Sorry, I meant to say that I Shift+Clicked both the first and the last to select the desired events, then I hit Ctrl+G.

That didn't make a group. I tried right clicking selecting Group and Create New Group. That did not work either.

I tried Ctrl+Clicking every single event that I wanted grouped and Ctrl+G -- That failed also.

It is not creating a group from the events that I want.

These events are photos on the timeline. Nothing fancy. JPG's and PSD's.

Kirk

Don't press the control key, just the "g" key.

j razz

OK, that does something different, but still Vegas does not treat it like a group like I would expect. Maybe I am having trouble with wrapping my head around what a group is in Vegas.

Using the G alone obviously creates a group in that when I select one event in the group, all events lite up as selected. I can select any event in the group and move left or right on the timeline, and they behave as a group.

HOWEVER, when I try to shorten or lengthen the group, only the event that I am actually on gets effected. If I try to drag the group to another track, only a single event gets moved. That isn't how I would expect a group to behave.

In Illustrator, Photoshop, or Corel Draw, a group is "Locked" together very firmly. Aparently this isn't so in Vegas.

How can I shorten say 40 events that are on the timeline for 5 seconds each to be 4 seconds without doing each event? That is pretty much what I need to do.

Thanks,

Kirk

First there is a setting in preferences that you can make the stills that you add any length. I believe the default is 5 sec.

If you have a bunch of stills on the time line, change one to the length you want and hit copy. Then highlight the others and choose paste event attributes. But other attributes will be pasted as well.
If you have auto ripple engaged the time line will expand or conhtract to fit the new lengths. remember to unengage it.

HOWEVER, when I try to shorten or lengthen the group, only the event that I am actually on gets effected. If I try to drag the group to another track, only a single event gets moved. That isn't how I would expect a group to behave.

And that's not how it's supposed to behave so my guess is that you're still not doing something correctly.
At the risk of repetition, I'll review the steps.
Click the first image.
Hold Shift down and click the last image so that all images are highlighted.
Press the 'G' key to Group.
All selected events are now grouped and will move as one.
Now here's the missing step.
To shorten then, place the cursor at the end of the last image.
Hold down the Ctrl button.
You'll see a ~ symbol appear under it.
Continue to hold the Ctrl button and drag the group backwards to the desired length.
That's it :-)

Mike

"HOWEVER, when I try to shorten or lengthen the group, only the event that I am actually on gets effected."
Use the Edit Detail window: select items in Edit Details Window > enter new duration > Press enter.
Also, with photos you can use the stretch method (Ctrl + drag in/out)

" If I try to drag the group to another track, only a single event gets moved."
Press Shift+G before to move the group.

HOWEVER, when I try to shorten or lengthen the group, only the event that I am actually on gets effected.

Hold down Ctrl and drag the edge of the event on either end. This changes the playback rate for every event in the group. Assuming you've created the group correctly, which I believe you have by now.

In Illustrator, Photoshop, or Corel Draw, a group is "Locked" together very firmly. Aparently this isn't so in Vegas.

Well, you can't expect a similar function in different programs to work exactly the same, especially when their mediums (and publishers) are completely different. ;-)

The main idea for grouping events in Vegas is to keep their time-based positions consistent but leave the flexibility to move each one to different tracks if necessary. Notice that even when you move a member of the group to a different track, they all still move along the timeline relative to the event you're moving.

Rob

>Hold down the Ctrl button.
>You'll see a ~ symbol appear under it.

OK, that was the missing step to get them to all size together. I have used that when shortening audio, but didn't realize you needed to use the CTRL for sizing a group.

Thanks.

Wow, That edit details window is pretty cool. Never been in there. I was thought I had a pretty good handle on Vegas back in 4 and 5, and have upgraded every version, but haven't done any type of big project in a very long time. Some of that stuff must have been added since I used to use Vegas all the time.

Looks like I should pick up a training video and review the interface and new features.

Thanks,

Kirk

Yeah, I expect things to be different in different programs. Just sometimes you approach one program with the mindset of another and it sometimes makes things difficult to wrap your mind around. For instance, Illustrator and Corel Draw are very similar programs in the niche they fit in, but the way you do things is greatly different between the two.

Thanks,

Kirk

I remembered about the pasting attrubutes, but can't use that because I have custom crops and zooms on every still and don't want to mess that up.

I have figured out the ctrl-click to compress the group, and that will work good.

Thanks,

Kirk

On the toolbar there's an "Ignore Event Grouping" button. Just check if that isn't on.

Just another advice on groups:

When you use grouping extensively, make it your second nature to always Remove from group before deleting anything - with a long and crowded timeline, it's so easy to remove much more than you wanted...

Hey Megabit, I hear you. Been there, done that. Good point to remember.

uhhh..... ?

"Good point to remember. "

" . . , make it your second nature to always Remove from group before deleting . ."

How about, dear hearts, a WARNING that says "This IS part of a Group. If you delete me, then my chums will also be deleted?"

PLUS a highlighted "GROUP" group-identifier??? Then we would REALLY know!

Grazie


"Grazie ~ Making things "