Click Anywhere in Timeline to Move Playhead (CTI) and Scroll to Zoom

[Joshua Jackson]

As a long-time Vegas user, I have the same irritations.
JJ

[Kevin Monahan]

Hi D.J.
In Premiere you have to left-click the time ruler to move the playhead (CTI) position whereas in Vegas you just left-click anywhere in the timeline to move it.

I remember this irritated me a little when I moved from Avid to Final Cut Pro 1 many, many years ago. I think the reason for the difference and the adjustment I needed to make had to do with what is referred to as “mode based” editing.

In Avid you could not move a clip in the Timeline unless you were in “segment mode” so you had the freedom to click anywhere in the Timeline to move the playhead around because a clip could not accidentally be moved.

In Final Cut Pro 7 and earlier and Premiere Pro you have no constraints about being in a specific mode to move a clip, so the area where you can control the playhead has to be limited to an area where you cannot accidentally select and move clips. I hope that makes sense.

I am not familiar enough with Vegas to make the determination if it is a mode based NLE or a mode free based NLE. If it’s the latter, now you now the reasoning behind why moving the playhead in mode free NLEs is guided by the Time Ruler.

I will tell you that after a while, I preferred the freedom of mode free NLEs over mode based NLEs, however, the feeling of being slightly constrained regarding access to the playhead will subside after awhile. You have to accept that one issue to fully appreciate the freedom mode free editing.

Now, if Vegas is actually mode free, it would be interesting to know how you move the playhead around without accidentally selecting and moving clips.

If this is answer is unacceptable to you, or you have ideas on how to overcome your issue, you can always make a feature request for the option you want: https://adobe.ly/feature_request

I would love to switch these commands so scrolling zooms and alt+scroll moves the position in the timeline.

Make a feature request for a new preference to swap mouse control for these functions.

Regards,
Kevin

Kevin Monahan
Support Product Manager—DVA
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe
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Posts by kev_mon

[Lori Lin]

Hi! Does anyone know if there is a solution for this yet? I’ve finally made the jump from Vegas to Premiere Pro CC 2017. I love the dynamic link with After Effects, and the ability to render with Adobe Media Encoder. But the switch is not coming without its share of frustrations.

I also want to click wherever I want in the timeline and have the playhead go where I click. Can’t find any way to set this behavior in PP preferences, but I’m hoping that I’ve just missed it. Anybody got it figured out?

Cheers,
Lori

[Taran Van hemert]

I have a solution for clicking anywhere to move the playhead/CTI.
https://youtu.be/O6ERELse_QY?t=23m40s

My solution uses right click, (and therefore needs extra programming) but you massively simplify things by binding it to mbutton (middle mouse button) Or a side button, or macro key, if you have those on your mouse. I don’t like using mbutton, since it requires too much force to press.

Code for this is here:
https://github.com/TaranVH/2nd-keyboard/blob/master/Taran‘s%20Premiere%20Mods/PREMIERE%20MOD%20-%20Right%20click%20timeline%20to%20move%20playhead%20MOD.ahk

Holding ALT and scrolling to zoom is still absurdly broken. This is ID #108 on my problems spreadsheet.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dVJb7kI_ZETLavrplfARgn9gL8HUpvkq6A0jCPxqA3w/edit#gid=1133868629
Submit a bug report, as I have…

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