One feature that Avid users coming to Final Cut Pro often miss is the Avid’s project and user “log in” window where you select the user and the project you are working on. By having this feature Avid allows the user to have a highly customized interface that can be changed for each unique editor who sits down in front of the machine. Multiuser Pro and Multiuser Free is a Final Cut Pro utility that brings some of that functionality to FCP.

It comes from the developers at Chesapeake Systems, the guys responsible for FCP Attic. From the Multiuser Pro description:

Multiuser Pro brings an Avid-like project window to Final Cut Pro. Create multiple Final Cut Pro users within a single Mac OSX user login. Migrate your preferences easily from machine-to-machine in a SAN environment. Create preferences based on a user or project name… do what they said couldn’t be done!

The difference in the Pro and the Free versions are that with the Free version you can’t migrate the preferences or create more than 3 users. There’s a demo movie on the Chesapeake Systems website that steps you through the use of Multiuser Free. The only downside of this software looks to be the fact that you have to quit Final Cut Pro to switch users. This is probably a limitation of how FCP works but since you can change thing in the FCP interface like window arrangements and the keyboard layout it would be perfect if you didn’t have to quit FCP to change the user… but that may not be possible. The above links to the software are on the Softpedia site. Surprisngly Multiuser doesn’t have it’s own dedicated page on the developer’s website. There’s the demo movie but I couldn’t find anything else about it. I’m sure they will get something up soon as Multiuser looks to be a nice solution for an FCP system with multiple users.