Mastering Avid Media Composer’s Keyboard Shortcuts – Lesson 7: Bins

This is the seventh lesson in a series on mastering Avid Media Composer’s keyboard shortcuts on bins. Each lesson tackles a handful of shortcuts. By the end of all the lessons you should be flying through your editing sessions.

This isn’t just any old list of shortcuts. For many of them I explain exactly how they work and how I use them everyday as a professional editor.

If you’re just getting started, no worries. You can take this lesson and circle back to the previous lessons. You can find all the lessons here.

This lesson focuses on bins.

Bins

Bins are where any and every shot, sequence, title, mixdown, voiceover, sound effect, etc. are stored. There are a bunch of keyboard shortcuts in Avid that can make working with bins simpler and faster. Let’s jump into them.

Create New Bin

Shortcut: Cmd+N (Mac) | Ctrl+N (PC)

This shortcut creates a new bin.

Create New Sequence

Shortcut: Cmd+Shift+N (Mac) | Ctrl+Shift+N (PC)

This shortcut creates a new sequence.

Select All Items in Bin

Shortcut: Cmd+A (Mac) | Ctrl+A (PC)

This shortcut selects everything in a bin.

Deselect All Items in Bin

Shortcut: Cmd+Shift+A (Mac) | Ctrl+Shift+A (PC)

This shortcut deselects everything in a bin.

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Close Active Bin

Shortcut: Cmd+W (Mac) | Ctrl+W (PC)

This shortcut closes an active bin. This shortcut is pretty universal in most software on both Macs and PCs.

Duplicate Selected Item(s) in Bin

Shortcut: Cmd+D (Mac) | Ctrl+D (PC)

This shortcut duplicates selected item(s) in a bin.

Group Selected Clips

Shortcut: Cmd+Shift+G (Mac) | Ctrl+Shift+G (PC)

This shortcut groups selected clips together. Don’t worry about this if you’re not working in multicam.

Create Copy of Selected Item(s) in Bin

Shortcut: Opt+Drag Into Bin (Mac) | Alt+Drag Into Bin (PC)

Holding Opt (Mac) or Alt (PC) and dragging a selected clip(s) from one bin to another will create a copy of the master clip. This is different from a duplicated item. With this method you use the same master clip for the same media. With a duplicated item you use different master clips with the same media.

Sort Selected Column – Ascending

Shortcut: Cmd+E (Mac) | Ctrl+E (PC)

Select a column heading in a bin and use this shortcut to sort bin items in ascending order.

Sort Selected Column – Descending

Shortcut: Cmd+Opt+E (Mac) | Ctrl+Alt+E (PC)

Select a column heading in a bin and use this shortcut to sort bin items in descending order.

Make Frame Larger

Shortcut: Cmd+L (Mac) | Ctrl+L (PC)

While in Frame or Script View, use this shortcut to make the frames of items in a bin larger. This is purely to help you see and doesn’t affect any media. Remember “L” for “larger.”

Make Frame Smaller

Shortcut: Cmd+K (Mac) | Ctrl+K (PC)

While in Frame or Script View, use this shortcut to make the frames of items in a bin smaller. This is purely to help you see and doesn’t affect any media.

Align Frames to Grid

Shortcut: Cmd+T (Mac) | Ctrl+T (PC)

While in Frame View, use this shortcut to align clips to an invisible grid. This is purely to help you see and doesn’t affect any media. Remember “T” for “tidy.”

WHAT KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS IN AVID ARE NEXT?

That’s all the shortcuts for Lesson 7 of Mastering Avid Media Composer’s Keyboard Shortcuts on bins. What’d you think? Learn anything new?

Ready for Lesson 8? Click here (or the image below) to go to it.

Give me a shout if you have any questions. Leave me a comment below or message me through my contact page.

– Josh