Friday, July 9, 2010

Setting Nothing as a Target Track

Here's something that's handier than you'd think.

When you're doing an assembly (say for a feature) and you want the image but not the audio or vice-versa rather than reach for the mouse to unselect a target track (ie...set it to nothing) try this:

For no video target track hit F6 + 0 (zero) or hit SHIFT + F6. Either way works.
For no audio 1 target track hit F7 + 0 (zero) or hit SHIFT + F7. Again, either way works.
For no audio 2 target track hit F8 + 0 (zero) or hit SHIFT + F8. Both function identically.

I find Shift + the f-key to be more convenient for me but see which works best for you. Some people like to keep track of track numbers in their head and Track 0 (zero) is "no target" in their way of thinking which is a great way of thinking about it.

The upshot of this is that since there are two commands that have the same function you can remap Shift+ the F-key to something else if you want.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I've run across these shortcuts a couple times. I think one time was on the large flip card that comes with FCS listing all the shortcuts and the other time was in the FCP manual. Seeing these shortcuts here though, are the first time I've seen them and thought they might actually be rememberable. Only time will tell, but I think I may actually start using these shortcuts. Thanks. :)