‘Hand Tool’ temporary toggle

[Mitch Rosefelt]

For the sake of consistency with the other programs in their suites, they should certainly have made this feature available along. IMO, its a case of software designers not understanding the mindset and working habits of production artists, or perhaps just not listening.

[Val Feytser]

A little clunky to setup, but works great because you have to set it up only once. This is how I did it:

1. Buy Keyboard Maestro ($36)

2. In KM Preferences check “Launch Engine at Login”. This way I don’t have to remember to start KM Engine every time I open Premiere Pro.

3. Download following KM Macro file I created:
4791_pptogglehand.kmmacros.zip

4. In KM select “File -> Import Macros…” then select the previously downloaded file

5. You’re done.

NOTE: The only downside is that once you release the space bar, the “Hand Tool” will switch to “Selection Tool” and not the tool that was previously used. This is ok with me because 95% of the time I use the selection tool anyway.

Also, once you import the macro file you can modify it in any way you want. I hope, though, that Adobe “fixes” this by allowing us to map this function within Premiere.

[Daniel Baznai]

Hey guys

I know this is a really really old thread but I recently encountered this annoyance (lack of functionality for the middle mouse button in premiere) in PR CS5.5 and after searching for a solution I decided to write my own script that emulates the AE behaviour.

It’s written in AutoHotkey. Provided source code and compiled Exe. If you’re concerned about the .exe, just save the source code as something.ahk (you need AutoHotkey installed, you can also compile it yourself into an exe afterwards).

It only works if Premiere window is active (it searches for the window name). Once you click the middle mouse button, the script pushes the H key and replaces the Middle button with the Left button. Once you let go of the middle mouse button, the script pushes the V key and lets go of the Left click.

TL;DR It switches between the select tool and the hand tool. Works exactly like AE middle mouse button.

Source: https://pastebin.com/ccgZhgMy
Autohotkey site: https://www.autohotkey.com/
Compiled exe https://www.speedyshare.com/k8ta3/PRmiddle.exe

Mirror with rar:
https://www.fierbinteanu.com/dan/autohotkey/PRmiddle.rar
https://www.fierbinteanu.com/dan/autohotkey/PRmiddle.exe

[Sak Wak]

This script is so amazingly close to being perfect. The problem is if you have a track selected everything is moved forward in time. This at least seems to be the case for me. Is a there a way to fix this ?

In the mean time I fixed another issue with it I was having. If you hold down alt and scroll to zoom in (Like in AE), and then press and hold the middle mouse button afterwards to move around the timeline, it instead selects. I’ve fixed this by adding a simple SendInput {Alt Up} right after the MButton::

Like this:

#IfWinActive Adobe Premiere Pro

MButton::
SendInput, {LAlt Up},
Send, {h}{LButton Down}
KeyWait, MButton,
SendInput, {LButton Up}{v}

Return

However I can’t figure out a way to fix the first issue I mentioned

[Sak Wak]

Oops my mistake. Your script is perfect, it’s my addition that sucks.

[David Darcy]

I made an account to this site for the sole purpose of telling you that this works perfectly and is actually way better than the “Hold Space and click+drag” functionality if After Effects that I was hoping to emulate…
Now I want this script to enable the same thing in After Effects haha. Awesome work!

[Jp Pelc]

Hey Val I am looking for the same functionality as well (hold space to use hand tool), and I am wondering if Keyboard Maestro and your macro will work on CC 2015 along with OSX 10.10.3? I don’t want to buy the software if it’s not going to work!

[Bill Jackson]

The links for Daniel Baznai’s exe are dead – could someone please repost a working link? Much appreciated. 🙂

[Bill Jackson]

UPDATE: Here is the exe file.

https://f1.creativecow.net/12150/prmiddleexe

The links for Daniel Baznai’s exe are dead – could someone please repost a working link? Much appreciated. 🙂

[Daniel Baznai]

Here you go 12166_prmiddle.exe.zip

Source for the script (in case the files die again)

#IfWinActive Adobe Premiere Pro

MButton::

Send,{h}{LButton Down}
KeyWait, MButton
Send, {LButton Up}{v}

Return

You need autohotkey installed to run it/compile it.