Can one lock the playhead?

craftech wrote on 5/23/2008, 4:13 AM

I'd like to know the answer to that as well Bob. Truly frustrating.

John

rs170a wrote on 5/23/2008, 4:15 AM

Bob, I don't think you're missing anything.
What I do in that situation is drop a marker and then do the split.
An annoyance, to be sure, but that's my workaround.

Mike

Chienworks wrote on 5/23/2008, 4:23 AM

Ctrl-click will select an event without moving the cursor.

rs170a wrote on 5/23/2008, 4:26 AM

Looks like I did miss something :-)
Thanks for the tip Kelly.

Mike

farss wrote on 5/23/2008, 4:40 AM

Thanks but Ctl+click adds the event to the selection.
I want to remove anything selected and make what I click the only thing selected prior to doing a split.

Bob.

TheHappyFriar wrote on 5/23/2008, 5:14 AM

I just normally zoom in with the scroll wheel really quick, click on the playhead line on the clip & then zoom out.

Chienworks wrote on 5/23/2008, 5:15 AM

Shift-Ctrl-A first to deselect everything, then Ctrl-click to select that one event.

craftech wrote on 5/23/2008, 5:33 AM

I just normally zoom in with the scroll wheel really quick, click on the playhead line on the clip & then zoom out.
========
That's what I end up doing as well. Works as long as you don't move something.

John

craftech wrote on 5/23/2008, 5:35 AM

Shift-Ctrl-A first to deselect everything, then Ctrl-click to select that one event.
=======
Have to try that one. Thanks Kelly.

TheHappyFriar wrote on 5/23/2008, 5:59 AM

That's what I end up doing as well. Works as long as you don't move something.

CTRL+Z! :D

but that doesn't happen that often any more. especially with quantize to frames on.

Tim L wrote on 5/23/2008, 6:26 AM

I played around with solutions for this when it came up on the VMS board a few months ago. I'm not at a computer with Vegas on it right now, so I can't test this again, but one solution I offered at that time was:

- right-click the desired event, then hit Escape.

This ends up selecting the event you right clicked on, and de-selecting any events that were previously selected. So then you can hit S and split just that event

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=12&MessageID=555828

Tim L

Norm Chan wrote on 5/23/2008, 6:32 AM

What works for me is hold mouse button, hit "Esc" then release mouse button, works every time.

TheHappyFriar wrote on 5/23/2008, 6:34 AM

just tested: right clicking doesn't move the head & just selects that event.

good one! Now I can work better with my tracball! :D

DrLumen wrote on 5/23/2008, 6:57 AM

I've used Ctrl+Click for a while but Right Click works much better.

Thanks Tim.

johnmeyer wrote on 5/23/2008, 7:41 AM

I always do Kelly's Ctrl-Click, but then just Ctrl-Click a second time to un-select the event. It's a little cumbersome, but it works fine.

I'll have to try the right-click -- that might be easier.

[Edit]

I just tried right-click, ESC -- I like that better. That's pretty close to perfect. Thanks!

farss wrote on 5/23/2008, 7:42 AM

Thanks everyone,
good to have so many options. Now to see which one suits the way my hands and brain works most fluidly..

Bob.

rmack350 wrote on 5/23/2008, 7:51 AM

ctrl+click the event

Rob

megabit wrote on 5/23/2008, 11:14 AM

Bob,

Thanks for asking this question - I've also had this this annoying problem but was embarrassed to ask :)

Tim L wrote on 5/23/2008, 1:36 PM

I've got to admit, I myself had forgotten about the "Right Click then Escape" until I saw this thread and searched out the VMS thread where we discussed this same problem a while back.

I don't spend a lot of time editing -- I'm just a hobby user -- but I bet in the past week I probably did the "click real careful and try not to move the cursor" thing a dozen times myself, forgetting my own advice from the VMS thread. (So yeah -- glad this topic came up!)

But I also have to admit that Norm Chan's solution -- left click the event, hold it, and hit Escape before you release the mouse -- sounds very promising to me. I'll need to try that one out -- if I still remember it the next time I sit down to Vegas...

Tim L

rmack350 wrote on 5/23/2008, 2:26 PM

Yes, much better.

It's still a kludgy workaround. I'd much rather be able to click in the track area without moving the cursor or making a time selection. I'd somehow manage to work even if I had to make time selections up in the ruler area (instead of anywhere you click!)

The other thing that would help and that I've been looking for lately is a key command to select None. Normally that's ctrl+shift+A. <EDIT>Strike that. I thought it wasn't there, but now that I check for the 4th time I see it's there.</EDIT>

Rob

alfredsvideo wrote on 5/23/2008, 3:23 PM

Shift-click seems to work for me in version 8, but in previous versions it was Cntrl-click

rmack350 wrote on 5/23/2008, 4:19 PM

Bob pointed out that both Shift-click and Control-click add to your current selection. So if you have an event selected then these will add another event to what you have selected, which could be a problem.. So the possible ways to go are to ctrl+shift+a to make sure nothing is selected, or to mousedown then press esc before you mouse-up, or to do the right click thing.

All in all, it seems like a lot of gymnastics to do something that shouldn't be a problem in the first place.

Rob

johnmeyer wrote on 5/23/2008, 4:35 PM

Shift click would be a bad choice because it will add not only the event over which your mouse pointer lies, but everything between there and the last selected event. Therefore you might select a LOT of additional events. By contrast, Ctrl-click will only select and add that one event under the mouse cursor. If it was already selected, then you can immediately Ctrl-click a second time to get it selected.

farss wrote on 5/23/2008, 5:24 PM

All in all, it seems like a lot of gymnastics to do something that shouldn't be a problem in the first place

I couldn't agree more and we're only talking about how to select an event without moving the cursor. That's only one of the issues bought about by the whole way the T/L area works in general and the cursor movement in particular. Try hitting an event FX or Pan/Crop icon. If you miss the cursor moves. Seems to me we're missing two simple controls:

1) A Handbrake that simply locks the cursor. Click On / Click Off Icon on the transport control area.

2) A way to lock focus to the current track. I use a Shuttle and I'm forever being tripped up by the track focus changing. SImple task. Track one titles, track two main video. Go to trim an event in track 2 by pressing the trim head / tail buttons on the Shuttle but track 1 has somehow gotten focus so I've jumped from the start of the T/L to the closing credit and about to trim that. I've now completely lost where I was at.

Bob.