Boost Your Editing Speed with the Shift-Down Arrow Shortcut in the Final Cut Pro Browser

Keyboard shortcut: ShiftDown Arrow

When you’re organizing footage, you often want to grab a run of clips and do the same thing to all of them. In Final Cut Pro, Shift-Down Arrow is Extend Selection Down. In the Browser, it adds the next clip to your selection.

What Shift-Down Arrow Does

With a clip selected in the Browser, press Shift-Down Arrow and the next clip is added to what you already have selected. Press it again and the selection keeps growing, one clip at a time. It’s a keyboard alternative to Shift-clicking.

Note that this is a Browser command. It isn’t for selecting clips in the Timeline.

How to Use It

  1. In the Browser, switch to list view so your clips are stacked in rows. This makes the "next clip" easy to see.
  2. Click the first clip you want.
  3. Press Shift-Down Arrow to add the clip below it to the selection.
  4. Keep pressing until you’ve selected all the clips you need.
  5. Now act on the whole group at once.

What to Do With Your Selection

  • Add keywords: Press a keyword shortcut like Control-1, or open the Keyword Editor with Command-K, to tag every selected clip.
  • Rate them: Press F to mark them as favorites.
  • Edit them in: Press E to append the selected clips to the end of your project.
  • Update metadata: Change information for the whole group in the Info Inspector.

Tips

  • Sort the Browser first (by name, date, or duration) so the clips you want sit next to each other.
  • If you select one clip too many, Command-click it to remove it from the selection.

Shift-Down Arrow is a small shortcut, but when you’re logging a big shoot, it keeps your hands on the keyboard and your organizing moving fast.

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