Presets and Preferences
- About Easy Setups, Presets, Settings, and Preferences
- Using Easy Setups
- Specifying User Preferences and System Settings
- Setting Editing Preferences
- Customizing the Timeline Display
- Specifying Render Control Settings
- Setting Scratch Disk Preferences
- Specifying Memory & Cache Settings
- Specifying Playback Control Settings
- Setting External Editors Preferences
- Customizing Final Cut Express
- Creating Custom Screen Layouts
- Creating Custom Shortcut Buttons
Final Cut Express's designers have carefully organized the tools you use to configure settings and preferences. The goal of this organization is to make it much easier for editors using the most common hardware and video formats to configure FCE—and much more difficult for users to unintentionally modify individual settings within a preset configuration.
This chapter explains Easy Setups—FCE's streamlined configuration feature—and then walks you through your preference options in the User Preferences and System Settings windows.
FCE's preset principle is balanced by a highly customizable interface. At the end of this chapter you'll learn about options for reconfiguring Final Cut Express's interface to complement your personal working preferences.
About Easy Setups, Presets, Settings, and Preferences
FCE preference settings are accessed from three menu choices: Easy Setup, User Preferences, and System Settings ( Figure 3.1 ).
Figure 3.1 Access preference settings from three Final Cut Express menu choices: Easy Setup, User Preferences, and System Settings.
- Easy Setup: Capture, device control, and sequence settings are all organized into preset configurations, and these Audio/Video presets are grouped into master presets called Easy Setups. For more information, see the next section, "Using Easy Setups."
- User Preferences and System Settings: Unlike your Easy Setup preset, which is largely dictated by your hardware and video formats, a preference is a setting that specifies how you want to work with your media in Final Cut Express. FCE preferences are divided between two windows: User Preferences and System Settings. The settings in these windows affect all your Final Cut Express projects.