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How do I prevent a user from changing final cut settings?
I want to know if there is a way I can prevent my users from changing final cut pro settings.
I lead a student video organization at a University and one student(who we cannot just ban from using our equipment due to pressure from above) constantly changes the scratch disk settings, capture settings and auto-save settings. This is user is an advanced user and does great work, but does it at the expense of other students. When he changes the capture drive he’ll leave his hard drive plugged in, leave for several hours, in the mean time less advanced students come in capture to his drive unknowingly finish some work, he’ll come back later grab his drive and when the other students return to work on their project they can’t do their work. Similarly, he never correctly resets the capture disk to where it belongs so when we perform regular maintenance to clear up drive space project files are fragmented, and often on the wrong hard drives, folders and such, and this has further led to incorrect deletion of files. Our students are well trained in setting the capture bin, and how to move their files to the correct capture scratch folder if they forget to set it, but when they can’t find the correct capture scratch they also cannot figure out how to fix it.
He also changes all of the capture settings that we have set to prevent a majority of issues dealing with our equipment and multiple user nature, which has caused significant problems for our other users.
Finally, he doesn’t limit himself to one computer, he bounces around (since he has his hard drive). We have talked to him about not doing this and he agrees and shows he understands our issues to great depth, but he doesn’t act like he speaks. We tried to ban him from using our equipment, but apparently this isn’t an option either (despite a running 1 year fight with the administration to let us).
I desperately need some way of preventing our users from changing any final cut settings, while not completely preventing them from effectively using final cut. However, anything you suggest will be greatly appreciated.
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3 Replies
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What about separate user accounts on the computers?
… your trouble-maker could have his own log-in for his own personalized account, that way he’s only creating a mess for himself, not everyone else.
I used to manage a student/faculty multimedia lab at American University, and that’s how we solved this type of issue – personalized user accounts, instead of jut one student account.
Also, set up a Desktop Background that reminds the students to check their scratch disk settings. We used an “Automator” script that also sent a pop-up reminder to the students when they launched FCP.
You could also grade the students on their ability to follow instructions… in theory, that should be incentive enough for him (others) to do things the right way!
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I’m going to ditto what Jason said because, hah, we used to work together at the same lab!
Another solution to consider is a tool like Digital Rebellion’s Preferences Manager or Final Cut Rescue. You can save settings for FCP and with the click of a button, can trash the preferences and restore to your approved backup.
I lobby for all labs of any kind to have a preferences trasher tool since it solves seemingly 90% of the problems you see on a lab level and they’re generally a pain to find unless you really know what you’re looking for.
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Thank you to both you, I think I those are some ideas I can put to use.
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