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  #1  
Old 01-16-2020, 03:22 PM
moshuajusic moshuajusic is offline
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Default Out of curiosity: why L ' P ; instead of arrow keys?

Aside from centering the window with the left arrow key, the arrow keys don't do anything when you just have the playhead flashing in the edit window. (Right?) And surely some other key could've done the centering thing. So why burry navigation in qwerty? The arrow keys are tactilely better and more intuitive. Is this some legacy thing they never bothered to update?

Last edited by moshuajusic; 01-16-2020 at 04:09 PM.
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Old 01-17-2020, 04:42 AM
musicman691 musicman691 is offline
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Default Re: Out of curiosity: why L ' P ; instead of arrow keys?

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Originally Posted by jscomposer View Post
Aside from centering the window with the left arrow key, the arrow keys don't do anything when you just have the playhead flashing in the edit window. (Right?) And surely some other key could've done the centering thing. So why burry navigation in qwerty? The arrow keys are tactilely better and more intuitive. Is this some legacy thing they never bothered to update?
I don't quite get what you're trying to do. Centering the window? Please explain.
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Old 01-17-2020, 05:59 AM
TrentWilliams TrentWilliams is offline
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Default Re: Out of curiosity: why L ' P ; instead of arrow keys?

Use the arrow keys for navigating edits, and selections.

The [P, :, L, "] keys navigate the edit window.

*It makes more sense when you have 'edit and timeline' unlinked, then the '[, ], o, 0' keys are more easily accessible.
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  #4  
Old 01-19-2020, 02:12 PM
moshuajusic moshuajusic is offline
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Default Re: Out of curiosity: why L ' P ; instead of arrow keys?

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Originally Posted by musicman691 View Post
I don't quite get what you're trying to do. Centering the window? Please explain.
I wasn't even trying to do that. Just stumbled on it in the shortcuts guide. The right/left arrows shift the edit window so that the cursor is in the center.

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Originally Posted by TrentWilliams View Post
Use the arrow keys for navigating edits, and selections.

The [P, :, L, "] keys navigate the edit window.

*It makes more sense when you have 'edit and timeline' unlinked, then the '[, ], o, 0' keys are more easily accessible.
But the arrow keys don't navigate edits and selections except for putting the cursor at the end or beginning of a selection. And even that's counterintuitive with up = end, down = start. It'd make more sense (to me) for it to be right = end, left = start. And then right & left arrow keys would also move the cursor to the next or previous clip boundary or transient. Up and down arrows would move the cursor up and down tracks. ";" could center the window on the rare occasion that's necessary. And as I've mentioned before, tab to transients ought to be a mod key, not some latching switch, so we could tab to transients or clip boundaries on the fly. Option-shift-right/left currently does nothing, so that'd be a possibility should they ever allow basic navigation with the arrow keys.

I just don't understand why they buried navigation in qwerty while the arrow keys do next to nothing.
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Old 01-20-2020, 08:57 AM
TrentWilliams TrentWilliams is offline
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Default Re: Out of curiosity: why L ' P ; instead of arrow keys?

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Originally Posted by jscomposer View Post
I wasn't even trying to do that. Just stumbled on it in the shortcuts guide. The right/left arrows shift the edit window so that the cursor is in the center.


But the arrow keys don't navigate edits and selections except for putting the cursor at the end or beginning of a selection. And even that's counterintuitive with up = end, down = start. It'd make more sense (to me) for it to be right = end, left = start. And then right & left arrow keys would also move the cursor to the next or previous clip boundary or transient. Up and down arrows would move the cursor up and down tracks. ";" could center the window on the rare occasion that's necessary. And as I've mentioned before, tab to transients ought to be a mod key, not some latching switch, so we could tab to transients or clip boundaries on the fly. Option-shift-right/left currently does nothing, so that'd be a possibility should they ever allow basic navigation with the arrow keys.

I just don't understand why they buried navigation in qwerty while the arrow keys do next to nothing.
It's all about where your hand is resting for the workflow.

Put your hand in the [p ; l ' ] location, look what you have accessible:

Thumb: Play/Stop
Middle F: Up/Down, Edit Select to TL Selects
Index F: Previous, Start/End, Playhead Snaps, TL/TC playhead selects
Ring F: Play Edit Sel, Play TL Sel

and then if you use Keyboard Maestro or similar, you can make [ \ ] your expand view toggle for you pinky finger.

It's perfect.

It just means you can do all of these edit and navigation functions without moving your hand.

If you use your [Shift] modifiers with the arrow keys you can select clips on the timeline. *Deselect your Edit/Timeline link, then arrow keys make more sense.
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  #6  
Old 01-20-2020, 06:03 PM
moshuajusic moshuajusic is offline
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Default Re: Out of curiosity: why L ' P ; instead of arrow keys?

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Originally Posted by TrentWilliams View Post
It's all about where your hand is resting for the workflow.

Put your hand in the [p ; l ' ] location, look what you have accessible:

Thumb: Play/Stop
Middle F: Up/Down, Edit Select to TL Selects
Index F: Previous, Start/End, Playhead Snaps, TL/TC playhead selects
Ring F: Play Edit Sel, Play TL Sel

and then if you use Keyboard Maestro or similar, you can make [ \ ] your expand view toggle for you pinky finger.

It's perfect.

It just means you can do all of these edit and navigation functions without moving your hand.

If you use your [Shift] modifiers with the arrow keys you can select clips on the timeline. *Deselect your Edit/Timeline link, then arrow keys make more sense.
Ah, that's a decent argument. I'd still prefer the arrow keys, but I can appreciate why Avid wouldn't listen to me.

I still think tab to transients should be a mod key, or at least L and ' should work opposite tab and option-tab (for example, tab = to next transient, ' = to next clip boundary). I made a separate thread for that: http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=407513
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  #7  
Old 01-21-2020, 03:22 AM
TrentWilliams TrentWilliams is offline
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Default Re: Out of curiosity: why L ' P ; instead of arrow keys?

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Originally Posted by jscomposer View Post
I still think tab to transients should be a mod key, or at least L and ' should work opposite tab and option-tab (for example, tab = to next transient, ' = to next clip boundary). I made a separate thread for that: http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=407513
You should buy Keyboard Maestro, then you can use whatever keystrokes you prefer.
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  #8  
Old 01-21-2020, 10:52 AM
moshuajusic moshuajusic is offline
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Default Re: Out of curiosity: why L ' P ; instead of arrow keys?

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Originally Posted by TrentWilliams View Post
You should buy Keyboard Maestro, then you can use whatever keystrokes you prefer.
How would that work in this case, since tab-to-transients is a latched setting? Are you saying I could set it so that L and ' always disable tab-to-transients and move the cursor to the previous/next clip boundary? (And have tab always enable tab-to-transients and move the cursor to the next transient?)
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Old 01-21-2020, 11:05 AM
TrentWilliams TrentWilliams is offline
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Default Re: Out of curiosity: why L ' P ; instead of arrow keys?

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Originally Posted by jscomposer View Post
How would that work in this case, since tab-to-transients is a latched setting? Are you saying I could set it so that L and ' always disable tab-to-transients and move the cursor to the previous/next clip boundary? (And have tab always enable tab-to-transients and move the cursor to the next transient?)
Probably. You'd have luck in wiring something between KM and Applescripts i'm sure.
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