Improved Trim Behaviour in 10.1.2

As Alex4D pointed out in his excellent blog , the Trim behaviour in FCPX has been slightly modified:

• Using the , and . keys to nudge clips in the timeline now acts as a slide edit
  NOTE: You have to select the clip/s that you want to affect with the Select Tool (A).

I find this addition very nice! It reminds me of something that you can do in Avid (although it's quite the opposite): in Media Composer, you place the Playhead over a clip, and without selecting the clip, you can press the [,] and [.] keys to perform a Slip edit (without entering Trim mode nor using any of the Trim Tools). For this command to work in a particular track, you have to make it active in the track selector.

This might seem like a small addition to FCPX. But it allows us to do something that was never possible in FCP7 nor FCPX (until this update) and that you could do in Avid, for example: the ability to slide several clips at once!

Before 10.1.2, we were stuck with the Trim Tool, which only lets you Slide one clip at a time (by pressing the [Alt] key and clicking in the middle of a particular clip inside a storyline with the Trim Tool enabled).

Now we can Slide multiple clips in FCPX without even switching tools! I haven't read about this anywhere so I wanted to share my findings for all the heavy Trim users out there.

It's curious to say the least, given the general impression that the 10.1.2 update wasn't focused on improving timeline editing, but this is exactly what this feature is about: expanding FCPX trimming capabilities, even beyond FCP7.

I hope you find it as cool as I do!

Yes and no. I would prefer if the clip had to be selected as and edit function rather than simply selected. Put the pointer over the clip and press X. I think there's less of a chance of making an unintended error that alters two edit points. Also, really, really wish Apple would document these changes. Many untoward changes have been done without feedback. Still not over the select doesn't move the playhead horror. Really? I have to use two hands to move the playhead?

I'd go the other way. Those aren't keys I'm currently using- so there's not much chance of me making an editorial error with this new function.

But I would like it to be even more keyboard friendly- instead of having to manually select the clip to slip, allow it to be soft selected with the puck.

I use the nudge keys a lot to ripple or roll an edit. Select the side you want with { } or \ and tap the keys to nudge the edit. Also too close to / used for play selected.

Not much chance of accidental use there, then- is it? Since you're manually selecting an edit in/out for that?

Overall I'd like to see Apple add more to the "soft selection" puck: like copy for copy/paste or paste attributes.

Manually with the keyboard yes. Still would prefer the edit inducator. Btw you can also nudge in 10 frame increments.

Indeed, what the pick controls seems quite odd at times. It'll change the audio and color correct but it won't apply an effect.

Tom Wolsky wrote: Yes and no. I would prefer if the clip had to be selected as and edit function rather than simply selected. Put the pointer over the clip and press X. I think there's less of a chance of making an unintended error that alters two edit points.

The problem is that the "Set Clip Range" command (X key) only works in the primary, not in secondary storylines. Therefore, nudging clips by selecting this way would be more limited that it is right now.

Also, the X key wouldn't allow you to select non-adjacent clips and slide them at once, which you can do since the 10.1.2 update (I forgot to mentioned that in my first post... I guess it "slipped" my mind). This flexibility is hard to find in other NLEs.


For multiple clip selections, I think the quickest way is to use the mouse.

If you like to select just one clip with the keyboard, you can using the C key (Select Clip). I don't know where the issue of making unintended errors is here, since you can do worse things to a selected clip than alter slightly two edit points: for example, pressing the Delete key. That's what the Select Clip command is for, to alter the edit, right?

Disproportionate Pictures wrote: I'd go the other way. Those aren't keys I'm currently using- so there's not much chance of me making an editorial error with this new function.

But I would like it to be even more keyboard friendly- instead of having to manually select the clip to slip, allow it to be soft selected with the puck.

Do you mean the "Active Clip Indicator"? The little white ball? In this case, I agree with Tom that this would make it too easy for us to produce unintended errors. Selecting a clip is a concious action. An active clip is something that we might not be aware of most of the time. Also, unfortunately FCPX doesn't allow us to move the Active Clip Indicator yet, so we could only take advantage of nudging without selecting wherever FCPX decides to put the little white ball (normally, the primary or the top connected video clip).

Disproportionate Pictures wrote:
Overall I'd like to see Apple add more to the "soft selection" puck: like copy for copy/paste or paste attributes.

I agree with you on that: the active clip indicator has a lot of room for improvement:

• For instance, we shouldn't have to select a secondary storyline in order to "target" our edits there... if the white ball is over a clip inside that secondary storyline.


• More than that: we sould be able to move it with the cursor arrows (plus a modifier key). Right now it's not a tool but a visual indication of a priority rule.

Anyway, thanks for your comments and observations.

Tom Wolsky wrote: Btw you can also nudge in 10 frame increments.

Yes, with the [Shift] modifier key, like in FCP7.
We can also nudge the audio in subframe distances with the [Alt] modifier key.
And of course, we can nudge by relative timecode entries using the numeric keypad.

Great keyboard shortcuts!

JPM Editor wrote:
Also, the X key wouldn't allow you to select non-adjacent clips and slide them at once, which you can do since the 10.1.2 update (I forgot to mentioned that in my first post... I guess it "slipped" my mind). This flexibility is hard to find in other NLEs.

I just realized that we can now, for the first time ever in FCPX, trim clips from different layers simultaneously, thanks to this new 10.1.2 slide trimming behaviour. Yes, only Slide Trims but it's a promissing start!

Here is what I would love to see added in future releases, and something that would really improve timeline editing inside FCPX:

• The ability to select multiple edit points in the same storyline at once, with control over which side of the edit is selected. The easiest way would be to allow us to use "Cmd+click" to select/deselect edit points and edit point sides.


• The ability to select multiple edit points in different storylines and connected clips simultaneously, with control over which side of the edit is selected.

This simple adittion would enable all kind of crazy trim operations, extend multiple edits simultaneously, apply multiple transitions in a more selective way (non adjacent clips, different lanes).

The problem is the error can be very small and easily go undetected for a long time. No reason a selevtion range can't do the same thing.