How to Use Connect Edit in Final Cut Pro (Q)

Pressing Q with a clip selected in the Browser performs a Connect edit, placing it into the timeline linked above the primary storyline right at wherever the playhead currently sits — the Magnetic Timeline's signature way of adding supplementary content that stays automatically synchronized with a specific point in your main edit. **What 'connected' actually means structurally**: a connected clip is linked to a specific point on the primary storyline (or another connected clip), and if that anchor point shifts in time — because you've trimmed or inserted something earlier in the primary storyline that ripples everything after it — the connected clip automatically moves along with it, maintaining its relative timing without needing manual re-synchronization. **The classic use case**: adding B-roll footage over an interview's audio is the textbook Connect edit scenario — you want the B-roll to stay locked to that specific moment in the interview regardless of any subsequent trimming earlier in the timeline, which Connect's automatic-ripple behavior handles for you rather than requiring manual repositioning every time an earlier edit shifts. **Connect versus a traditional multi-track approach**: editors coming from track-based tools sometimes initially treat connected clips like a simple upper track, but the automatic ripple-following behavior is a genuinely different mechanic — a plain upper track in a traditional NLE doesn't automatically follow timing shifts on a lower track the way a Magnetic Timeline connection does by design. **Where the clip connects from**: Connect edits attach based on the current playhead position and the vertical position you've set in the timeline (how far above the primary storyline, which affects layering when multiple connected clips overlap), both of which are worth confirming are where you intend before pressing Q, since an incorrectly positioned playhead means the new clip connects to the wrong point in your edit. **Connecting multiple clips as a group**: selecting several clips in the Browser before pressing Q connects all of them at once, maintaining their relative order and timing from the Browser selection, useful for quickly laying in a short sequence of B-roll shots that should play back to back over a single stretch of primary-storyline audio without connecting each one individually. **Wrapping connected clips into a Storyline afterward**: if a group of connected clips ends up needing its own internal trimming and reordering — a B-roll montage that plays over a longer stretch of dialogue, for instance — selecting them after connecting and pressing Cmd+G wraps them into a self-contained Storyline, letting you rearrange the internal sequence without disturbing the single connection point back to the primary storyline. **Related shortcuts**: E for Append, the alternative for adding to the primary storyline's end rather than connecting above it, W/D for Insert and Overwrite, the two ways of placing content directly onto the primary storyline at the playhead rather than connected above it, and Cmd+G for grouping several connected clips into a Storyline. **A subtle gotcha with vertical lane position**: when several clips are already connected at different heights above the primary storyline, a new Connect edit's vertical placement is influenced by where you last worked in the timeline, which can occasionally cause a new clip to land in an unexpected lane relative to existing connected content — checking the resulting lane placement visually right after connecting, rather than assuming it landed exactly where a previous similar clip did, avoids layering surprises in a timeline with many stacked connections.