One of the easiest and cheapest ways
to save time when editing video,
is by learning and using keyboard shortcuts.
In this video, I’m going to share my top keyboard shortcuts
I use in Final Cut Pro,
and how I use them to save me a ton of time when I edit my videos.
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My name is Serge, and welcome back to my channel.
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My first keyboard shortcut,
and this is by far my most used keyboard shortcut,
is Command B.
When you need to make a cut in one of your clips in your timeline,
instead of selecting the Blade tool,
and clicking on your clip to cut it,
you just place your skimmer where you need to make the cut,
and press Command B to blade it.
This one keyboard shortcut alone will save you so much time.
When you need to cut off the start or the end of a clip,
instead of blading and deleting that part,
use the Trim Start or Trim End keyboard shortcuts.
To trim off the start of your clip,
move your skimmer to to the frame you want to start on,
and press Option Left Bracket key.
This will trim off everything before the skimmer.
Trimming the end of your clip is very similar,
using the Option Right Bracket key to trim off everything after the skimmer.
When moving around in your timeline,
as your skimmer gets close to a certain point,
such as a cut, a marker or the playhead,
it will jump, or snap to that point.
Sometimes this can be very helpful,
and other times, just frustrating.
Pressing the N key will turn snapping on or off.
When this feature is on,
and you can tell by the snapping button being blue,
items in your timeline snap to certain points.
If you press N again to disable it,
you can now easily and more precisely move around your timeline,
without jumping around.
While we’re talking about moving around in the timeline,
using the arrow keys is a great way to move your playhead.
Pressing the right arrow key will move your playhead one frame ahead,
and the left arrow key, one frame back.
Holding down the shift key while pressing the right or left arrow keys,
moves your playhead in 10 frame increments.
If you hold down the Function Key,
pressing the left arrow will take you all the way back
to the start of your project,
and the right arrow takes you right to the end.
Pressing the up arrow moves your playhead
back to your previous edit,
and the down arrow, moves it to your next edit.
If you need to zoom in or out on your timeline,
instead of using the timeline zoom slider,
you can use the Command + or Command - keyboard shortcuts.
If you hold down the Command Key and press the plus sign,
you’ll zoom in on your timeline.
Holding down the Command key and pressing the minus sign
will zoom out.
Pressing Shift Z on your keyboard,
will fit your entire timeline to window,
so you can see the entire project.
Let’s take a look at making compound clips.
In Final Cut Pro, you can select a number of clips,
and combine them all into one compound clip.
So, you command click all the clips you want to combine,
right click, and select new compound clip.
Or, you can select your first clip,
hold down the Shift Key and click your last clip to select everything in between,
and Option G to make a compound clip.
I know it doesn’t seem like its much faster,
but if you’re doing this stuff over and over, it adds up.
Next, if you need to re-time your clip,
just select it and press Command R to bring up the re-time bar.
You can now either drag the handle at the end
to speed it up or slow it down,
or open the speed dropdown menu,
and select one of the speed presets.
Alternately, if you need more than one speed in a single clip,
you can Blade Speed by pressing Shift B.
This splits up your clip into speed segments,
with a smooth transition between the two speeds.
If you need to pause your clip, you have a couple options.
Shift H will make a hold segment of the frame you’re on,
while keeping the original clip as one,
or you can press Option F to split your clip,
and make a separate freeze frame clip of the frame you’re on.
The last keyboard shortcut I want to mention today,
is Paste Attributes.
I don’t use this one as much some of the other’s I mentioned today,
but when I do need it it can be a huge timesaver.
This shortcut allows you to copy all the effects applied to one clip,
and paste all of them or just the effects you select,
to another clip.
You just select the clip with effects applied to it,
and press Command C to copy it.
Select the clip you want to paste the effects to,
and press Shift Command V.
In the popup window, select the effects you want to transfer over,
and click Paste.
This works awesome for color corrections, framing, and so much more.
If you’re new to Final Cut Pro,
or just haven’t used keyboard shortcuts very much,
and not sure what some of them are,
you have a few options to learn them.
You could read the support documents for Final Cut Pro from apple’s website,
or you could get a dedicated keyboard, just for Final Cut Pro.
The one I have, is from Editor’s keys,
and it has the keyboard shortcuts printed right on the keys.
But, the easiest way to learn
or even customize keyboard shortcuts,
is right in Final Cut Pro.
Go up to the menu bar, click on Final Cut Pro,
select commands and Customize.
This brings up a popup window,
with all the keyboard shortcuts.
Click on any key,
and you get a list of all the shortcuts assigned to that key.
Using keyboard shortcuts can significantly speed up your workflow.
If you’re not using them,
or if you just use a fews specific ones,
take some time, and learn a few more.
You’ll be glad you did.
And let me know in the comments what your essential keyboard shortcuts are,
the ones you use all the time.
I look forward to learning a something new.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you back here next week.