6.1 Final Cut Pro 7

InqScribe supports export to Final Cut Pro 7 via FCP's own XML format. Because of the complexity of this format, it is best for you to generate a template XML file based on a sequence in your project. InqScribe can use such a template to generate a series of subtitles that match an initial model subtitles that you create.

You can find general guidance for exporting data elsewhere.

6.1.1 Exporting to Final Cut Pro

Here is the process for exporting to FCP in a nutshell. If you hit a snag, check our troubleshooting tips.

1. In FCP, create a new sequence with a single text generator that will serve as the template. Adjust this text generator's attributes (font, size, position, etc.) to suit your needs.
2. In FCP, select the sequence (and just the sequence) and export it as an XML version 1 file (InqScribe can handle FCP XML version 1, 2, and 3 files, but practically there's no difference in terms of subtitle support.)
3. In InqScribe, select File > Export > Final Cut Pro XML... to bring up the export dialog. In the dialog, click the "Load From File..." button and select the XML file that was just exported from FCP.
4. Choose a target file, and click the Export button. InqScribe scans your XML file looking for potential template generators. If it can't find any, it'll complain. Otherwise, it grabs the first one that it can find. InqScribe then uses this template generator item to create as many new generators as there are subtitles in your transcript, and exports a new XML file.
5. Now go back to FCP and import this new XML file into your project.
6. If you need to change the appearance of the subtitles, just go back to your original template sequence and modify the sample text generator there. Then export that sequence, and repeat this process.

If you just want to see what the subtitles might look like in FCP, there's a shortcut.

1. In InqScribe, select File > Export > Final Cut Pro XML... to bring up the export dialog. In the dialog, click the "Use Default" button.
2. Choose a target file, and click the Export button. InqScribe use the default template to create as many new generators as there are subtitles in your transcript, and exports a new XML file.
3. Open your FCP project and import this new XML file into your project.

Note that the default option may or may not work for you because it makes a lot of assumptions about your project settings. For best results, we recommend exporting your own custom template from FCP and using that instead.

Watch Your Line Breaks

As far as we can tell, FCP will not soft wrap subtitle text. (At least, not with the text generators listed above.) That means that you need to ensure that hard line breaks are in the right place within InqScribe before you export to FCP.

A tip here is to set the font and size of your transcript to what you'll use within FCP for your subtitles. Then set the width of the transcript window to the width of the subtitle region you plan to use in your video. That will give you a rough approximation of where you'll need hard line breaks.

Which Text Generators Work?

InqScribe currently only works with text generators that represent the text of the subtitle as plain text in XML format. This rules out some generators, like the BorisFX family, that store subtitle text as binary data. It also rules out some default generators, like Lower Third, that store subtitle text using multiple XML nodes.

Here's a current list of text generators that we know work.

• Crawl
• Outline Text
• Scrolling Text
• Text
• Typewriter

If you want to verify whether a generator not on this list will work, you have two options. One is to simply try it and see whether InqScribe can handle it. The other is to create the XML template from FCP, and then inspect it with a text editor.

You're looking for the parameters associated with the generator. These should be located down the following nested path: sequence/media/video/track/generatoritem/effect/. InqScribe looks for a parameter named "Text" in that location. A typical example is:

<parameter>
	<parameterid>str</parameterid>
	<name>Text</name>
	<value>Sample text</value>
</parameter>

If your generator also uses a single parameter named Text, it should be fine.

6.1.2 Troubleshooting Tips

Here are our FCP troubleshooting strategies, in roughly escalating order.

Make sure you're using Final Cut Pro 7

Final Cut Pro X uses a different XML format that is not currently supported by InqScribe.

Try an HTML Export

This can be useful if you're able to load an XML file into FCP, but the subtitles aren't showing up where you thought they would.

An HTML export is a quick way to verify that InqScribe is breaking your transcript up in the way that you expect. Make sure that “Export OUT points” is checked, since this mimics how FCP XML exports are parsed. Export the file, and open it in your browser.

Try using our FCP XML Template

First see if you can export a FCP XML using the default template that comes with InqScribe. Can you then import this file into FCP? Are the subtitles appearing at the right times?

If you're not seeing individual subtitles with our template, the problem may have to do with how InqScribe is breaking your transcript into separate entries.

Try the Text Generator

If you're having trouble with a text/subtitle generator not on the generator list shown above, try creating a custom template using the default Text video generator. If you can get this to work, and your preferred generator isn't working, there may be a fundamental compatibility problem. Send us sample files (see the next step) and we'll let you know if there's a solution.

Send Us Sample Files

Finally, if you're still stumped, send us some sample files and we'll see what we can do. Here's what we need to see:

• The original InqScribe transcript (e.g. sample.inqscr).
• The file you exported from FCP and want to use as a template (e.g. from_fcp.xml).
• The FCP XML file InqScribe exported using the two files shown above (e.g. from_inqscribe.xml).
• It would also help if you could describe what happens when you try to import the file into FCP and where the process is breaking down.