Timeline Bugaboo

[Elwood]

Hi, A-Team, I'm back with hat in hand.

Something weird and irritating is happening. I've learned a lot about PRE Version 10, by simply working in it (along reading the Muvipix book, plus Lynda.com tutorials) and I'm nearly finished with my project, but I need help with an ongoing bagaboo.

When I drag a video clip to my timeline, the timeline "opens up", which obstructs the timeline layers and makes it hard to put the clip in the correct layer. When I say "opens up", I am trying to describe how the layer doesn't remain simple like it appears before I do anything--and how it looks when the Lynda.com instructor's video does when he drags and drops a clip. Instead, in my timeline, it opens another layer or two to reveal a batch of stuff hidden within the layer.

I've checked my preferences trying to find out what's wrong to no avail. Ditto for searching the book and watching videos on Lynda.com. Have I made this clear? Hard to describe. And, here's the thing, every once in a while, I can drag a clip onto the layer without this thing happening.

I'm on Mac OS X Version 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) with a 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processor & 7 GB of memory.

Thanks,
-Elwood

[Steve Grisetti]

A screen capture of your timeline in this case would be extremely helpful, Elwood. I'm not at all clear what you mean by your timeline "opens up" and "obstructs the timeline layers" or even the "back of stuff hidden within the layer" that's revealed.

[Elwood]

Thanks, Steve, for responding. I didn't get a notification of your response, so I decided to pop in to see if someone answered my question. Good thing I did. I guess I didn't check a box or something. Will look for that this time. (I found it and did so this time!)

Anyway, I put a screenshot QuickTime of the thing in a folder here in my Muvipix gallery.

http://muvipix.com/cpg/albums/userpics/ ... uvipix.mov

As you can see, when I drag the Bug-inShoe-Merged.jpg file into my timeline, the easy to see timeline "magnifies" or "opens up" which makes it hard for me to place my file. I went back and forth a couple of time, just so you could more easily see what I'm talking about. I didn't place the file in the timeline on this test.

Thanks again,
-Elwood

[Steve Grisetti]

Thanks for the screen capture.

But that is definitely unlike anything I've seen in 9 years of working with this program! I'm not sure what's going on!

About my only thought is that it might be worth going to the Premiere Elements' Window menu and selecting Restore Workspace to reset the workspace. Then I'd go to the Window menu and select the option to Show Docking Headers.

If that doesn't fix it, I'm not sure what would. I'm running this software on an XP, a Windows 7 machine and a Mac and I'm not seeing anything like that on any!

[Elwood]

Hi, Steve-

Leave it to me to discover the strangest anomaly in Premiere Elements 10. It sure is damned annoying. Thanks, though, for your response.

I have done the Restore Workspace and, thanks to your book, I recently clicked open the Show Docking Headers, all to no avail. I'll try again. I may uninstall the software and reinstall to see if that helps. That won't screw up my work in progress, right? I've been saving it to an external drive and it's also saved with my Mac Time Machine. I wish I knew another Mac user to see if they had this problem. As I said, I knew it was a bugaboo, because both your book and the Lynda.com tutorials show a big difference between how strange moving files into my Timeline is and the way it should work.

Best Wishes,
-E

[Peru]

Maybe a video driver issue?

[Elwood]

Looks like I'm not the only Mac person having a problem with the Timeline.

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/961559?start=0&tstart=0

That person is on Lion and I'm still using Snow Leopard, plus the problem is somewhat different, but not completely dissimilar. I'm looking at the thread right now, and I see that you, Steve, were trying to help with that Strange Color issue, so I guess they are two different animals. Both hard (but I hope not impossible!) to resolve, though.

-E

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

.....so I guess they are two different animals.

Yup. Lion and Snow Leopard. (Sorry couldn't resist)

[Elwood]

Painful! A good one, but still...

[Elwood]

Hi, Steve, I'm back. I finished my project despite the anomaly in PRE that I wrote about in this thread some months back. Unfortunately my client (a jazz musician) changed his mind and decided he didn't want a mix of animation and live action (despite his loving it at first) and, since his album isn't being released until next year, I can't post it anywhere until then--if at all. Too bad, I did a lot of work & would have liked to see it published, but at least a learned a lot about merging animation with live action in Premiere Elements.

I've begun a new project and, in an attempt to avoid that problem when I dragged a clip to my timeline, I uninstalled PRE Version 10 and then reinstalled it. It didn't help, the timeline still "opens up", which obstructs the timeline layers, making it impossible to see where to drop my clip. Hard to describe, but it makes me crazy.

I'm on Mac OS X Version 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) with a 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processor & 7 GB of memory.

Has anyone here on Muvipix heard about this since my last posting? Will it do my any good to contact Adobe directly about this?

Thanks,
-Elwood

[Steve Grisetti]

As I said at the beginning of this discussion, a screen capture of your desktop would be very helpful. It always helps if we can see what's going on.

Meantime, have you tried launching the program while holding down your keyboard's Ctrl+Option+Shift keys? This will clear a preferences file that commonly corrupts in Adobe products. (In fact, doing this -- and the Windows equivalent Ctrl+Alt+Shift -- on a regular basis is pretty common housekeeping among professionals.)

Also, have you tried going to Premiere Elements' Window menu and selecting Restore Workspace to see what that does?

[Bob]

That is really weird. It's not an issue of "opening up" something in the timeline. Instead, the timeline window is not being drawn properly. Instead of the timeline, it's drawing what's on the screen above the timeline. The active element (the cursor) is being drawn correctly and as you move the cursor you see the vertical line appear when you reach the beginning or end of a clip. It's just that the wrong part of the video buffer is being painted in the timeline window.

I've never seen this before in Premiere Elements. It's definitely a bug, but it's not clear where it would be. It could be an issue with the Mac interface library. Or, it could be a combination of your hardware, drivers, and software. I'd normally say this should be reported to Adobe. But, when I just now tried it, the Adobe Bug Report page was not bringing up the report form when Premiere Elements was selected from the drop down selection box on the page. A new release is due out shortly, I'm not sure if that is why, but they are probably going to want concentrate on the new release. You could try customer support, but they will probably charge you.

[Elwood]

Thanks, guys, I'll try the tricks you suggest and I'll see about making a very short video showing what happens when I drag a file to the timeline. I appreciate your quick response.
-ES

[Elwood]

Steve, etc., here's a video that I hope will help clarify what's happening when I drag clips or images into my Premiere Elements 10 timeline:
http://muvipix.com/cpg/albums/userpics/ ... -small.mov

I haven't yet tried employing the suggested tips sent to me yesterday, but I will soon.

Thanks again, E

[Steve Grisetti]

Ouch! That is crazy, Elwood! I have no idea what would cause behavior like that! It's definitely not anything I've ever seen.