How to make video editing faster?

I discovered I LOVE video editing.

But I'm super-slow at it.  

I'm using Da Vinci Resolve 18 and I feel I'm not taking advantage of how powerful this software is to improve my workflow.  I know a few keyboard shortcuts, but finding the keys each time is almost as time-consuming as doing it by mouse.  There's just so much.  

So two things

1) how can I make it easier to find the keys on my keyboard (a keyboard that has pretty much lost the letters because I touch type and never replaced it when the letters wore out.  It works for typeing.)  I'm also working in the dark a lot and the keyboard is under the desk in a drawer.  so getting it out to see what keys I need takes time.  

Are there textured stickers or something?  Or would this just be icky?   What am I not considering?

2) can new toys fix this?

Black Magic, the people who make the editing software, sell these amazing things to help you edit.  Keyboards and a controller that have a dile and a few keys that are easy to programme.  I can't afford either of those.  But wow, they are going on my wishlist!

I did find this cute little controller.  



What are your thoughts?  Do you think it would work?  Or would I be getting pretty junk to put on my desk?  

Or maybe it's just a case of hoping the problem will go away if I throw money at it and there is a better solution I haven't considered yet?  

I tried stickers for adding new labels and they did not last long. Removing the glue after the stickers peeled off was the most annoying part.
How about getting a new keyboard with white through-key illumination? (Yes, it will not solve the problem that you can't see though the drawer.. unless it gets a glass plate?)

I ended up going with the Vaydeer 9-key pad


It's pretty cool and I can programme the keys to be single touch or long hold or two at once.

Now I just need to write down which keys I use the most, but I think this is going to half the time I spend editing video.  

Not as cool as the Black Magic one, but an awesome option for someone on a budget.


The other thing I was considering was gaming hardware.  I saw a game controller at the second-hand shop and I wondered how hard it would be to programme the buttons to do my bidding?  Gamers need fast reaction time and programmable keys.  But in the end, the connector didn't look like it would work with my computer so I went with the simple keypad.  Also, I don't know how long it would take to build up muscle memory for that gaming controller but I am already great with the nine-key pad with either hand.  

So I spent part of the evening programming this little keypad and WOWZERS!  It's so much easier than I expected.  It took a while for me to figure out how to do two keys at the same time (ctrl+z for example) but once I did, it is brilliant.  

This is going to save so much time!  

Why are people not talking about this for video editing?  

I haven't done much video editing since university.

All I remember is it's a lot easier when you get into flow state.

And then six hours pass and you stand up, feel dizzy from the sudden movement, cold because your body was mostly still for six hours, and your stomach decides to remind you it exists. Or at least that was my experience.

I can totally imagine these external controllers kicking butt. There's a lot of repetitive actions. I imagine you can probably program keyboard shortcuts even without one.

I wonder if the numpad could be repurposed...
The software should allow to change the key combinations, so assigning new keys on the numpad should be possible.

Sebastian Köln wrote:I wonder if the numpad could be repurposed...
The software should allow to change the key combinations, so assigning new keys on the numpad should be possible.

It looks like a number pad, but it's actually a programmeable keypad.  I can assign different values to the keys or even a combination of values.  

The value is that I'm usually only using about 6-8 key shortcuts per session, but finding them on the keyboard with my left hand (while my right-hand works the mouse) takes a lot of time.  This way I can pre-programme the key pad to have the keys I use the most all in one place.  

Here's a different approach where they treat editing like gaming and programmed the most used keyboard shortcuts around the WASD keys.  



That seems like a great idea for me because the hand doesn't have to move and we don't have to take the eye off the screen to find the keys.  

The downside he suggests is that it's hard if you are sharing a computer, but DaVinci resolve (and maybe other software) have different key shortcut profiles so it's easy to save one and then switch it back to the default when you end the day.