copying timeline between projects

[videovillageidiot]

in "premiere elements 2 in a snap" chaptr 8, page 168 says, "Lastly, you will discover the ease of copying your Timeline, or parts of it, from one project to another."

i don't see where the procedure is actually described in that chapter. i am using pe4 and would love to know how to do this so i don't have to repeat complicated editing.

thanks!!

[Paul LS]

Unfortunately this can not be done in Premiere Elements. There is a work around using Clip Mate but it is not straightforward... issues with the audio. Best way to do it is to export youe timeline as a DV-AVI... File>Export>Movie... then import this into the new project. You can not break the clip apart in the new project but you can edit it further.

[videovillageidiot]

Unfortunately this can not be done in Premiere Elements.

but the book said!!!!!!!! was that possible in pe 2 and not pe4?

also, if i convert to dv-avi will the clip retain the effects info i have used or will it just be a clipp that displays the effects but does not have the effect properties?

[Paul LS]

If I recall it wasn't even possible in PE2. Unfortunately it will just come in as a clip... the effects will be embedded in the clip and you can not edit them.

[momoffduty]

I have exported to a DV-AVI often and still do. The file isn't compressed and looks just like it does in your project except for the fact it is one piece melded together. The effects & clips are still there, just not the individual elements. A useful purpose would be to apply one effect to all the pieces at once. Example: If you have 6 pictures in a grid and want them to transition at the same time or move them around as a group which requires only keyframing the group once instead of keyframes on all of the 6 individually.

[videovillageidiot]

thanks for the responses! i guess i still need clarification on what the author (Steve/Chuck) actually meant in chapter 8, page 168 of premiere elements 2 in a snap.

[Steve Grisetti]

I think we trusted what Adobe told us at the time.

But, we later learned, in the real world, it didn't work without lots of problems.

[Chuck Engels]

I am pretty sure it didn't work in version 1, it did work in version 2, but then they took it away again in version 3 and it has never been added again. RJ has a way to copy and paste most everything using Clipmate. There used to be a 'how to' at the Adobe forum but it was lost in the shuffle with the new forum software.

[Bill Hunt]

That has been a possibility in PrPro since about 1.5, IIRC. My guess is that Adobe intended to include it in PrE and chose to not do so for some reason. The Importing of a Project into another has many great values, including saving some mildly corrupted Projects that will no longer open directly in PrPro.

It's gotten even more powerful with CS4.1, as one can now specify the individual Sequences (think mini-Projects), and there is no need to Import the entire Project.

I do this very often with my "canned" intros and "endings," plus some Play First-type credits. Great to do the smaller Projects separately, and then just Import the ones that are needed for the current Project - they are still fully editable, so text, etc. can be easily modified.

Good luck,

Hunt

[Chuck Engels]

For some reason they had problems with the copy/paste between projects especially with audio.
For some reason the rest of the project would copy fine, but the audio would be missing.
I think they just gave up and don't consider it a priority.

[Bill Hunt]

Chuck,

Thanks for that. You know, there is still a problem with Audio and Copy/Paste, when one is doing it even between Sequences. I first noticed this in PrPro 2.0, but it still happens in CS3 & CS. Sometimes it works, and sometimes, the Audio goes flat-line. Seems to be no rhyme, or reason for when it will work and when it will fail.

Appreciated,

Hunt