Sync Your Keyboard Shortcuts & Recipes in Capture One Pro
Have you ever created a specific processing recipe for a client or a new keyboard shortcut, and then realized it's not available because you're on a different computer? Well, have no fear and put your USB flash drives down, since today I'll provide a solution using Dropbox and a few Terminal commands that has worked like magic for me. As a digital tech, you should always be looking for ways to improve your workflow and efficiency, and this is one easy way to do just that.
I currently use two Mac Pros in the studio (one for capture and one for editing), MacBook Pro laptops for location, and other computers in the office. I wanted a setup where if I added a recipe or modified a keyboard shortcut on any of these computers, the changes would instantly push to all of the others. Here's how to do it:
1. Make sure Dropbox is installed on each computer you wish to sync. I recommend having a Dropbox account that's only used for work and then another for personal use. Here's a link to download the Dropbox installer.
2. Start this process on the most up-to-date computer. This is the computer that's already setup just the way you like it. We'll then push and sync these settings to your other computers.
3. Close Capture One Pro if it's open.
4. Create a folder in Dropbox called "CaptureOne" or whatever name you wish. This is where the master copy of your shortcuts and recipes will live.
5. In the Mac Finder, go to your Capture One Pro settings folder "Capture One" and move your shortcuts & recipes to Dropbox.
Click, Finder -> Go to Folder... -> ~/Library/Application Support/Capture One/
Drag both your KeyboardShortcuts folder and Recipes folder to the Dropbox folder you created in step #3. My Dropbox folder is called "CaptureOne".
Note: Recipe folder names in Capture One Pro should be named according to the version number of Capture One Pro you are using. If you are using version 9.1 the recipes folder should say "Recipes91", and if you are using version 9.3 the folder would be "Recipes93". The same format follows if using a different version. In this article, I'll refer to a generic "Recipes" folder to refer to whatever RecipesXX version you are using.
6. Create a symbolic link for Capture One Pro that points to our Dropbox folders.
Open the Terminal (~/Utilities/Terminal) and type the following at the prompt. We will first move into the settings directory (same location we visited in the Finder in step #4), and we will then create the soft links to link Capture One Pro to our Dropbox folder.
cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Capture\ One/ln -s ~/Dropbox/CaptureOne/KeyboardShortcuts ./KeyboardShortcutsln -s ~/Dropbox/CaptureOne/Recipes91 ./Recipes91That's it! Move on to setting up other computers below. Note: In steps 3 & 4, if you used a different name in Dropbox,make sure to replace CaptureOne with whatever folder name you chose.
7. Setup other computers.
For each working computer that you'd like to sync, we will follow similar steps as we did above.
1. First, use the Finder to visit the "Capture One" settings folder:
Finder -> Go to Folder... -> ~/Library/Application Support/Capture One/
On these computers we are going to trash the current KeyboardShortcuts and Recipes folders, but you may first want to view the recipes and keyboard shortcut templates to make sure there's not any that you wish to save. To save, simply drag the recipe from the current location to the new recipes or KeyboardShortcuts folders in Dropbox.
2. The next step is to trash the old Recipes & KeyboardShortcuts folder and then reissue the commands from the previous step to link this computer's Capture One Pro with Dropbox. Once again, on the new computer you'd like to sync, enter the following:
cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Capture\ One/
ln -s ~/Dropbox/CaptureOne/KeyboardShortcuts ./KeyboardShortcuts
ln -s ~/Dropbox/CaptureOne/Recipes91 ./Recipes91
Repeat steps above for each computer you wish to sync
8. Open Capture One Pro and watch the magic! You'll now have a unified set of Recipes and KeyboardShortcuts. However, if you make a change on one computer, you'll need to quit and restart Capture One Pro on the other computers for the changes to load.
I hope you find this tip useful in your own workflow. If you have any questions, comments, or further suggestions, please leave a comment below!