- Anatomy of an FCE Project
- About Projects
- Using the Autosave Vault
- Undoing Changes
- Reconnecting Offline Files
- Deleting Media
- Project Maintenance Tips
- Setting Up for Multiple Projects and Users
- What's a Sequence?
- Changing the Settings of an Existing Sequence
- Working with Multiple Sequences
- About Clips
- Viewing and Setting Item Properties
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Setting Up for Multiple Projects and Users
Mac OS X was designed as a multiuser environment. The operating system's hierarchy of users and file access privileges is built on the assumption that multiple people are sharing the data and applications stored on your computer. For Final Cut Express users, this has a few specific effects.
File access
How you choose to set up your file access depends on your individual circumstances.
- If you are a solo user running Final Cut Express on a computer that you own, you should already be set up as the computer's Owner-User. This gives you access to any file in the system that you created.
- If you are collaborating on a project with a small group of trusted colleagues sharing Final Cut Express, you'll need to decide how you want to handle access to Final Cut Express's project and media files. You can choose to administer the project in OS X's multiuser domain and allow multiple users access to the project files, or you might find it simpler to create a single user ID for the entire group (Figure 4.44). In the latter case, everyone in the group logs in as that Project User and has the same read/write privileges to the project and media files.
Figure 4.44 Creating a single user ID for all project collaborators can simplify file access on shared FCE projects.
- If you are sharing a Final Cut Express system with many users working on different projects, you'll want to configure your file access for maximum privacy.
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Creating and saving files
Solo users can save their project files in a public or private Documents folder (save in your private Documents folder if you have any security concerns); groups collaborating on an FCE project should save common project files in the Shared folder (Figure 4.45), located inside the Users folder, so that all users can access the shared documents.
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Figure 4.45 Groups collaborating on a Final Cut Express project should save common project files in the Shared folder so all group members have access to them.
In FCE, any time you create a new file—by saving a project file, capturing media, or creating graphics—that file's access privileges are set to the system default: Read & Write for the file's owner, and Read Only for all other users (Figure 4.46). You may occasionally need to modify file access privileges to allow other users access to your project and its media.
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Figure 4.46 The Mac OS X default file access for new files is Read & Write for the file's owner and Read Only for all other users.
TIPs
- A non-bootable hard disk may offer Read & Write privileges to all users by default, but that doesn't mean individual files and folders on that drive are accessible to all. To set open access for all files on a disk volume, check Ignore Ownership on This Volume in the drive's Info window (Figure 4.47).
Figure 4.47 In the disk's Info window, check Ignore Ownership on This Volume to make all files on the volume accessible to all users.
- Mac OS X considers FireWire drives to be removable media (because they're hot-swappable) and offers Read & Write privileges to all users for the entire contents of the drive by default.
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