Are these keyboard shortcuts already in use in FCP X: Cmd + Up Arrow and Cmd + Down Arrow ?

Ian R. Brown wrote:

... these commands are already in use by FCP X or any other app?

in FCPX not, as you can see in the list:

http://help.apple.com/finalcutpro/mac/10.1/?lang=en#ver90ba5929

(opt-cmd-down-arrow is in use, I'm using it frequently to avoid 'clutter' after applying cut-aways)

.. other apps? Not to my knowledge...

Nothing mapped to those shortcuts in FCP X. By other apps, assume you mean the default shortcuts for Yosemite and if so, I don't see them assigned to anything.

Russ

Cmd-Up and CMd-Down are used for navigating the folder hierarchy in the Finder, but you can use them in FCP X without causing any conflict. There are two ways to do it:

1) By using FCP X's command editor --- this is the preferred solution

2) By using System Preferences->Keyboard->Keyboard Shortcuts and adding the desired shortcuts. The name of the commands are exactly "Beginning" and "End", so that is the exact text you'd have to enter. Shortcuts entered this way need to exactly match the name of the menu they are to be associated with.

I mention option 2) here because while it has been there since OS X exists, and yet it seems to have gone conspicuously unnoticed, and it IS useful even for Final Cut Pro X.

Why? Because there are menu commands for which the Command Editor does not offer the possibility of adding a shortcut.

This is the solution that even Steve Martin failed to notice when asked recently in the virtual user group about adding shortcuts for exporting to different destinations. FCP X only offers one default destination (for which Command-E is the shortcut), but it is in fact trivial to have shortcuts for several different destinations with this technique.

Ian R. Brown wrote:

One query about your instructions . . . you say Beginning and End but in the FCP X Command Editor it lists them as Go to Beginning etc.

So which should it be?

It depends on which method you use. In the command editor it says "Go to Beginning", so that is what you want.

The actual text is in a submenu: Mark->Go->Beginning so if you use the system preferences to create a keyboard shortcut the text you enter must be the text of the last submenu, that is, "Beginning". When one such shortcut is added successfully, it will appear next to the menu text, like any other shortcut, so it is easy to check if you added it correctly. Just as a test, I did just that. Notice how it is immediately accessible: see the screenshot.