Workspaces and floating panels in Video by Zaweba

Editing is several jobs in a row. Cutting needs a big timeline, grading needs a big picture and scopes, mixing needs the sound controls. Video by Zaweba handles that with workspaces, ready-made arrangements of the panels for each kind of work, plus the freedom to float panels wherever suits your screens.

The built-in workspaces

Open View > Workspaces, or press Alt+Shift with a number from 1 to 9. The ready-made set is Editing, Assembly, Colour, Effects, Sound, Captions and graphics, Review, Essentials, Logging and Text-based editing. Each one rearranges the window for its job and leaves your project exactly as it was.

Essentials is a good starting point for anyone new, with the core panels and less on screen. Assembly suits the early stage of laying shots in order. Editing is the everyday cutting layout. Colour, Effects and Sound bring forward the panels for those tasks. Captions and graphics groups the text tools. Review gives the picture room for watching through. Logging suits the footage review described in the Metadata tab. Text-based editing is for cutting by working with the words in a transcript.

Making your own

Alongside the built-in set you can save workspaces of your own. Arrange the panels the way you like, save the layout and give it a name. Many people end up with a personal version of Editing tuned to their screen and habits, and perhaps one for a laptop and one for a desk with a large monitor.

Assigning your most used layouts to the low numbers makes switching instant. A typical day might move between cutting, sound and colour with three key presses.

Floating panels

Right-click a panel's tab to float it, which lifts it out of the main window into a window of its own. The Inspector, the timeline and the preview can all float. That is most useful with two screens: float the preview onto the second monitor and give it the whole display, or float the Inspector beside the main window so its controls are always in view.

A floated preview on a large second screen is one of the simplest upgrades to an editing setup. You see the picture big enough to judge focus and detail, and the main screen is left for the timeline.

Habits that help

Pick workspaces by task rather than leaving everything open at once. A crowded screen with every panel squeezed small is harder to work in than a focused layout you swap when the job changes.

If a layout gets into a muddle after a lot of dragging, switch to the built-in workspace for that task to get a clean arrangement back, then save your tidy version again.

When you move between computers with different screens, keep a workspace for each. A layout made for a wide desktop monitor will feel cramped on a laptop.

Fitting it into the day

Workspaces pair naturally with the keyboard shortcuts editor and the command palette. Together they let you set the app up around the way you work, rather than the other way round. A little time arranging panels at the start saves a great deal of reaching and scrolling across a long project in Video by Zaweba.