Keyboard Keys to Editing Success

by James Alguire

One of Final Cut Pro’s very cool features is providing at least three ways to perform most of its functions, including Menus, on-screen buttons, right, or control clicking, or keyboard shortcuts. This makes it a flexible tool for editors no matter what their preferred method for invoking Final Cut Pro’s functions. Editors often fall into two categories when working in Final Cut, mousers (who primarily use the onscreen controls and buttons) and keyers (who primarily use keyboard shortcuts). Everyone has their own editing style and workflow and I, like many editors, straddle the fence using both techniques when editing. But learning to use more of Final Cut’s stable of keyboard shortcuts improves your overall editing performance. So here are essential keyboard shortcuts needed to boost your edge when working in Final Cut Pro.

Pick a Card, Any Card

Normally you click on the Browser, Viewer, Canvas, or Timeline windows to make them active when performing a needed editing function, but it’s quicker to select any window, or tab within a window right from the keyboard. To select the Viewer type Command-1, Canvas, Command-2, Timeline, Command-3, and Browser, Command-4. Tapping the Q key quickly toggles between the Viewer and Canvas windows. To jump to a different tab in any window type Command-Shift-[ or ]. The right bracket moves you forward one tab while the left moves you backwards one tab.

Selecting and Loading

While it’s a simple matter to drag clips from the Browser to the Viewer to screen them, first you have to open the bin, and any sub bins, where the clip is stored (you are organizing your clips, right?). Navigating bins and selecting and loading clips is quickly mastered using the Arrow and Return keys. Make the Browser window active and while in List View tap the Down Arrow key to select the first item, clip or bin in the Browser. The Up and Down Arrows will highlight items as you move up and down. If the item is a bin then tapping the right arrow opens the bin revealing the contents.

Tapping the right arrow again takes you in the bin and the up and down arrows let you select any item in the bin. To load a selected clip, simply press the Return key while it’s highlighted. To close a bin, tap the up arrow until the bin is selected again and then tap the left arrow.

In Icon view use the Tab key to highlight the first item in the Browser then use the Arrow keys to navigate to the desired item. Return will open a bin in a new Browser window or a clip into the Viewer. To close additional Browser windows when they are no longer needed, type Command-W.

Celestial Navigation

Now that a clip is loaded in the Viewer, screen the clip to locate the portion needed by using the J-K-L keys. L plays the clip forward, J backwards, and K stops playback. The more times you tap J or L the faster the video will play in that direction. Additionally you can play one frame at a time by holding the K key down while tapping J or L and playback in slow motion by holding the K key and then either J or L. The Spacebar will also start and stop normal video playback.

Select the portion of the clip to be used in your project by setting the in and out points using the I, O, and X keys. I for setting the in point, O for setting the out point, and X to select the entire clip. To change the location of in or out points, simply navigate to the new location using the J-K-L keys and tap I or O again. Editing marks are set where the playhead is located.

To remove in and out points in a clip press Option key, and then tap the I, O or X keys. These navigation and marking keyboard shortcuts also work in the Canvas and Timeline.

To edit the selected portion of the clip to a Timeline sequence, tap Q to switch from the Viewer to the Canvas, or Command-3 to activate the Timeline, then press the F9 key to perform an insert edit or F10 for an overwrite edit (you can also use F11 for a replace edit or F12 for a superimpose). If the clip needs to be edited into a specific location in the Timeline sequence use the J-K-L keys to move the playhead to the desired location before performing the edit. You can also mark portions of the Timeline using the I and O keys, just as in the viewer for more advanced three-point edits.

The Kindest Cut

Once you have several clips edited together in a sequence it’s time to start trimming and finessing the edits. J-K-L provides playback control for screening the sequence, but the Up and Down Arrow keys (or the semicolon/apostrophe keys) will jump the playhead from edit point to edit point. Up/Semicolon jumps to the previous edit point and Down/Apostrophe to the next edit point. Tap the V key to select the edit point nearest the playhead and the U key to toggle between Ripple and Roll edits. Tap U once for Ripple incoming, twice for Ripple outgoing and three times for Roll.

To actually perform the trim tap the [ or ] bracket keys to trim or move the selected edit one frame left or right, or add the Shift key to trim several frames at once (the default value is 5 frames and can be adjusted in the Multi-Frame Trim Size field of the Edit Tab in the User Preferences, Option-Q).

Note that trimming this way means that it’s unnecessary to explicitly select the Ripple or Roll tools from the Toolbar to perform the trim, but for Slip and Slide edits it’s still necessary. To choose the standard trimming tools, type R for Roll, RR for Ripple, S for Slip, and SS for Slide. Tap the A key to return to the default selection tool when not trimming to prevent accidentally cutting frames. To review edits tap the backslash key (\) to play the video on either side of the playhead.

The Keys to the Kingdom

These are the essentially keyboard shortcuts to do basic video editing tasks, but are by far not all the shortcuts in Final Cut Pro’s repertoire. Use Command-I to import footage from your hard drive, Command-B to create new bins and Command-N to create new sequences in the Browser. And I would also suggest typing Command-S every so often to save your work. Finally type Command-Q to quit Final Cut Pro when you’re done.

About James Alguire

James Alguire has been involved in the computer industry for over 25 years. He is an Apple Certified Trainer (ACT) for both Apple Pro Apps and Technical training, and is an Apple Certified Technical Coordinator (ACTC) in Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server, an Apple Certified Help Desk Specialist (ACSP) in Mac OS X and Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) in Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard.and a member of the Apple Consultants Network and Apple Certification Alliance. Visit his website.

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