Apple Final Cut Express 4 - Manual (Page 968)

968 Part XI Project Management and Settings
Reconnecting Media Files Automatically
If you process your media files outside of Final Cut Express, Final Cut Express detects
the change in the media file and any clips pointing to that file become offline. This
can be inconvenient, especially when you are constantly modifying media files in
another application.
You can configure Final Cut Express to always reconnect modified media files in all
circumstances. This means that when you modify media files in other applications, the
clip does not go offline when you return to Final Cut Express.
To configure Final Cut Express to reconnect modified media files:
1 Choose Final Cut Express > User Preferences.
2 Click the Editing tab.
3 Select the Always Reconnect Externally Modified Files checkbox.
Warning: Be cautious when you select this option, particularly in a shared
environment (such as an Xsan environment) in which media drives are shared for
collaborative editing. If you (or someone else) modifies media files in other
applications, Final Cut Express will not notify you when clips are reconnected. For
example, if someone changes the duration of a media file in Soundtrack Pro,
Final Cut Express does not warn you that the clip duration has changed. If you want
to ensure that clips are only reconnected when you use the Open in Editor command,
deselect the Always Reconnect Externally Modified Files checkbox.