Continuing in yesterday’s vein of using an external input device today’s Quicktip comes to us from Alex Gollner (that’s @Alex4D to many) and it is all about using a trackpad on your Mac for better navigation. That’s a trackpad on your laptop or an external trackpad.
First Alex tells us about making use of the trackpad for moving around a Final Cut Pro X timeline (this also works in Adobe Premiere Pro CC but I was unable to test in Avid Media Composer as of this writing):
Use trackpad pinch and zoom + two finger drag to navigate the timeline
These next two tips are great when you have to use the Apple Quicktime Player (X or 7). These are great tips that I didn’t know:
Use trackpad 2 finger drag to scrub in QuickTime player 7 + X, pinch to enter/leave ‘Present Movie’
Finally, beyond the trackpad in Quicktime Player there’s JKL scrubbing that everyone should know about, editor or not to tell your friends and family next time you’re watching a video on their computer:
In QuickTime player 7 + X, JKL keyboard navigation works including JJJ/LLL (tap multiple times to speed up playback) and J+K/K+L (hold those keys down together for slow motions playback) shortcuts
Those are great tips. Alex now is in the running to win a copy of The Color Correction Handbook. Details on submitting your own Quicktip and a chance to win the book are here.