Tips and tricks

Habits that save time once you know them. Each tip is one gesture or one key, with a link to the page that explains it in full. If a tip and a task page ever seem to disagree, the task page is right.

Anywhere in Shotwork

• Middle-drag any number. Hold the middle mouse button over any spin box or dropdown and drag sideways to change it, the way a channel box works in Maya. Hold Shift for bigger steps, or Ctrl for finer ones. One drag is one undo step.
• Hotkeys work without clicking the viewer first. I, O, Space and the other marking keys work from anywhere in the window. Typing in a text field is still typing.
• Undo from a number field. Ctrl+Z in a spin box undoes your last change to the shot list or reel. In a text field such as Name or Tags, it undoes your typing first.
• Wheel a number without flooding undo. Wheel notches that follow each other quickly on a spin box count as one undo step.
• Find what a key does. In Settings › Remap Hotkeys…, type the key into the filter, for example ctrl+s, and only the action using it stays in the list. See Hotkeys for every default.
• Recent files come back with their drive. A file on a drive you unplugged drops out of File › Open Recent and returns when the drive does.
• F1 opens this documentation.

By task

• Marking faster: reviewing detected shots from the keyboard, marking while playing, and describing many shots at once.
• Cutting faster: the modifier keys that change an edit, selecting from the keyboard, and every right-click menu on the reel tab.
• Templates and the Library, faster: resizing and nudging in the template editor, and the Library window's shortcuts.