More Shortcuts for Video Editing in Premiere, As Well As Final Cut Equivalents

Posted on December 29, 2015 by resourcefulman

Video editing is a very detailed and time consuming task. Keyboard shortcuts can speed up the process a little. Video editor Derek Liu shares his tips and tricks for speeding up editing in Premiere, as well as Final Cut equivalents.

We’ve given you a few basic Premiere keyboard shortcuts before , and Liu covers some of the basics, but he comes in more detailed keyboard shortcuts as well. Best of all, it will tell you what features are equivalent in Final Cut and Avid. Here are a couple of highlights:

Deselect (shortcut)

Right now you are probably saying, “Come on, this is SUCH A BIG BARGAIN to deselect something with a mouse click?” Yes, considering how often you choose things. If you have to walk up to your mouse and click off-screen every time to deselect, then having a shortcut can save you time. It’s so second nature to me that I almost forgot to turn it on.

My setup is (Cmd-D)

The default setting is (Shift-Cmd-A)

Final Cut Pro 7 – Same

Final Cut Pro X – Same

Avid Media Composer – Not really applicable because Avid uses I / O points for all selection based functionality.

Replace Clip – From Source Monitor, Match Frame (also known as Replace Edit) (shortcut)

… This incredibly useful shortcut should be next to overwrite and paste. This is very useful if you want to replace a clip in the Timeline with a clip in the Source Monitor, aligning the playheads with a specific frame in both clips.

For example, you have a timeline clip with a beat that syncs to a musical beat, but you want to replace it so that there is an explosion syncing to the musical beat instead. You simply place the playhead for each clip on the appropriate frame, select the clip in the timeline, and use a shortcut.

My setting is (N)

The default setting is (none)

Final Cut Pro 7 – referred to as Replace Clip. Doesn’t require preselection of a clip (hurray!)

Final Cut Pro X – The closest equivalents are “Replace at the beginning” and “Replace at the end”, but, in my opinion, are not comparable in usefulness.

Avid Media Composer – Called Replace Edits. Doesn’t require preselection of a clip (hurray!)