DropYourFiles

Blog · October 25, 2026

How to import comments into Final Cut Pro.

“At 1:12 the music’s too loud, at 1:40 can we lose the door shot, and the logo at the end looks blurry.” Twelve notes in an email. Now find each one.

Final Cut Pro can’t read an email, but it does read markers. So the job is turning your client’s notes into markers on your timeline. You can type them in by hand, have a file write them for you, or have them come straight from where your client left them.

By Vitaly Kibenko

What Final Cut can hold: markers.

A marker in Final Cut Pro sits on a frame and carries a line of text. Apple’s guide lists three kinds: standard markers are blue, to-do items are red, and chapter markers are orange. A to-do item can also be marked completed.

To-do markers are the ones that suit client notes. Each one is a task sitting on the frame it’s about, and you mark it completed when you’ve made the change. So getting the comments in comes down to one to-do marker per note, on the right frame.

An editor leaning back, eyes closed and smiling, in a dark edit suite, under the line “and get lost in the edit again.” A client’s message, “Can you put all the notes in one email?”, is struck through, and under it: “They land in Final Cut.”
Your client’s notes come into Final Cut Pro as markers on the timeline, instead of an email you retype.

The manual way: type them in.

  1. Play to the moment your client means

    Find 1:12 on your timeline. If your client was watching a player rather than your timeline, it may be a frame or two off.

  2. Add the marker

    Press M to drop a marker at the playhead, or Option-M to drop one and open its text right away.

  3. Type the note and make it a to-do

    Type your client’s words, then Control-click the marker and choose To Do. You can also select it and press Shift-M to open its controls.

Fine for five notes. Twenty notes is twenty trips up and down the timeline, hunting down every time your client wrote.

The file way: FCPXML.

Final Cut imports FCPXML files (File, then Import, then XML), and an FCPXML file can carry markers at exact frames, to-do markers included. So a list of notes can become markers without typing each one, as long as something writes the file for you.

Our free notes to Final Cut markers tool writes that file. Paste the notes with their times, pick your timeline’s frame rate, and download the file. It runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded. What arrives is a clip the length of your film that shows nothing in the picture and carries every note as a to-do marker. Copy it, put the playhead on the first frame of your film, and press Option-V to paste it as a connected clip.

The free notes to Final Cut markers tool with five lines pasted from an email. Four lines with a time are listed as to-do markers at 00:00:12:00, 00:00:41:00, 00:01:05:00 and 00:01:58:00, and the greeting and sign-off are listed as left out.
The free tool with notes pasted from an email. Four lines with a time become four to-do markers; the greeting and the sign-off are left out.

Straight from where your client left the notes.

Pasting still means someone typed the times. Better if your client leaves each note on the frame itself and the file gets written from that.

Several review tools export client comments for Final Cut. Frame.io’s comment export lists Final Cut Pro 10.4 and later, along with Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve and Media Composer.

  1. Your client leaves notes on the film

    On DropYourFiles, your client opens your link, pauses where something needs to change and types. No account. Each note keeps its exact second and your client’s name.

  2. You download the notes for Final Cut Pro

    Download them from the project. The frame rate is read from your master file, and drop frame is handled at 29.97 and 59.94.

  3. Import and paste

    File, then Import, then XML. Copy the client notes clip, put the playhead on the first frame of your film, and press Option-V.

  4. Tick them off

    Each note is a red to-do marker on its frame. Mark each one completed as you make the change.

A client’s page on DropYourFiles: a film of a man walking toward the surf, an Approve button under it, and a column of notes beside it, each with a time such as 0:05, 0:11 and 0:24 and the name of the person who left it.
Your client’s side: the film open at a note, and every note beside it with its second and the name of whoever left it. A sample project with invented names.
The studio’s Notes view for the same film: the notes marked on the film’s timeline, a list of notes with times, and Send to Final Cut Pro and CSV buttons above them.
Your side: the same notes on the film’s timeline in the project, with Send to Final Cut Pro and CSV right above them.

Get the frame rate right.

Markers sit on frames, so the file has to know your timeline’s frame rate. If it’s wrong, every note drifts a little further the later it sits in the film. In the free tool you pick the rate; on DropYourFiles it’s read from the file you uploaded, and you’re asked when it can’t be.

Questions.

Can Final Cut Pro import comments from a CSV?

Not directly. Final Cut reads markers from FCPXML, so a list of notes has to become an FCPXML file first. The free notes to Final Cut markers tool does that for a pasted list.

What’s the shortcut to add a marker in Final Cut Pro?

M adds a marker at the playhead. Option-M adds one and opens its text so you can type the note straight away.

How do I make a marker a to-do in Final Cut Pro?

Control-click the marker and choose To Do, or select it and press Shift-M to open its controls.

Does this work for Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve?

On DropYourFiles, not yet: markers go to Final Cut Pro. For any other editor, you can download your client’s notes as a spreadsheet or a plain timecode list on every plan.

Keep reading.

New here? See what DropYourFiles does, or compare the plans.

Sources

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