USERMATIC™
FCP startup utility, Intel/PowerPC. Requires Mac OS 10.3 or later.
EditGroove Software
www.editgroove.com, $34.95, special two-fer license, $49.95.

 

The geniuses at EditGroove include headliner Ron Diamond, originally from Melrose, MA and who for 10 years worked studio operations at Channel 7 in Boston. This company has given FCP users the startup features Avid users have had since early on: selectable user preferences and profiles.

This is not a small deal in any kind in workgroup settings, or where freelancers often move from home station to a work station used by several other editors, each with their own nifty key remaps, window layouts and the like. No small thing to be faced with an uncomfortable layout or keyboard setup which fights your body memory. Without a friendly keyboard layout, the mouse beckons and using the mouse can be pain. I used to deliver a very convincing Sealpont Siamese when I had to use the mouse too often. Meow! I want my settings.

 

Usermatic™ is your new FCP ‘front end” launcher, which works much the way Avid launches its User dialog before you can do anything in the application. When you’ve selected and loaded your favorite profile and settings into the target machine, click the “Launch FCP” button to start working. (When you return to Usermatic, the last User is listed in bright green.) FCP settings that are stored include User Preferences, System Settings, Audio/Video Settings, choice of Easy Setup, Favorite Effects, Button Bars, Keyboard Layouts, Window Layouts, and more.

You don’t have to use this utility if you have only one set of preferences you always use, but it’s valuable to store those prefs if something goes awry, as well as to deploy them on other machines as you come across them. And if you do any amount of switching between machines, such as your laptop to a workplace desktop workstation, this is the cool tool. You can store, name, and restore any number of profiles and also deploy them via USB flash drive to any machine. For total compatibility, get a Two-fer license and install Usermatic™ on two regularly used machines.

You can also trash existing preferences, in case a project or settings have corrupted, and restore from your favorite profile. No serious multi-station FCP editor should be without it.

---

Loren S. Miller selects a profile as a freelance documentary and dramatic editor and producer, develops KeyGuide™ professional placemats for major media applications, and teaches advanced editing at Emerson College. Reach him anytime at First published in Imagine News (www.imaginenews.com).