Apple Final Cut Pro 5 - Manual (Page 472)

Chapter 8 Working With Tracks in the Timeline 137
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Saving Track Layouts
Once you’ve created a custom track layout for your sequence, you can save it for future
use. Saved custom track layouts appear in the Track Layout pop-up menu, and can be
applied to any sequence that’s open in the Timeline. Up to 40 custom track layouts can
appear in the menu at once.
To save a custom track layout:
1 Arrange the track heights of your sequence as you want them.
2 Choose Save Track Layout from the Track Layout pop-up menu (located in the Timeline
to the right of the Track Height control).
3 In the Save dialog that appears, choose a location where you want to save the layout,
then click Save.
Note: Custom track layouts are saved by default to the following folder location:
[Home]/Library/Preferences/Final Cut Pro User Data/Track Layouts
To restore a track layout from your hard disk:
1 Choose Restore Track Layout from the Track Layout pop-up menu.
2 In the Open dialog that appears, navigate to the location where the desired track
layout file is located, select it, then click Open.
Creating a Static Region in the Timeline
If you are working with more tracks than you can see on the screen at once, and you
spend a lot of time scrolling through multiple tracks in the Timeline, you may find it
useful to create a static region in the middle of the Timeline for tracks that you always
want to see. This region can contain video tracks, audio tracks, or both. Creating a static
region results in three total regions in the Timeline: a top, scrollable region for your
excess video tracks, a middle static region, and a bottom, scrollable region for your
excess audio tracks. You can’t scroll up or down in the static region, but it can be
resized to accommodate more or fewer tracks.
For example, if you’re working on the audio of a project with sync sound dialogue in
audio tracks 1 and 2, and multiple tracks of music, sound effects, and audio ambience
in the tracks below that, you can define a static region containing just tracks 1 and 2,
leaving the rest of your audio tracks in a lower, scrollable region. This way, your
dialogue tracks will always be visible. You can scroll up and down through your other
audio tracks, editing and making various adjustments while using the audio tracks in
the static region as a reference point.