Apple Color 1.5 - Manual (Page 135)

Handles
This field lets you specify a duration of extra media to be added to the head and tail of
each media file that's rendered out of Color. When a project is sent back to Final Cut Pro,
handles allow editors to make small adjustments without running out of corrected media.
The default value is 00:00:00:00.
Note: Although Color doesn’t allow you to preview transition effects as you work, shots
that are joined by transitions are automatically rendered with handles in order to provide
the necessary overlap for the transitions to work. This is true whether or not you’ve set
handles greater than zero.
The Messages Tab
The Messages tab contains a running list of all the warnings and error messages that are
generated by Color while it operates. Messages highlighted in yellow are warnings.
Messages highlighted in red signify that an error has occurred (for example, "Directory
not writable trying to re-save a project."). There are no controls in the Messages tab.
The User Preferences Tab
The User Preferences (User Prefs) tab contains settings that affect the operation of Color
with any project you open. It includes options for customizing control surface sensitivity,
Timeline display, playback behavior, video output, and the bit depth that's used for both
display and rendering.
The state of each of these settings is automatically saved whenever they're changed. If
necessary, you can restore the settings to their original defaults.
To reset the default user preferences
µ
Click Reset Preferences, at the bottom of the User Preferences tab.
135 Chapter 5 Configuring the Setup Room