New with the 10.2 update to Final Cut Pro X is something that Apple hasn’t publicized, but I find extremely useful: Keywords and Keyword Search are now much more flexible.
One of the big differences between FCP X and FCP 7 or Adobe Premiere, is how FCP X has integrated keywords and metadata into the application.
However, in earlier versions of Final Cut, the Keyword search window could not be expanded, which limited the number of keywords you could search to about 27. This meant that for large projects, with potentially dozens, even hundreds, of keywords, one of the most potentially useful features of Final Cut was, essentially, useless.
Not any more.
The first new thing I discovered – and this may have appeared in an earlier version and I just didn’t know about it – was when you open the Keyword dialog (shortcut: Cmd+K) to add new keywords to a selected clip, typing just the first letter of a keyword, displays all the keywords currently applied to clips that start with that letter.
This makes it much easier to see the keywords you’ve already used, as well as help keep your use of keyword spelling and plurals consistent.
To open the Keyword Search dialog, click the small magnifying glass in the top right corner of the Browser.
This opens a Search window.
Click the Plus button in the top right corner and select Keywords to display the Keyword search options.
This displays all the keywords currently associated with clips and projects in your Library. Here, for instance you can see three columns of seven keywords. In the past, this window could not be expanded, limiting the number of keywords you could use to a very small number.
This didn’t make keywords useless, but it certainly limited their use for large projects.
Now, with the 10.2 update, you can grab the lower edge of this dialog and drag down, expanding this window and allowing you to access potentially hundreds of keywords in this one dialog.
In the event you can’t fit them all on your screen, you can scroll up and down inside the window to see all the keywords in your Event or Library.
This is a small change to the interface, but it makes a big difference in managing large projects.
NOTE: Astute eyes will notice a new option at the bottom of this window: New Library Smart Collection. I wrote about that new 10.2 feature here.
2 Responses to FCP X: Expanded Keywords and Search
Why keywords from the finder seem to be searchable but keywords created in FCP X are not?
Mahmood:
I’ve found all keywords to be searchable. Where are you having problems?
Larry