Chet Davis’ Favorite Power Key Shortcut Commands

You need to have the Power Key software loaded and activated on your Casablanca unit to use the following. Note that there is a special Power Key keyboard available from MacroSystem that has specific key icons silk-screened onto some keys.

The most important key to memorize while using Power Key is ‘F2” (function key f2).

This key displays for you on your interface monitor every applicable power key command/short cut for that screen!

On the bottom of you Power Key keyboard, you have two unique symbols – refer to your manual for the appearance of these keys:

• The button that represents the Storyboard (further referred to as the ‘SB’ key (on either side of the Space Bar)

• The button that represents the Screens or menus (to the right of the Space bar between ‘Storyboard key’ and ‘Control’

On the top row of the Power Key keyboard you have the following controls:

Record, Stop, Play and Pause

Pressing these will playback the selected Scene in the Scene Bin

To playback/pause in the Storyboard, press the ‘SB’ key plus Play, Pause or Stop

When playing back the Storyboard stop playback by pressing the ‘H’ key. This cool feature drops you back into the Edit screen enabling you to see exactly where you are in the Storyboard. Pressing ‘SB’ +’F11’ (playback button) will begin playing the Storyboard again at the scene where you stopped. This is valuable when doing a quality check, allowing you to note a scene where you may want a revision.

If you wish to have multiple scenes in your scene bin with the same length (they must be in order in your Scene Bin):

Trim the first scene and then press ‘Ctrl’ + ‘T’ and it will trim the next scene to the right to the same length. You can hold these two keys down and it will rapidly move through your scene bin executing this Repeat Trim.

Press ‘SB’ + ‘T’ keys to trim a scene that was already added to the Storyboard. This opens up the normal Trim menu but you are affecting the scene IN the Storyboard which will then also copy your action onto the original in the Scene Bin

Click on ‘c’ in the Edit Screen and the selected Scene in the Scene Bin will be copied (it has an added “.k” as a suffix to note it is a copy).

You can Cut (remove) a Scene in the Storyboard by highlighting that scene and pressing ‘SB’ + “X’.

Copy a Scene in the Storyboard by highlighting that scene and pressing ‘SB’ + ‘C’

You can then Paste (Add) that cut or copied Scene back into the Storyboard by pressing ‘SB’ + “V’ (placing it to the right of the selected position in the Storyboard).

(To benefit from this, you will need to first name your scenes and remember them... an edit list!) To find a scene in the Scene Bin, press ‘Ctrl’ + “f” and then type in the scene name in the pop-up menu. Click OK and your scene will be found for you!

To find a scene in the Storyboard, do the above but also press the ‘SB’ key.

You can select a Scene in the Scene Bin and find its position in the Storyboard by pressing ‘SB’ + ‘f’. This will select and highlight its location. If you have multiple copies of that scene in the Storyboard you can press the keys again for the next entry.

PowerKey can make creation of photo montages a much quicker process. Select the first photo/scene in your Scene Bin and then press the 'Control'+ ‘Storyboard' and ‘insert' keys on your keyboard. This will add the first clip to the Storyboard while also selecting the next clip in the Scene Bin.

You then repeat and add the subsequent scenes by pressing 'Control' and 'r'. This brings up the Repeat menu, click on 'r’ and select the number of scenes you wish to add to the storyboard (up to 999). Clicking on OK (or Return/Enter) will take just a few moments to add all those scenes to the Storyboard. You can then also do this in the Transitions screen, repeating the process of adding a Crossfade or any other transition and then repeating the process.

PowerKey provides four ‘memory’ buttons that allow different functions in each menu screen. For me the most useful is in the Transitions window. Select a Transition effect you use most often, for me I use Crossfade. Once the effect is highlighted, press ‘Control’ + ‘M1’ (function key F5). Then select an additional transition like Motion 3D2 Thick Sided and press ‘Control’ + ‘M2’ (function key F6). Now each time you are in the Transition window and press M1 it will automatically select the Crossfade effect.

This function allows you to apply the volume of any audio sample to the one after it (in the same track to its right). In the „Audio Mix“ screen, set the volume of an audio sample to the required level. Then press the key combination of ‘Ctrl’ + ‘e’ so that the next sample on the same audio track becomes active and takes on the volume level of the previous sample. The „Repeat function“ can be used here as well

Select an audio sample on one of the audio tracks in the „Audio Mix“ screen, and pressthe ‘m’ key. To mute multiple audio samples – press the ‘Ctrl’ + the ‘m’ key This will mute the selected audio sample and move to select the next sample to the right. By holding down this combination you can mute multiple audio samples very quickly - even in the Original audio track