Love it or hate it, the Avid Smart Tool that was introduced in Media Composer 5 is here to stay. It will continue to be refined and hopefully evolve as the software evolves but it’s worth noting there is a single, mappable button that can toggle the Smart Tool on and off.

This Quicktip isn’t meant to ignite the debate of the Smart Tool having a mind of its own and turning itself (or parts of itself) on and off at will, an issue which personally I haven’t experienced, but rather to point out the single Smart Tool button that was added in the Command Palette to toggle the entire tool on and off.

Hit command + 3 to open the Command Palette and click the Smart Tools tab. There you’ll find buttons for all of pieces of the Smart Tool as well as a master Smart Tool Toggle button:

It’s a fully mappable button so it can be placed anywhere. I’ve mapped it to my keyboard so I can easily turn the Smart Tool on and off depending on what I’m doing during an edit.