How can we improve Premiere Pro?

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New shortcuts to choose where to PASTE 'on the fly'! (highest, lowest or same video track)

Timeline pasting is a daily, 'everybody-uses-it' editing function. So why has it still not been improved?

Vastly improving pasting is simple: Give users the ability to choose 'on the fly' where they want their media pasted or insert-pasted:
1. on the lowest enabled track (current behavior)
2. on the highest enabled track
3. on the same track in was copied from

By providing new shortcut options, EVERYONE would be happy:
1. Users who like the current way pasting works wouldn't notice any difference.
2. Users who want media pasted to the highest enabled track where there's always the most free space to paste into would simply need to assign keyboard shortcuts to the 2 new functions offered: paste and insert paste to highest enabled track. If they plan on using these new options most or all of the time, they could set it to the default Ctrl+V and Ctrl+Shift+V shortcuts, while assigning other shortcuts to the current Paste/Paste Insert functions, should they ever want to use them.
3. Users who would like media pasted/insert-pasted to the same video tracks it was copied from would also be taken care of, with 2 new keyboard shortcut-assignable functions. Once again, if this is the pasting method the user wishes to use most or all of the time, they could assign their current keyboard shortcuts to these 2 new functions, while giving new shortcuts to paste/insert paste to the highest and/or lowest video track, should they so choose.

Given how often editors need to paste media on their timeline, this should be given priority over other new features that, while useful, may only ever be used seldomly by few editors.

In case the benefit of allowing editors to paste to the highest enabled track is still not evident enough, please see the attached illustrations. In the all-too common editing example/'Game' illustrated, pasting to the highest vs the lowest enabled track would require 2 steps vs 5.

PLEASE improve timeline pasting! It's long overdue. Thank you!!!

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Pierre Louis Beranek shared this idea  ·   ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →

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  • Pierre Louis Beranek commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    @Mike, what you suggest is an interesting idea, but it would have to be an on/off option. Not everyone would want it to work that way, myself and Alex Elkins included.

    Btw, what's overly complicated about letting users set shortcuts for the pasting function(s) they want? ;)

  • Alex Elkins commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    @ Mike Parsons

    I try to avoid touching the mouse so there's no way I want the position of the cursor to suddenly start affecting keyboard shortcuts.

  • Mike Parsons commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Overcomplicated.

    Id suggest paste ALWAYS pastes to track your cursor is currently over, doesnt need to be active or clicked just hover cursor where you want it pasted and paste.

  • Pierre Louis Beranek commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    SOLVED!!!!!! There's no more need to wait for Adobe to fix this anymore! There's a new plug-in that just came out that allows us to simultaneously set shortcuts to 3 different pasting behaviors:
    1. Paste to lowest enabled track
    2. Paste to highest enabled track
    3. Paste to same track

    This new plug-in doesn't just provide a solution to Pr's horrible pasting, but it also provides solutions to well over a dozen other common FRs. You can find out more about it here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1638270639681590/permalink/1766467540195232

    You're welcome! ;)

  • Trevor Asquerthian commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    My problem with pasting in this way is those extra tracks above v5 now need managing / deleting (same as crazy way PP creates extra timeline tracks when source audio tracks exceed the number of target audio tracks ).

    BTW You could get this behaviour (paste time newly created tracks) with current arrangement- just lock all tracks before pasting.

    The current arrangement works for me - I just deselect all targets for V&A before pasting.

  • Pierre Louis Beranek commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Hi James,

    You wrote "but the current means of choosing which track to paste to is cumbersome". I agree. The option to paste to the highest enabled track would solve this problem once and for all.

    Imagine a sequence with 5 video tracks that are always enabled. You only ever place media on V1-V4. This means that V5 would always be free to paste into without zero risk of overwriting something by mistake, and no need to ever adjust which tracks are enabled beforehand. Problem solved! (Note: If you copy or cut/paste media that occupied 2 or more tracks, new V tracks will automatically be created. To continue pasting to V5, simply don't enable any of the newly created tracks)

    Editing in a timeline with no tracks enabled is impractical given Pr's reliance on track enabling for basic shortcuts to work (cut, go to next/previous edit point, etc.)

  • James Clark commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I'd vote paste to same track, but actually I think the bigger issue here is that the best choice is always whatever the editor decides, but the current means of choosing which track to paste to is cumbersome which is why this issue even needs to be discussed. Track activation determines where the clip pastes to, but in order to specify which track, one needs to jump through a few hoops except in ideal circumstances where no tracks are currently activated.

    If there was a deselect all tracks command. https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911233-premiere-pro/suggestions/35351707-deselect-all-tracks-shortcut
    Then you could pick which track to paste 2 in as little as 2 steps. First, deactivate all tracks, then press a key for which track you'd like pasted to.

    That said though, it'd be nice if, when multiple tracks are activated, or when no tracks are activated, the default behaviour were paste to the existing track. It's the least ambiguous as you typically expect things to go to the same place as previously unless otherwise stated. Like saving a project or exporting a video defaults to the last place you selected for either of those things.

  • Tom Morton commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Fair play 👍 didn't know Adobe reps would join, sometimes it feels like they like to keep just a leeeetle bit of distance between them and their customers.... although there's definitely exceptions! Will look you guys up.

  • Trevor Asquerthian commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I’m in favour of the FB pressure too - lots more folks interact there. Both FB & UV are pretty rubbish for searching though.

  • Pierre Louis Beranek commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Hi Tom,

    The point of the Facebook group is to offer another venue where people who care about Pr can discuss ways to improve our favorite NLE. It isn't a replacement to Adobe User Voice, but rather an addition to it, with posts linking back to official FRs here. Plus there are some Adobe reps in the group. It's a new group, so it's still very small, so if you'd like to check it out and join, you're more than welcome!

  • Tom Morton commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    What's the point of discussing software changes on facebook if Adobe don't pick it up? If you do it all here, Adobe can stay in touch with the discussions.

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