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Where Are You?
To use keyboard shortcuts in Final Cut Pro effectively, you need to know exactly where you are in the interface at all times. The results of using certain shortcuts often differ depending on which window (i.e., Browser, Viewer, Canvas, Timeline) is active or, to use the more correct term, has “focus” at the moment. Therefore, if you are not sure which window has focus, it is advisable to develop a habit of always glancing up at the title bars to see which one is light gray (as opposed to the darker gray of the windows that do not have focus). In addition to this, you need to be able to change the focus easily or your shortcuts will lose a lot of their power. It’s not much fun to reach over for the mouse to select a window before using a shortcut! Here are the keys that will help:
CMD 1 gives focus to the Viewer, CMD 2 to the Canvas, CMD 3 to the Timeline and CMD 4 to the Browser. Note also that CMD 5 focuses the Effects tab of the Browser and CMD 6 opens and focuses the Favorite effects window, but these are rarely needed. You should however, burn CMD 1-4 into your memory and use them to jump around from window to window. A caveat and a tip after the jump…
One thing that can frustrate people when they first use these commands is that, if you accidentally hit one of them twice in succession, it will close the window in question. If that happens, simply hit the command another time and the window will reappear. Trust me, you will get used to this and once you learn to shift focus via keyboard shortcuts, you will get more mileage out of all your shortcut usage.
One of the nicest workflows in FCP can be achieved by using this command when laying out a rough cut. Try this:
1. Hit CMD 4 to activate the Browser.
2. Use the UP, DOWN, LEFT & RIGHT ARROWS to run up and down your through the contents of the Browser–note that the LEFT and RIGHT ARROWS will take you into Bins and nested bins. This means you can reach any clip in the Browser via these four keys–pretty neat!
3. To open a clip from the Browser into the Viewer for trimming, simply hit ENTER when the desired clip is highlighted. Set your in and out-points (using JKL to scrub and I and O to set the edit points, of course), then hit F10 or F9 to send the clip to the timeline. Note that the Timeline now has focus (nice touch, FCP team) in case you need to further trim or perhaps scrub and play.
Now you’re ready to repeat the process. If you have the discipline to get used to this technique, you will lay down rough cuts in a fraction of the time it would take you using the mouse.