How can I PRINT folders from FCE project files?

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Level 1

9 points

How can I PRINT folders from FCE project files?

Over five years of underwater videography I have accumulated several TB of footage, organized into FCE project files by ocean locale and further sorted by subject matter in "clips" folders in the project files. I use the "log note" field for descriptions, eg scenery, vertebrates, invertebrates, divers.

I understand the product incompatibilities that make my FCE project files unreadable by other software, and I am also beginning to doubt that I can keep my late 2007 MBP running indefinitely. So I want to generate a hard-copy directory to my media drives by printing out the contents of my "clips" folders. While I still can...

Thanks for any ideas or suggestions on how to do this.

Sharron Sussman

Posted on Jun 7, 2013 4:07 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,555 points

Jun 7, 2013 4:55 PM in response to sharronsuss

FCE was really limited in the ability to do this kind of stuff.

Even FCP-7 requires 3rd party help to do it:

http://www.digital-heaven.co.uk/finalprint

so, other than taking screen shots of your bins and printing those - and possibly using some type of OCR to convert the screen shots into searchable text, I am not sure you have many options.

Would be great to be proved wrong.

MtD

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Answer 2

sharronsuss Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 7, 2013 6:06 PM in response to Meg The Dog

Thanks for the input, Meg, though the news is not good. FinalPrint appears to be a bit more than I need and is a little pricey, but might turn out to be my best option. PDFs are a whole lot nicer than screen shots!

I can't do much until I get the Mac back from the shop - it ruptured a battery a couple of days ago - but I will let you know what develops.

Sharron

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Answer 3

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,555 points

Jun 7, 2013 6:36 PM in response to sharronsuss

Final Print is ONLY for Final Cut Pro - not FCE. I only linked that to show it was possible from FCP. I don't think there is a viable alternative for FCE.

MtD

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Answer 4

Alchroma

Level 7

23,809 points

Jun 7, 2013 7:03 PM in response to sharronsuss

MTD is pretty right, see here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/881311?answerId=4195592022#4195592022

Al

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Answer 5

Jun 8, 2013 3:32 AM in response to sharronsuss

Sounds like you need a digital asset management (DAM) system. Take a look at this product: http://www.squarebox.com/about-catdv/

-DH

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Answer 6

sharronsuss Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 8, 2013 4:00 PM in response to David Harbsmeier

Thanks, I've sent them a query by email. I'll let you know what comes of it...

Sharron

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Answer 7

sharronsuss Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 8, 2013 4:04 PM in response to sharronsuss

Does anyone know if Terminal will work when FCE is open? There is apparently a way to print a list of the files in a Mac folder using Terminal...

ss

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Answer 8

sharronsuss Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 17, 2013 8:54 PM in response to Meg The Dog

Meg, do you happen to know which versions of FCP will import FCE 3.5 projects? Apparently Adobe Premiere Pro will import FCP projects but not FCE - the format needs to be XML, which FCE does not generate.

There's some old FCP software available from 3rd party sellers but I know there are incompatibilities between versions of FCP & FCE of different ages, and would like to avoid them.

If I can make my projects accessible to another editing program, even if it's a lot of work, I'd be happy to leave FCE behind at this point...

sharron s.

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Answer 9

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,555 points

Jun 17, 2013 10:54 PM in response to sharronsuss

Sorry, I don't know at what point (FCE version number) it was possible to open the project in FCP.

Likely someone else does.

MtD

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Answer 10

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Jun 18, 2013 6:35 AM in response to Meg The Dog

I know FCP 6 and 7 will. Not sure whether anything earlier will and have no way to test. If I had to bet, I would say that earlier versions would not open them.

Russ

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Answer 11

sharronsuss Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 18, 2013 9:38 AM in response to Russ H

Thanks, Russ - I will check out Amazon & anyplace else I can think of for a copy of FCP6 or 7. (It would sure be nice to be able to download a trial copy, but I'd need time travel capability for that!)

sharron

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Answer 12

sharronsuss Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 18, 2013 9:40 AM in response to David Harbsmeier

Well, no reply from SquareBox to query sent ten days ago. I did not really see how what was on their site could help me, and I guess they didn't either! But thanks for the suggestion...

ss

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Answer 13

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,555 points

Jun 18, 2013 11:19 AM in response to sharronsuss

In case others stumble across this thread:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4115

MtD

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Answer 14

sharronsuss Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 18, 2013 1:04 PM in response to Meg The Dog

Thanks, Meg. Good article. This opens up some possible pathways to the future for all that footage...

ss

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Answer 15

MartinR

Level 6

18,797 points

Jun 19, 2013 8:02 AM in response to sharronsuss

Does anyone know if Terminal will work when FCE is open? There is apparently a way to print a list of the files in a Mac folder using Terminal...

Terminal works perfectly fine when FCE is open on my Mac (FCE 4.0.1, OS X 10.6.8).

But if you just want to print a list of files that are in a folder (a Finder folder, not am FCE Browser folder) ... then I'd recommend Print Window instead. It's free and can also print listings of child folders and their contents. I have found it very, very useful. And doesn't require use of Terminal. There is also an advanced version with more features ($20)

Note: I recommend products that I have found useful and do not receive any compensation for recommending anything.

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