Five Quick and Easy Final Cut Pro Tricks

Looking for ways to work faster? Final Cut has hundreds of keyboard shortcuts that help make short work of editing. Here are five quick tricks – from import to export – that I use all the time to make Final Cut Pro work even faster.

Trick 1. Create a Custom Import Location

If you frequently import from the same location, create a Favorite import location.

• Open the Media Import window (shortcut: Cmd + I)
• Navigate to the folder you want to make a Favorite. It can be on any attached device.
• Drag the name of the folder from the bottom of the Media Import window on top of the word “Favorites” in the sidebar on the left.

Final Cut makes this location a Favorite in the Media Import window. Simply click the name in the Favorites column to open it immediately.

NOTE: To jump to a specific folder in the Media Import window, type the first few letters. You don’t need to select anything first.

Trick 2. Create a New Project and Include the First Clip

Right-click a clip in the Browser and choose “Create New Project” to:

• Create a new project
• Match the settings of the selected clip
• Import that clip as the first clip in the new project

This is much faster than doing each step manually.

Trick 3. Find and Trim the Edge of a Clip Using Keyboard Shortcuts

Use the Up/Down arrow keys to jump to the edit point you want to trim.

Then press:

• [ (left square bracket) to select the Out
• ] (right square bracket) to select the In
• \ (backslash) to select both the In and the Out

Then press:

• (Comma) to move the selected edit point one frame left
• Shift + (comma) to move the selected edit point ten frames left
• (Period) to move the selected edit point one frame right
• Shift + (period) to move the selected edit point ten frames right

These shortcuts mean you can find and trim any edit point in the Primary Storyline using only the keyboard.

Trick 4. Assign a Keyboard Shortcut to Your Favorite Title

Have a favorite title that you use over and over… and over? Assign it a keyboard shortcut.

• Right-click the title you want to use in the Titles browser.
• Select Make Default Title to assign Control + T to that title.
• Select Make Default Lower Third to assign Shift + Control + T to that title.

This applies to any title, it doesn’t need to be full-screen or lower third. I use this all the time for custom titles I created for my webinars. Sadly, you can only create two keyboard shortcuts for titles.

Trick 5. Export Multiple Projects at Once

Final Cut now supports batch exports for projects.

• Use the Timeline Index to enable or disable any Roles for each project.
• Using the Command key, select all the projects you want to export in the Browser. (There’s no limit to how many projects you can export at once.)
• Choose File > Share # Projects (where “#” represents the number of selected projects.
• FCP will export all projects based on the settings applied to the first project.

NOTE: If you need each project exported with different settings, share each one individually.

SUMMARY

I use these tricks all the time in my editing. Not only are they fun, they can save us time. And that’s the best trick of all.

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