OK so where are the manuals!

[Steve Eisen]

In FCP under Help. Online at Apple.com/finalcutstudio. Exploring Final Cut Pro booklet in your documentation that came with your software.

Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Board of Directors
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group

[Andy Mees]

They are here Olof: https://documentation.apple.com/en/finalcutpro/usermanual/

[Olof Ekbergh]

Like I said, that manual system is useless.

What we really need i PDF manuals, that are fast to load, not partially web based proprietary manuals.

I really liked the FCS 2 hard manuals. PDF versions like those would be fine.

I am calling apple and complaining about that “help system”. I would encourage anyone else that feels the same way to call as well.

Olof Ekbergh

[Tom Wolsky]

Is there no PDF file in the Help menu as there is in FCP6?

All the best,

Tom

Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP6,” “Basic Training for FCS2” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop”

[Olof Ekbergh]

“Is there no PDF file in the Help menu as there is in FCP6? “

Not that I can find.

You actually get a crippled Safari window with a lot of links to Apple’s website, most of the manual is on your disc. But it is not a pdf. It is Browser based.

You can only print 1 page at a time not an entire chapter or whole manual.

I guess all the manuals are there but it is a real pain to deal with.

I would be happy to pay $50-100 for real hard manuals. Less for PDF’s, but there really should be pdf’s.

Olof Ekbergh

[Tom Wolsky]

And of course you have to be on the Internet, which is very unfortunate, and not so easy in many places where news is made.

All the best,

Tom

Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP6,” “Basic Training for FCS2” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop”

[Andy Mees]

the old PDF manuals are gone, replaced by html versions of the manuals … but whilst they are a re far cry from the perfectly good pdf manuals we had before you shouldn’t be having performance issues with them and you certainly shouldn’t need internet access

you can find the local FCP manual by right clicking the FCP application icon and choosing Show Package Contents from the context menu, then navigating to Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Resources/finalcutpro_help/usermanual … double click the file named index.html to open it in a browser window

[Olof Ekbergh]

There are a lot of parts of the help system that requires an internet connection. The only PDF is the:

Final Cut Pro 7: Exploring Final Cut Pro
Provides a fast‑paced introduction to the main features and tasks in Final Cut Pro, encouraging hands‑on exploration for new users. This document is a PDF version of the printed Exploring Final Cut Pro manual.

Have you noticed that if you don’t navigate to the index page through package content you don’t get a full Safari window.

It is better when you open this page then you can use tabs for marking pages and create shortcuts. Printing is still a major pain.

I know a lot of manuals come this way but I think it is a big mistake and we should point that out to Apple.

Maybe Apple is doing this to be nice to all the people who write manuals and training sites. But I still think it is not nice for users. We deserve full PDF manuals.

Apple could easily do this and post them on the WEB.

Olof Ekbergh

[Kevin Monahan]

No PDF manuals that ship with FCS 2009. Sorry.

Kevin Monahan
http://www.fcpworld.com
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro

[Scott Sheriff]

Not a deal breaker, but I agree that a down-loadable PDF would be a good option.
I have the FCS2 manuals on my (windows) laptop, and refer to them often when I’m not in front of the Mac, often to answer questions.
Also very handy when teaching. It allows me to look up things I can’t remember without disrupting the session.