Exporting
Getting footage out: drag a clip or a highlight anywhere, export to a folder, share, and the audio choices.
Every export copies or remuxes. Nothing is re-encoded, so a copy is lossless and any codec your Mac plays works.
Drag
Drag from the grid, the table, the inspector, Quick Look or the clip window onto Finder, a Final Cut event or timeline, the BetterEdits timeline, or any app that accepts files.
| What you drag | What lands |
|---|---|
| A clip | Its original file |
| A highlight | A file cut to the highlight's range, named after the highlight |
A highlight's file is made on its first drag and kept in renders/. It is made again when the highlight moves, the clip's file changes or the export audio setting flips. Cuts land on keyframes, so a highlight can start a fraction before its in-point.
Copy
⌘C puts the selected clips' files on the clipboard. Paste in Finder for real copies.
Export to Folder
Export to Folder… is in the context menu and in the inspector's menu. Pick a folder. Every selected clip's original is copied there under its display name; a name already taken gets "name 2".
For clips with two or more audio channels the panel has an Audio menu:
| Choice | Result |
|---|---|
| Original tracks | The file as it is |
| Both mics merged (mono) | One mono track from every enabled audio track, averaged |
| Left mic only (mono) | The left channel alone |
| Right mic only (mono) | The right channel alone |
The default follows Export › Consolidate to mono in Settings. A rendered file gets one AAC mono track; the video is copied sample for sample.
A progress bar at the bottom of the window shows the count. When it finishes the folder opens in Finder.
Share
Share… in the context menu or the inspector's menu opens the macOS share sheet for the selected files: AirDrop, Messages, Mail and the rest.
Highlights to a folder
From the terminal, betterlibrary highlights export <id>… --to <folder> --numbered cuts highlights out in the order given, prefixed 01, 02, and so on, so a folder lands in an edit in order. See The command line.
Audio while previewing
Play › Consolidate to mono, in Settings, sends every channel to both speakers while playing, so a lav on the left and a shotgun on the right are heard together. The file is not changed. See Settings.