Select clips in Final Cut Pro for Mac

Clips represent your video, audio, and graphics files and allow you to work with your media in Final Cut Pro without changing the files themselves. To add clips to your project, rearrange them, or trim them, you first need to select them. You can select a single clip or multiple clips at a time.

A selected clip in the timeline with a yellow border

Selecting multiple clips allows you to move them as a group within your project, or from one event to another. It’s also useful if you’ve made adjustments to a clip and you want to copy effects and attributes between clips.

Select an entire clip in the browser

In the Libraries sidebar in Final Cut Pro, select an event.
In the browser, do any of the following:
- Click the clip once.
- Move the skimmer (or the playhead) over the clip, then press X.
  Note: This results in a range selection that matches the boundaries of the clip.
- Press the Up Arrow key or Down Arrow key to move the selection to a neighboring clip.
- Option-drag from the start point to the end point of the clip.
Note: All selections in the browser are technically range selections (with adjustable start and end points).

Select an entire clip in the timeline

In Final Cut Pro, open an existing project.
In the timeline, do any of the following:
- Click the clip once.
- Move the skimmer (or the playhead) over the clip, then press X.
  Note: This results in a range selection that matches the boundaries of the clip.
- Move the skimmer (or the playhead if skimming is turned off) over the clip you want to select, then press C. This method selects the clip in the primary storyline.
  Connected clips and storylines are attached to clips in the primary storyline, and they appear above and below the primary storyline. To select a connected clip or storyline with this keyboard shortcut method, position the pointer on the connected clip, then press C. See Connect clips and Add storylines.

A yellow border appears around the clip, indicating that it’s selected.

Note: A timeline clip selection (shown above) is different from a timeline range selection, which has visibly distinct range handles for adjusting the selection start point and end point. See Select ranges.

Select multiple clips in the browser or the timeline

In Final Cut Pro, do any of the following:

Select a number of individual clips: Hold down the Command key as you click the clips you want to select.
Note: Command-clicking a browser clip with preexisting ranges selects the ranges rather than the whole clip.
Select all clips and ranges in the browser or the timeline: Click the browser or timeline to make it active, then choose Edit > Select All (or press Command-A).
Select multiple clips by dragging: Drag a selection rectangle over the timeline or event clips you want to select.

Deselect clips in the browser or the timeline

In Final Cut Pro, do any of the following:

Deselect a single clip: Command-click the clip or click outside it (or select a different clip).
Deselect multiple clips: Hold down the Command key and click the clips you don’t want selected.
Deselect all clips and ranges: Choose Edit > Deselect All (or press Shift-Command-A).
Deselect all clips and clear all selected ranges in the browser: Press Option-X.

Select all connected clips

You can select all clips connected to clips in the primary storyline. See Connect clips.

In Final Cut Pro, select one or more clips in the primary storyline that have clips connected to them.
Choose Edit > Select > Select Connected Clips (or press Control-Command-A).
All clips connected to the selection are added to the selection.

Download this guide: PDF

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Final Cut Pro User Guide for Mac