Most of the time, exporting a file from Final Cut Pro is enough for what we need. But, sometimes, we need something more flexible, powerful, and fast. That’s where Apple Compressor comes in.
The benefits to Compressor include:
There are other features, but that’s a good start. It’s this last point – compression automation – that I want to talk about here.
THE NORMAL PROCESS
Normally, you drag the source file into the Compressor interface, apply one or more compression settings, specify the destination for the compressed file and click Start Batch.
It works fine. However, much of the time, we are using the same compression settings, the same destination over and over and over. Wouldn’t it be great if we could take all that power, speed and flexibility of Compressor and automate it?
The good news is that we can – using droplets and watch folders.
WHICH TO PICK?
The underlying compression engine for Compressor, droplets and watch folders is the same. So you get the same quality, speed, settings flexibility – all running in the background. The difference is the amount of time – from a lot to none – that it takes to set up a job.
Both execute automatically and can have any compression setting, or group of settings, applied to whatever file they process.
TO CREATE A DROPLET
Right-click one or more compression settings – either Custom or Built-in and choose Save as Droplet.
Give the droplet a name (top red arrow) and a location for the compressed file (bottom red arrow).
NOTE: A droplet can only point to one compression destination.
Then, click Save.
A droplet icon appears on the Desktop.
To use it, drop any media file on top of it.
This opens a processing panel where you can change the default destination, confirm but not change the compression settings along with any applied job actions, switch between local or network processing, then begin the compression. You never need to open Compressor at all.
There’s no limit to how many droplets you can create.
WATCH FOLDERS
Watch folders are ideal when you want to export a source file, then have one or more settings applied to it. What a watch folder does is process whenever you copy media files into it.
To start, create one or more folders that you want to use as a Watch Folder. Each watch folder can have separate settings.
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Open Compressor and click the Watch Folder (red arrow) tab at the top.
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Drag one or more of your soon-to-be watch folders into the interface. (“Web compress” in my example.)
NOTE: If you see a red warning (red arrow in the screen shot above), click the red icon, read the warning, then click the red close button to dismiss the alert (lower red arrow).
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Add whatever settings you want that Watch Folder to apply – either built-in or custom.
Right-click the Location to change where the compressed files will be stored (red arrow).
When all the settings are to your satisfaction, enable the Watch Folder by checking the folder name (red arrow).
Minimize Compressor, but don’t quit it. Now, when you export a file into the Watch Folder, or drop one or more files into it, Compressor will automatically compress it. If the interface is open, active compression is indicated by the spinning gear (red arrow).
When compression is complete the original source file remains in the Watch folder so you can archive it.
SUMMARY
Droplets are great stand-alone mini-apps. Watch folders are fast Compressor automations. Both can speed your work by automating the process of doing the same thing over and over – but with different files.
