Whilst simply being able to hide the Timeline and recall saved workspaces is very welcome, it does only allow a certain level of customisation for instance, the Effects browser can only ever live to the right of the Timeline, I can't move it anywhere else or make it full screen as I can in some other editing applications. For those working across dual displays, there are also new options to use your secondary monitor to display either the browser, viewer or timeline full screen - the latter being especially useful for those more complicated edits.
You can choose to show or hide individual elements of the interface much as you've always done (which now includes the Timeline, though not the Viewer, it seems), but now you can save these as custom workspaces, which can be easily recalled and even transferred to different systems via a handy "Open Workspace Folder in Finder" option. Read next: What's the best Mac for video editing? Final Cut Pro X 10.3 review: Workspacesįinal Cut Pro X now has a much more flexible layout. This brings us on to one of the key new features of the interface: customisable workspaces. We also have the addition of a few more buttons the Extend, Insert and Connect buttons have been joined by an Overwrite edit button a new filter button appears in the Browser next to the search field, whilst new buttons in the top right of the interface give us quick options for showing and/or hiding the Browser and Timeline as well as the Inspector.
Gone too are the rating buttons, though the functionality of favouriting, rejecting and unrating clips via keyboard shortcuts remains. However, custom Motion Templates can now be managed a lot more easily thanks to a new option allowing them to be managed as part of the library bundle. The Effects and Transitions browsers remain where they've always been, next to the timeline, but gone is the often useful Themes browser where groups of similar transitions, titles, effects and generators could be accessed together. Conversely, the Titles and Generators browsers are also located here too, despite you still only being able to add this content directly into your timeline. The photos and audio browsers are now positioned next to your list of Libraries in the top left so you can now quickly add content from your Photos or iTunes libraries to your open Final Cut Pro Libraries. This reorganisation may annoy some users but there's a certain logic behind it. The interface feels much more spacious, as many of the buttons that were arranged across the centre of the interface have been repositioned around the outside. In their place is a much more modern, flattened look with a dark theme that helps you to focus much more on your sparkling video content. Gone are the familiar buttons and layout we'd grown accustomed to.
The first thing that strikes you when you open up this new version of Final Cut Pro X is the redesigned user interface.
Read next: Mac buying guide 2016 | Buy Final Cut Pro X 10.3 | Best free & cheap Mac video editing software Final Cut Pro X 10.3 review: Interface
But the recent release of Final Cut Pro X version 10.3, announced at the new MacBook Pro launch event, has lifted the lid on what the Final Cut Pro team have been doing since then and it seems that they've been very busy indeed.
Some may have thought that Apple was starting to lose faith in its professional video editor.
It's been a long time since Apple updated Final Cut Pro X the last update to version 10.2.3 was back in February 2016. If you'd like to read our thoughts on previous versions of Apple's flagship professional video editor, you'll find them on the second and third pages of this article. Welcome to our Final Cut Pro X 10.3 review.