Looking for a hardcopy of a practical users guide for FCE. I've seen a few, wondering if there's one that's better than the others.

A hardcopy of the Apple manual would be nice too.

For your consideration:

"Final Cut Express 4" - Editing Workshop, by Tom Wolsky (includes data/sample disk)
Published by Focal Press, 2008

I purchased my copy at Amazon

Jeff

I would also recommend this book. The author is also on the FCE forum and answers many questions for people new to FCE.

Hard copies are great - but $25 subscription to Lynda.com for one month will probably teach you as much if not more than you will get from many books out there - simply because they show you How, What and Why rather than you having to figure it out from a book.

Lynda.com vids are a nice visual introduction, but they gloss over and leave out a lot of features. And the exercise files don't actually require you to do much other than follow along, though they are still helpful. And as a reference guide with no index, videos are a clumsy way to find a specific answer.

If you want a hands-on type tutorial "Final Cut Pro - Professional Video Editing" by Diana Weynand is an excellent title. It comes with video projects that you work on from the get go. I'd say the coverage is similar to Lynda.com's FCP Essential Training title but much more extensive and challenging.

If you just want a reference guide, the Apple manual is the most comprehensive I've seen.