Edit Faster With 10 Keyboard Tips & Tricks For DaVinci Resolve

Ten shortcuts you should map to your editing keyboard

DaVinci Resolve has grown from a dedicated color grading system, to what I believe is now the fastest and most versatile creative editorial software on the market. I’ve transitioned every bit of my editorial work into Resolve and never want to go back to any other NLE.

A big part of that transition was learning how to best use Resolve’s incredible interactive speed in the timeline with shortcuts. Unfortunately, the more I edited in Resolve, the more I realized that a ton of great functions were hidden in menus and not bound to keys by default.

The great news is – Resolve’s keyboard shortcut editor lets you map any function in any menu to a key – and with that I dove into developing my ideal editing keyboard layout.

Key take-aways from this Insight

In this Insight, you’ll learn my top tips for accelerating your Edit Page tasks – with the ultimate goal of reducing your need to mouse around in the user interface. By the end of this Insight you should know:

Where to enable the ‘focus’ preference for confident keyboard-based commands
How to use auto track selectors from the keyboard to speed up every clip/track selection that governs major edit tool behaviors
The multiple trimming and selection functions that don’t have default keys mapped
How to save/load multiple keyboard layouts for different workflows
How to instantly open/close different Edit Page palettes in the moment that you need them
The advantages of using custom shortcuts for managing multiple timelines and accessing timeline settings

Related Mixing Light Insights

The Blackmagic Editor Keyboard: 1 year later – Learn what an online editor and colorist thinks after spending a year working with the Blackmagic editor keyboard full-time. Plus, his tips.
The DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor On The Color, Edit, & Cut Pages – The new DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor is a fantastic controller. Learn how to use it for color grading, online editing, and multicam workflows.

– Joey

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Comments

Creator

Discussion
July 28, 2022 at 8:45 am #45911

Joey D’Anna
Participant

This is the discussion thread for the Insight: Edit Faster With 10 Keyboard Tips & Tricks For DaVinci Resolve
Creator

Discussion

Evan Anthony
Member

July 28, 2022 at 11:25 am

As always, great insight.
- Joey D’Anna
  Member
  
  July 28, 2022 at 12:13 pm
  
  Thanks Evan!
R Neil Haugen
Member

July 28, 2022 at 8:28 pm

Well now … this is the first tutorial I’ve seen on Resolve that actually makes the edit process look not … horrid. As I’ve never been a fan of the layouts of the Resolve UI. But being able to quickly enlarge/hide panels like this is definitely a Good Thing.

And it’s nice to see they’ve got top & tail editing via keyboard shorts too … something I’ve used a LOT in Premiere. Thanks, Joey!
- Joey D’Anna
  Member
  
  July 28, 2022 at 8:32 pm
  
  Thanks! Trust me – I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve used just about every single NLE ever made and Resolve is my favorite. While nothing is perfect – I think Resolve is the top of the heap once you set it up for your workflow and really get comfortable with it. The interactivity and performance is like nothing else on any other system.
Jim Robinson
Member

July 28, 2022 at 11:18 pm

Really good insight Joey.
I find that I do some editing and keystrokes do help, but it gets a little bit overwhelming trying to memorize all the keystrokes. Definitely speeds things up.
Thanks for this
- Patrick Inhofer
  Administrator
  
  July 29, 2022 at 12:12 pm
  
  Jim – my rule of thumb for learning keyboard shortcuts is: Anytime you go to the same menu item 3 times within a few minutes, learn that keyboard shortcut. Within a month, you’ll be amazed at how many shortcuts you pick up that way.
  
  But Joey’s autoselect keyboard shortcut suggestions? I’d execute those ASAP. Across the next few weeks, I’m going to be recording updates to the new Resolve Fundamentals training courses we just released on Mixing Light – and I’m adding Joey’s suggestions to that Course since they make track targeted (and un-targeting) and working on the Edit Page generally, so much more intuitive.
Scott Simmons
Member

September 10, 2022 at 8:44 am

Good stuff. Keyboard optimization is of utmost importance!!
Ryan Rossillo
Member

October 17, 2022 at 5:15 pm

Is it possible in Resolve to switch to different keyboard presets with a keyboard shortcut? Or do you need to open the Keyboard Customization window & change it in there?
- Patrick Inhofer
  Administrator
  
  October 18, 2022 at 2:15 pm
  
  Ryan,
  
  That’s a great feature request to send to Blackmagic. With Resolve, the rule of thumb binding commands to shortcuts: If a command appears in the main software drop-down menus, you can bind that command to a keyboard shortcut.
  
  So – You can bind the ‘Keyboard Customization…’ command to a shortcut. But the dropdowns within a modal window like that typically cannot be.
  
  But – using something like Keyboard Maestro or AutoHotKey does allow for this. The limitation is that your automation will only work for the display size you program with.
  
  HTH!
Author

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