How to use Keywords in Final Cut Pro X | Video School Online Tutorial

Hey video editors!

How are you today? I hope you have the creative juices flowing and are ready to learn some new editing techniques. One of my Video Editing 101 students asked me a question about using keywords in Final Cut Pro X. Keywords is a great new tool that Final Cut Pro uses to organize footage. You can easily select portions of a clip and save it for use at a later time.

This is very similar to subclipping, which I always used in Final Cut Pro 7. Below you will find a step by step tutorial on how you add keywords to clips. I’ll even show you how to add multiple keywords to the same clip, even overlapping each other. Enjoy this latest Video School Online tutorial!

To set a keyframe, click and scrub your mouse over the portion of the clip so that you have a selection made.

Once you have a selection, click the ‘key’ icon in the tools section above the timeline.

This will bring up a dialogue box that allows you to name your section. Insert a title that you see fit, something that you will understand after you’ve made multiple keyword selections. Then press ‘enter’ or ‘return’ on your keyboard to save this keyword.

You can then make another selection, even on the same clip overlapping the previous keyword section.

Name this new section and press enter as you did before to save it.

In the top left of Final Cut Pro X, you should see that your video clip now has a triangle next to it. This signifies that it has a drop down menu. Click the triangle to bring down the drop down menu and you’ll see the keywords that you applied to the clip. Clicking each one will bring up that specific range of the clip, easy for you to drag and drop into your timeline.

Use these keywords to organize your footage and to select your best clips before you actually start editing all of your video together.

Thanks for reading. Please comment below and subscribe to stay updated!

Cheers,

Phil