Customizing Workspaces
Prior to Media Composer Version 6, the software included both Workspaces and Toolsets. They accomplished the same thing, but were set up by the user in different ways. In version 6, the old Workspaces feature and the Toolsets feature were essentially combined and simply named as Workspaces. With that out of the way, let's discuss what they are.
Workspaces are a task-focused feature which you create so that, with just a visit to a menu or a quick push of a button you can instantly reveal the tools and windows you need for a particular type of work. For example, you go to Windows | Workspaces | Audio Editing. After selecting Audio Editing, your Source/Record window instantly reduces in size, the timeline expands taller, the Audio Tool opens, the Audio Mixer opens, and the Audio Suite opens. Not only do these windows change size and the tools open, but they are then placed on your screen(s) exactly where you like them. Again, this all happens because you set it up that way.
By default, Media Composer provides you with some Workspaces that have been pre-named and waiting for you to set them up. You can also create your own Workspaces.
More time-saving features related to Workspaces are discussed after this. See the Creating Bin Layouts, Linking Bin Layouts with Workspaces, and Mapping Workspaces and Bin Layouts recipes.
How to do it...
To customize Workspaces, perform the following steps:
- Go to Windows menu | Workspaces.
- From the submenu, do either of the following:
- Select an existing Workspace
- Select the New Work Space command
- Once a Workspace is selected or created, it is activated and is said to be the "current" Workspace. The currently active Workspace will have a check mark next to it in the menu.
- Customize the work environment to your needs and taste. Open the tools you want to help you perform a specific task. Arrange and resize the tools, the Timeline Window and the Source/Record window exactly as you'd like them, including placing tools into tabbed sets.
- Once your tools and interface windows (Bin Layouts are discussed in the next section) are arranged as you like, you'll make Media Composer remember that Workspace layout. Go to Windows menu | Workspaces | Save Current. You must do this step or the Workspace layout will not be saved. Remember to select Save Current.
- Once the Workspace is saved, you may move and close interface windows and tools as needed without actually updating the layout. Because you don't save those changes, the next time you select that Workspace it will return to its previously saved configuration. If you make changes and you do indeed want to update the currently active Workspace, then select Windows menu | Workspaces | Save Current. If you find yourself updating your Workspaces frequently, you may find it convenient to map the Save Current menu selection to a button in the interface or on the keyboard. See the Mapping buttons and menu selections recipe later in this chapter for more information.
There's more…
To get you thinking more about how you might customize Workspaces, the following is an additional example:
If your currently active Workspace is named "Effects Editing" and you want to customize it, then you'd open the Effect Palette and the Effect Editor from the Tools menu. You might resize the Source/Record window so that it only displays the Record Monitor*. This is accomplished by grabbing the right edge of the Source/Record window (a small, black, horizontal arrow will appear) and dragging it to the left-hand side until the Source window disappears. Once you have only the Record Monitor* showing, you might grab the lower-right corner of it (a small, black, diagonal arrow will appear) and drag diagonally to make it larger or smaller. Resize and reposition your Timeli ne window, Project window, and the Effect Editor and Effect Palette windows. With everything as you like it you'd then select Windows | Workspaces | Save Current.
*When in Effect Mode, the Record Monitor technically becomes the "Effect Monitor," just in case you see it referred to like that in any Media Composer documentation.
See also
- The Creating Bin layouts recipe
- The Linking Bin layouts with workspaces and Mapping workspaces and Bin layouts recipes