command Z does not work

Hi it must be something I missed but since last week my cmdZ does not work. I thrashed the prefs, In users prefs I have 20 undo's.... Now what??

Does selecting 'undo' from the menu bar work? If not, there's a problem in the program. If so, it's probably your keyboard. Test it in another program like word.

Also note that some operations, for some reason, take more levels of Undo to have a visible effect than they should. For example, I often razor out a small chunk from a large sync sequence to paste into another timeline, copy the chunk, and then undo the razors before pasting the copied chunk over. The razors routinely take five to six presses of APPLE-Z, even though the razor operations were only two moves ago.


www.derekmok.com

It is working fine again now.Undo was grey-ed out as well btw. I ll see what happens, thanks.

Quote
Derek
For example, I often razor out a small chunk from a large sync sequence to paste into another timeline, copy the chunk, and then undo the razors before pasting the copied chunk over. The razors routinely take five to six presses of APPLE-Z, even though the razor operations were only two moves ago.

is FCP including the copy operation in it's (invisible) undo list?
i'm surprised the paste works for you after all your undos.

it would definitely include your selection of the chunk in it's undo list

FCP also ads some stupid things to it's undo's. (i think there was a time when it included zooms)
it might include things like tabbing to another timeline, or even switching windows.

to top it off, there ARE some commands that kind of eradicate your undo functionality.
i'm sorry i cant say exactly what they are,
but i do know that after some operations, i just cant undo, and the undo function is greyed out.

from memory this has happened when i'm working in a garbage matte filter.


on a side note: Derek you could use in and out points to define the chunk,
then Option X to delete the in/outs


nick

> is FCP including the copy operation in its (invisible) undo list?

If it were, that would make sense. But no -- the number of Undos doesn't correspond with the number of operations including the Copy. (See numbers above -- three operations done -- Blade, Blade, Copy -- but four to six Undos to get back to stage right before the first Blade)

> I'm surprised the paste works for you after all your undos.

Try it sometime. I suppose it's nearly impossible to "undo" a Copy process, since the Copy "Clipboard" isn't part of the Undos, hence this technique is possible.

This technique is especially useful if you make a mistake, and then have done a few complex operations (eg. Color Correction, keyframing, creating a graphic) that you do intend to keep. You can Copy the section in question, Undo up to before the mistake, and the paste back the parts that you actually want to keep. I call it the "time machine" technique, since it's pasting in a future operation that has already been undone.


www.derekmok.com