, and Generators/Titles to their old positions – it’s more efficient.

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Carsten Ress

Here are my suggestion for the FCP X interface:

• to possibility of having to timelines / projects open at the same time (like stacking timeline windows over each other in Premiere Pro) so you can copy clips directly from one project to another without having to go back and forward between different projects.
• more flexibility when working with to displays (for example for color correction the ability to put scopes on a second display or to have one main editing display with all windows and the ability to open another full screen viewer on a second display).
• a last small thing (I don’t know if it’s a bug or if I handle it wrong): using audio effects or plugins I find it really hard to open the bigger effect editor-window with the small icon / button. If I click in the middle of this button nothing opens, I have to click always in the tiny left upper area of this small button.

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Andrew Griffiths

I would like to see a scrolling timeline on playback.

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Stacey Sanner

Hi Larry, the issue I would like to see fixed is my Project in Timeline jumps back to a previous version when viewing clips in the Browser. Here is what I mean:

• I am working in the Timeline and I go up to the Browser to view a clip.
• When I go to play that clip (especially if I use space bar), the version of the edit/project I am working on in the Timeline jumps back to a previous version.
• If I am working on Interview Draft 3; I click on a clip in the Browser to see if I’d like to use it in my edit; I play the clip and the Timeline jumps back to Interview Draft 2 or whatever my most-recently used Project was.
• If I’m not paying attention to this, I will end up editing an old draft.

This was an issue in the previous version of FCP X as well.

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Hasan Aslan

• Photos and Videos sidebar: If its just Libraries browser and the Generators button it will look less cluttered
• If effects and transitions icons are a bit more indicating to what they do
• Icons next to overwrite indicating (audio or video will be inserted or both) wish if they were clearer
• Keywords icon on top is there all the time, although we do not need to see it first thing whenever we open FCPX

The interface is elegant already,

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Daniele Bellemare Lee

I have worked since a year an half with FCP X 3 and 4 and I saw many bugs. Before with FCP 7, it was lot of more stable.

• In almost every projects the titles are corrupted. I have to make again and again my titles and subtitles with FCPX 3.4 and sometimes I cannot do anything. FCPX.3.4 crashed.
• I miss the wonderful color correction filter from FCP 7. In Fcpx it’s horrible to make a correction. We don’t have anymore the white point with the sampling tool to select the white point.…. I miss it…..
• More titles and generators
• More controls to make slow motion and accelerations (also gradually)
• More sound and music loops (libraries)
• I also miss dvd studio for authoring dvds and blu ray.
• I miss also soundtrack from FCP7.The Noise reduction filter was more efficient in FCP 7 than crumpple pop .
• I need to make conversions of h264 files from my panasonic cameras ( HCX 1 and GH4 Lumix) with compressor in prores before I can import them in fcpX. It would be great if FCP X would support H264 directly.
• FCP X has to be more stable than now for sure…. I’m thinking about switching to another program. It would be sad because there is a lot of good things in this program. I’m a Apple fan.
• I like that FCP X doesn’t have The Cloud and monthly fees. I like Adobe. I hope Apple will keep FCP X as a stand alone program.

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Duncan Knowles

The FCPX online “Help … Search” feature is horrible!!! Apple should dedicate a team to fix it.

I can search for topics that are even printed on the interface — for example, “Presets” — and what do I get? Below is a screenshot. Nothing. This happens over and over and over. Recently I needed help on something and I got the “(0)” as below. I went online to Google and a young kid had a YouTube answer!

It is so frustrating. When I truly need help, FCP’s/Apple’s “Help” is not there. This has been true for years. I so welcome your forwarding this to Apple and the FCPX team. They could make our lives happier.

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Bill Rabkin

In versions of FCP prior to FCP X, the setting to “Show Title/Action Safe Zones” was persistent. That is, if the zones were displayed before I quit FCP, when I restarted FCP these zones again displayed. In FCP X, if I want to display these zones after I restart FCP X I have to re-select “Show Title/Action Safe Zones” from the View dropdown in the canvas window. I’d like it to persist over a restart.

There are many areas in FCP X where a text field has input focus, but FCP X violates Apple standard conventions for UI when entering text. For example:

In the Browser, select a clip. Then click on its name to edit the name. Pressing Command+[Left Arrow] should move the cursor to the beginning of the name field, and Command+[Right Arrow] should move the cursor to the end of the name. Neither of these keystrokes works.

The same is true when editing the text of a Title in the Inspector’s Text field.

This drives me nuts, because I’m used to hitting these keys, often together with the Shift key, in every other application on my iMac, including those from both Apple and third-party developers. Muscle memory is important!

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Larry adds: As you can see, there are a lot of opinions and not all can be implemented.  In fact, not all agree. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section below.

And thanks! to everyone for contributing.

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