Boost Your Final Cut Pro Efficiency with the Control-Shift-Tab Shortcut

Keyboard shortcut: ControlShiftTab

The Inspector is where you adjust almost everything about a clip, and it's split into tabs. Control-Shift-Tab runs Previous Inspector Tab: it takes you to the previous tab in the Inspector, so you can move between panes without clicking the small icons at the top.

What Control-Shift-Tab Does

Depending on what you've selected, the Inspector shows tabs such as Video, Color, Audio and Info, plus tabs like Title, Text or Transition when they apply. Pressing Control-Shift-Tab moves one tab to the left. It doesn't switch between panels like the timeline and Browser, and it doesn't switch workspaces. It only works in the Inspector.

How to Use It

  1. Select a clip in the timeline.
  2. If the Inspector isn't showing, press Command-4 to open it.
  3. Press Control-Shift-Tab to go to the previous Inspector tab.
  4. Press it again to keep moving back through the tabs. Use Control-Tab to move forward to the next tab.

When It Helps

  • Video and audio adjustments: Bounce between the Video tab and the Audio tab while you balance a clip's picture and sound.
  • Checking metadata: Jump to the Info tab to confirm a clip's name, roles or camera information, then go right back to work.
  • Titles: Move between text settings and video settings while you style a title.

Tips

Combine Control-Tab and Control-Shift-Tab with arrow-key navigation in the timeline, and you can select a clip, adjust it and move on almost entirely from the keyboard. If you'd like a different key for this command, you can change it in the Command Editor (Option-Command-K).

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