Five Quick Tips for Apple Final Cut Pro X

Here are five quick tips that can make your editing faster and more fun in Final Cut Pro X.

CREATE AN IMPORT FAVORITE

If you go to the same hard disk and folder time and again when importing media, then create a media to make this faster.

Drag the name of the folder from the file list in the Media Import window on top of the word “FAVORITES” in the side bar on the left.

To instantly jump to that location, simply click once on the name of that new favorite.

To delete a favorite location, right-click the name you want to delete and choose Remove from Sidebar. This removes the location as a favorite, but does not remove the folder or the media it contains from your hard disk or the Browser.

DISPLAY SOURCE TIMECODE

(Image courtesy Blackmagic Design.)

Easily display source timecode, as well as file names and keywords, in the Browser.

• Turn on skimming (S)
• Type Control + Y

Drag the skimmer in a clip to view source timecode. Type Control + Y, again, to turn this off.

NOTE: This feature won’t work if skimming is turned off.

ORGANIZE CLIPS

Here’s a way to create a custom group to help organize large numbers of clips in an event.

Let’s imagine that you have sorted your clips into scenes, where each scene is its own event. The problem is that you still have lots of clips in that event.

• Select all the clips you want to group together in an Event.
• In the Inspector, switch to the Info Inspector
• At the bottom left corner, change Basic to Extended
• Then, in Camera Name add the word(s) you want to use to describe these clips

NOTE: You can select multiple clips and apply the same word(s) to all of them at once.

In the Browser, click the film frame icon in the top right corner and change Group By to Camera Name.

(Images courtesy Blackmagic Design.)

Instantly, all your clips are grouped within that Event in the Browser by the custom categories you just created.

JOIN SPLIT CLIPS

By accident, you split a clip in the Timeline that you didn’t mean to cut.

Select both sides of the split clip, then choose Mark > Join Clips.

The split is gone.

NOTE: For this to work, there can not be any frames missing across the edit.

SIX KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

• Cmd + 4 – Toggle the Inspector open or closed
• Cntrl + Cmd + 4 – Toggle the height of the Inspector between full and half height.

After you’ve opened more than one project into the Timeline:

• Cmd + [ – open a project that you opened before you opened the current project.
• Cmd + ] – open a project that you opened after you opened the current project.

Turn skimming off, put the playhead on a marker:

• Cntrl + , (comma) – nudge the marker under the playhead one frame left
• Cntrl + . (period) – nudge the marker under the playhead one frame right.

SUMMARY

Final Cut Pro X is filled with hidden secrets that make editing faster and more fun – especially once you know what they are.

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