Final Cut Pro (the application formerly known as FCPX) got a minor update to take it to version 10.5.3. While you can see the bullet point list of new features and fixes below the big new feature I want to highlight is the ability to save column layout presets. This feature has been a longtime coming. As one who does a lot of editing in list view I’ve long been wanting more data in the column list metadata view and the ability to save those columns as presets. Now we have that in FCP 10.5.3.

Metadata is a very useful thing when it comes to media clips and those who have been wanting more metadata views in FCP gets their wish. In fact there might be more metadata options now than you’ll ever need. Thankfully we get a nice new Column Set Editor to turn the different columns on and off and save those are presets. You access those presets with a right+click on the column headers in list view.

You can duplicate, delete and make new presets with the gear menu at the bottom left. You’ll also appreciate the ability to check and uncheck properties with the pop-up menu in the middle because there are a lot of metadata options in the many different categories.

How many property categories are there?

Most all of these properties won’t be used and won’t be populated by media you import. But as time marches on we can hope that more metadata gets applied on-set and these categories will continue to become more useful and more populated in the future.

And there’s a relationship between these new metadata columns and the Inspector as the Inspector can view and change a lot of this data. If you want to modify a batch of column properties then you’ll do this in the Inspector.

Great addition in #FCPX update 10.5.3. Add custom metadata fields, viewable in the inspector AND then in browser columns view, sort and EDIT VALUE (!) pic.twitter.com/j17PLEX2PN

— T. Payton (@tpayton) June 17, 2021

I do wish there was a way to recall these presets with a keyboard shortcut. And there doesn’t seem to be a keyboard shortcut to access the new Column Set Editor. But at least we now have them.

Once nice thing from the first image up above you might notice is the Reveal in Finder option which means you can take these saved columns and move them to other systems. You just have to put them in the right place and they should be portable from one FCPX install to another.

This ability to save and move column presets has long been a thing in other NLEs and I’ve given away my favorite presets for Adobe Premiere Pro in the past so that seems like something to do here too! I took some time this afternoon to dig around in the new FCP update and save some of my standard column layouts. While this might not match the Premiere one column for column I think it’s a good FCP start for the new feature. Many of these I won’t use and I’ll continue to refine them over more extensive usage but I’m going to start here.

And you can too. Download them below, launch the 10.5.3 FCP update and right+click on the column header while in List Mode and choose Reveal in Finder. Place the tiny unzipped fcpcolumnset files in that folder. They should then be available. I haven’t tried to please let me know in the comments below that this works. I can’t imagine that it doesn’t.

May these presets make your editing faster and easier!

Download here:

Scott_Simmons_Final_Cut_Pro_column_sets

The above link is a zip file that may or may not unzip on download. You may have to give ProVideoCoalition.com permission to download from that link.

As promised here’s the bullet point list of all the Final Cut Pro 10.5.3 features:

• Create and edit custom column views with the new column editor.
• Search for media in the browser using expanded criteria including clip names, markers, and notes.
• Sort clips in the browser according to type, including proxy, optimized, and missing media.
• Fixes an issue where adjusting audio keyframes on one side of a blade edit shifts keyframes unexpectedly on the other side.
• Restores support for copying clips from the Finder and pasting into the timeline.
• Improves stability when copying events in the browser to a library stored on an external hard drive.
• Fixes an issue in which the timeline index was not displaying active angle information for multicam clips.
• Fixes an issue where Canon Cinema RAW Light and RED RAW media could not be imported if a camera card was mounted when launching Final Cut Pro.
• Improves reliability when importing an FCPXML file with missing media.
• Fixes an issue with the Color Mask in which dragging to select a range with the eyedropper did not display the selection circle.
• Improves reliability when using the Select Next Clip command.
• Improves reliability when app switching to Final Cut Pro with an external hard drive connected.
• Improves reliability when quitting Final Cut Pro during a background render.
• Improves stability and performance when working with multicam clips that contain corrupt media.
• Fixes an issue in which audio waveforms would sometimes not update when using the Trim tool to perform a slip edit.

And of course our friends at Ripple Training are on top of 10.5.3 with a video.