Using the DVD Book Files

Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Pro 5 comes with a DVD containing the files you will use for each lesson (called project files) as well as files containing sound and visual media (called media files). Each lesson has its own project file. In the Media folder, you will find three primary audio/video media file folders titled A Thousand Roads, Motocross, and Music Video. (You can read more detail about this footage in the next section.) The Exports and Graphics folders are used for specific lessons only. Once you load the files onto your hard drive, each lesson in the book will guide you in the use of all of the project and media files.

To Install the Final Cut Pro 5 Lesson Files

The Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Pro 5 DVD-ROM includes a folder titled FCP5 Book Files, which contains two subfolders: Lessons and Media. These folders hold the lessons and media files you will need for this course. Make sure you keep these two folders together in the FCP 5 Book Files folder. If you keep them together on your hard drive, you should be able to maintain the original link between the lessons and media files.

1. Insert the Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Pro 5 DVD into your CD-DVD drive.

2. Drag the FCP5 Book Files folder from the DVD to your hard drive to copy it. The Media folder contains about 7.75 GB of media.

To begin the course, you will open a project file after you have launched Final Cut Pro.

Reconnecting Media

In the process of copying the media from the DVD in this book, you may break a link between the project file and the media file. If this happens, a window appears asking you to reconnect the project files. Reconnecting the project files is a simple process that's covered in more depth in Lesson 16, in the section on reconnecting media. But should this happen when opening a lesson, just follow these steps:

1.	If an Offline Files window appears, click the Reconnect button. A Reconnect Files window appears. Under the Files To Connect portion of the window, the offline file is listed along with its expected location.
2.	In the Reconnect Files window, click Search. Final Cut Pro will search for the missing file. If you know where the file is located, you can click the Locate button to find the file manually.
3.	After the file is found and displayed in the Files Located section of the Reconnect Files window, click Connect. With the link reestablished between the project file and the media file, Final Cut Pro will be able to play the media within the project.

Changing System Preferences

A few editing functions within Final Cut Pro use the same function keys used by other programs, such as Exposé and the Dashboard. If you think you would like to use the FCP editing shortcuts, you will need to reassign these functions keys.

1. From your Desktop, launch System Preferences.

2. Under the Personal section, click the Dashboard & Exposé icon.

3. Reassign the shortcuts for these functions to keys other than F9, F10, F11, and F12, which will be used during the course of these lessons.

   As you begin to work with Final Cut Pro and discover the different approaches you can use for each function, you can always come back and change these options in your System Preferences.