Mapping Menu commands to an Avid Keyboard
Mapping your Avid keyboard is a critical step in becoming efficient with the Avid software. Important commands such as match frame, replace edit, and fit-to-fill are crucial commands when becoming an efficient editor.
Did you also know you can map any menu command to a keyboard shortuct with Avid Xpress or Media Composer? This is very useful for menu commands such as:
- Turning on-off the Audio Waveforms (Sample Plot)
- Creating Freeze Frames
- Displaying Media Relatives
- Full Screen Playback
- Activating Customized Workspaces
Every menu command can be mapped to a single key by using Avid's command palette.
Start by double clicking on the Avid keyboard settings within the project window.
Next, navigate to the 'Tools - Command Palette' menu. This will bring up the command palette for all the editing functions that can be mapped to a key.
The trick is to change the default option from 'button to button' reassignment to 'menu to button reassignment'.
Then navigate over to your keyboard layout and click on a key that you want to map a menu to.
After you have picked a key, you can navigate to any menu command within the Avid Xpress or Media Composer interface and the Avid will change that menu into a 'shortcut key'. In this example, suppose you wanted to create a shortcut to turn the audio waveform (sample plot) on and off with the touch of a key.
By selecting the menu command 'Sample Plot', the Avid will automatically create a shortcut on the key you selected to activate that menu command.
Now, by simply pressing 'F3' you can toggle the audio waveform (sample plot) on and off without having to navigate to the menu command.
