How You Can Use the Viewer

The Viewer is extremely versatile. You can use the Viewer to:

• Define In and Out edit points for clips before editing them into a sequence

• Adjust audio levels and panning in the Audio tab

• Open clips within sequences to adjust durations, In and Out points, and filter parameters

  Note: Changes you make to a clip opened from a sequence are applied to the clip only in that sequence. If you make changes to a clip opened from the Browser, the changes appear only in the clip in the Browser.

• Add filters to clips and adjust filters applied to clips

• Adjust the motion parameters of clips to modify or animate such parameters as Scale, Rotation, Cropping, and Opacity

• Adjust generator clip controls

  Generators are special clips that can be generated by Final Cut Pro, so they don’t require source media. Final Cut Pro has generators that create color mattes, text of different types, gradients, color bars, and white noise. For more information, see Using Generator Clips.

• Open a transition, such as a dissolve or a wipe, from an edited sequence for detailed editing

  For more information, see Adding Transitions.

Before you can work in the Viewer, it must be the currently selected, or active, window. Otherwise, any commands or keyboard shortcuts you use may perform the wrong operations. To display the Viewer (if it’s not open already), you must open a clip from the Browser or the Timeline. See Opening a Clip in the Viewer.