Apple Final Cut Pro 5 User Manual
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70
Part I
Media and Project Management
 Search Folders pop-up menu: When the Search Single Location checkbox is
deselected, Final Cut Pro searches all of the directories and volumes shown in this
pop-up menu in the order they appear. The menu is divided into three sections, and
a fourth option to add additional search folders.
 Directories from the Search Folders tab in System Settings: These are folders set in the
Search Folders tab in the System Settings window, and they appear in the same
order. For more information about setting and removing search folders, see “
” on page 295. Additional items can be temporarily added to this list by
selecting the Add Search Location option (at the bottom of this pop-up menu).
 Current scratch disk folders: These are the disks assigned in the Scratch Disks tab in
the System Settings window. For more information, see Volume I, Chapter 13,
“Connecting DV Video Equipment and Specifying Initial Settings.”
 Currently mounted volumes: These are the current volumes mounted on your
system.
 Add Search Location: Select this option to add a folder to the end of the search
folders list. These items are added to the list in the Search Folders tab of the
System Settings window.
Locate and Search Buttons
 Locate: Click this button to manually navigate to a media file for the clip highlighted
in the Files to Connect list. This is useful if you are reconnecting a clip to a media file
whose name does not match, or when you know the location of a media file and you
want to navigate to it quickly.
In the window that opens, you can choose a media file to reconnect to, or you can
choose a folder and Final Cut Pro will search that folder for any media files that
match the name of the clip.
Search Order and Speed in the Reconnect Files Dialog
Final Cut Pro searches folders in the order they appear in the Search Folders pop-up
menu. To make searching for media files efficient, Final Cut Pro searches designated
folders before searching entire volumes. This way, if a media file is located in a
specified search folder, Final Cut Pro never has to perform a more time-consuming
search through an entire volume. This can be especially helpful when searching for
media stored an a storage area network, such as an Xsan storage system.
In general, a directory that contains less files and subfolders is faster to search than a
folder higher in the directory hierarchy. However, due to the way HFS directories are
cataloged and optimized, searching an entire HFS volume may be more efficient than
searching a folder near the root level of that volume. Broad, partial-volume searches
are usually the most time consuming searches. When you assign search folders,
always select folders as specifically as possible.