Renaming Media Files and Clips
After capturing, you may realize that you want to change some of your clip names to
more accurately reflect their content or purpose. It is easy enough to change clip
names in Final Cut Pro, but this doesn’t change your media filenames, causing potential
confusion during media management. One solution is to rename media files directly in
the Finder, but this causes your clips to become disconnected when you switch back to
Final Cut Pro. A more convenient method is to use the clip and file renaming
commands in Final Cut Pro.
To rename a clip’s media file to match the clip name:
1
Select one or more clips in the Browser.
2
Choose Modify > Rename > File to Match Clip.
A dialog appears, warning you that you are about to modify media files on your disk.
3
Click OK. You can also select the Do Not Show Again option so that this warning no
longer appears.
Each media file corresponding to one of the selected clips is renamed to match the clip
name. Each media file’s file extension is preserved in the filename. For example, if you
have a media file named Music.aif that corresponds to a clip named Symphony, the
media file is renamed Symphony.aif.
Media files are not renamed in the following cases:
 If a media file is locked or if you don’t have permission to modify the file
 If changing a media filename would cause a filename conflict with an existing media
file in the same folder
 If a media file corresponds to a multiclip
Final Cut Pro attempts to rename each media file corresponding to a merged clip, but
in some cases this may not be possible.
You can also rename clips to match their corresponding media files.
To rename a clip to match its media file:
1
Select one or more clips in the Browser.
2
Choose Modify > Rename > Clip to Match File.
Each selected clip is renamed to match its corresponding media file.
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Part I
Media and Project Management