Need a keyboard shortcut- blade-select.

Is there a keyboard shortcut to switch from blade to select? And then upon release of that key it goes back to the blade?

I am always blading clips and then need to select the bladed section to delete.

I know "a" switches to select, but then you have to hit "b" to get back to blade.

This drove me crazy in FCP 7 too.

Thanks.

Jonathan

I can´t try it right now, but as far as I know, you can be in "Selection tool (A)", press "B" to go to "Blade" and without releasing the "B" button do your blading, then when you release "B" it should go back to "Selection tool" automatically.

Yes. If you move the skimmer to a frame with the election tool active and hit B and then click (or Command– it will blade the clip and revert back to the position tool.

But if you hit B and start moving the skimmer and then click, it assumes you want to keep blading and the blade stays active until you manually switch tools.

Russ

You want Command- B, which cuts without switching tools. Super fast, super easy.

Jonathan,

Have I got good news for you!

While the arrow tool is selected just press B but don't let go. Perform your operation and then let go of B and you'll back on the arrow.

Jonathan, if I get it right you blade the clip and then delete either the first or the last part.

There might be an easier way for you to get the result, it's to "trim start" or "trim end". Don't know your shortcut for it cause my system is German but maybe someone can chime in?

What I mean is that you can just place the skimmer where you want to start/end the clip and then instead of blading use this command to shorten the clip to the desired length in one smart keyboard command. I really love this feature and use it a lot!

Hope this helps.

The shortcuts Overturf speaks of are Opt left bracket for Trim Start and Opt right bracket for Trim End.

The "Blade Tool" is not very useful: first, you have to select it, and then, perform the cut... two steps. Instead, you can just use the "Blade" command [Cmd+B] which makes a cut right at the frame where the position bar (or the skimmer) is located. One step: much faster and you don't need to switch tools.

Anyway, if you want to switch temporarily to any tool, just HOLD the shortcut key for that particular tool ("B" for the "Blade Tool"), perform the edit operation, and release it afterwards... you'll be prompted to the previous tool you had selected (normally this would be the Selection Tool).

I actually don't use the Blade Tool, and have mapped the Blade command to the "B" key: with just one keystroke I perform the cut wherever I place my position bar and/or skimmer.

I hope this helps.

I agree with the sentiment about the Blade tool being inaccurate and inefficient. I have change my B key to Blade (cut) whatever is selected.

One thing that will help you though is the C key. Whatever your cursor is on top of will be selected when you hit C. This is incredibly useful no matter how you blade. Try it out, I'm pretty sure it works no matter which tool you have active.

Wow! I can't thank you all enough for this advice. I can't wait to sit down tomorrow and try out all the suggestions.

Jonathan

The quickest, easiest way to do this is to select a Range of the clip in the timeline, then hit Option-\ to trim top and tail at the same time.

Well this is great!

I really like that you can Commnad-B, but I like being in the select tool, then holding the B key because you can skim while finding edit point.

All great info, and ALOT faster than my old dumb way.

BenB- I assume you meant Command B, not control-b, since that did not do anything.

And yes, the C key will work well to select clip/edit to be deleted.

Thanks all.

Jonathan