FCP’s Amazing Built-In Keyboard Shortcut List!

Wouldn’t it be nice if Final Cut Pro included, right inside the application, a searchable, complete list of all the keyboard shortcuts? Ideally, it would be a small window that you could pop up easily and maybe, in addition to having a search function, it would list all the menus and submenus so you could explore new shortcuts. Well, it does:

Welcome to the Button List, which, while not designed as a shortcut database per se, functions as beautifully as if it had been. Actually, it’s there to allow you to drag commands down into the button bars (see the pic at end of this article) so that you can create yet more of those little fussy GUI bells and whistles that you can click with your mouse. Oh, the irony!

To access this awesome unintended feature, simply hit the shortcut OPT J or right-click on any button bar (that darker gray strip in the Browser, Viewer, Canvas and Timeline windows just below the window name) and select “Show Button List.” The magical Keyboard Shortcut Reference Pane Button List will pop up and away you go. Search by function (i.e., “zoom”) or browse the command groups which are arranged by menu name. It literally could not be better and beats the heck out of any chart or web reference out there (except the FCP Shortcutter, of course because we train you to use the shortcuts in manageable bites). If you’re stuck on just which keys are used to nudge a clip on the timeline, you can now quickly find it.

Note that the symbols used for modifiers are the standard symbols which you also see used in the official FCP documentation, training books and The FCP Shortcutter site, so you may as well learn them for good:

So, shall we go on now to explain and discuss the actual intended function of the Buttons and Button Bars (below) and how they can help you create lots of mouse buttons all over your interface that you will then have to load onto every machine you sit down at or you’ll feel utterly lost? Nah.