Quicktip #1 (February 1, 2009) Use that CAPS LOCK!

In Final Cut Pro, when working on an edit sequence with lots of graphic layers, it can take a few seconds to render the current frame for display (especially if working in HD):

Use the CAPS LOCK key to temporarily disable rendering and you can do a lot of really fast work in the timeline without having to wait on FCP to render the frame between adjustments. And you get an alert in the viewer and Canvas to let you know why you can’t see the frame:

I find this particularly useful when cleaning up my timeline, prepping an edit for online or OMF consolidation for audio mix, generally any kind of housekeeping or fine-tuning a multilayer edit.