In every aspect of Final Cut Pro, utilizing the keyboard will increase your editing speed and efficiency. Playback is no different. Using these 10 Keyboard shortcuts is guaranteed to make you a faster editor and more impressive to your non-editing friends.
- Play/Stop – Spacebar (Shift-Spacebar to play in reverse)
- Stop – K
- Play/Fast Forward – L (press multiple times to go faster, up to 4x)
- Play in Reverse/Rewind – J (press multiple times to go faster, up to 4x)
- Scrub Forward Slowly – Hold K and press L
- Scrub Backward Slowly – Hold K and press J
- Move 1 frame forward - Right Arrow
- Move 1 frame backward - Left Arrow
- Jump to the head (the beginning) of your clip or timeline - Home Key (fn+Left Arrow on Macbook Pro)
- Jump to the tail (the end) of your clip or timeline - End Key (fn+Right Arrow on Macbook Pro)
There are a few different ways to accomplish the same result with these shortcuts. I recommend you try them all out and see what works best for you and your workflow. For example, I generally just use the spacebar for play and pause and only use the J K L keys when I want to fast forward, rewind, or playback slowly.
These shortcuts work in the Viewer, the Canvas, and the Timeline. If you have a playback shortcut that I missed in my list, please include it in the comments.
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