A Modest Browser Nicety For Log & Cap Tasks

Depending on your personal preferences, today’s simple shortcut might be worth remembering for whenever you are ingesting content. When you begin a log and cap or log and transfer operation, hit OPT B to set up the “logging” Browser column layout:

This will arrange the columns with the most useful information to the far left side so it will be readily visible without scrolling the Browser window over. The key change is that you can see the “Media Start” and “Media End” columns easily.

To switch back to the “Standard” Browser column layout, simply hit SHIFT B

This moves the “Duration” column to the far left as the gurus at Apple feel this is the most important thing to see for general editing.

I realize that this is probably a highly personal thing, but I tend to prefer the “Length” column as the “Duration” column reflects the trimmed duration of clips (i.e., if you have set ins and outs on the clips, the trimmed time is shown). When I’m scanning through my source material, I find I am more often looking for “that big long master clip” or something like that and, since I might be setting ins and outs on the same clip for several editable chunks on my timeline, I don’t pay much attention to the “duration” as it is kind of arbitrary for me.

If you want to, you can always set up customized bowser layouts, but for me, it’s not usually worth the effort and I am disinclined to become too dependent on customized settings (as regular readers may already know–hey, it’s just me).

If you want to learn more about Browser shortcuts, you can also read my post on being a “Browser Ninja.”