i am trying to view my time line without rendering. is there a setting in my sequence viewer that allows me to do this? i haven't been on mac in years and need some help..thanks

First of all: What needs rendering? Filters, transitions, stills, etc need rendering. Your footage does not. If you can't see basic clips without rendering, then your sequence settings are out of whack

If the footage is all good and you just want to see effects, etc, that is all up to your RT settings. And those are determined by: Your version of FC and your computer; power, etc

RT settings can be accessed by the pulldown menu at the left upper corner of your Timeline. Try playing with those and see what you get

thanks

my RT settings in the pulldown menu of my Timeline were off.
I am sure I will have many more easy questions...thanks again

i am trying to view my time line without rendering. is there a setting in my sequence viewer that allows me to do this? i haven't been on mac in years and need some help..thanks

For transitions, filters, animated text scrolls, ect... press Option+P and it will playback (slowly) what the final rendered output will look like without waiting for an acutal render. You'll still need to render before outputing to tape or the like, but it saves time when working on a project. Perfect the edit then select render all and walk away.

Grant

I make my RT settings for Unlimited RT and both Playback settings for Dynamic for the best results. Unless your using some uber fast Mac Pro, I wouldn't set the Playback settings on High.