Keystroke for Event pan/crop?

DouglasClark wrote on 9/26/2003, 5:27 AM
Vegas has great keyboard control of many things, and ShuttlePRO really takes advantage of this. But I have hit a snag.... I would like to be able to switch back and forth from timeline to Event pan/crop using the keyboard (and ShuttlePRO)....to minimize mouse clicking.

I can open Event pan/crop by clicking the button on the clip, or using right-click context menu, but I would like to open it from the keyboard. Anybody know if there is a keystroke-combination for this?

When in Event pan/crop dialog, I can use Alt-0 to return cursor focus to track-view....but I haven't found a keystroke to return focus to the Event pan/crop dialog (or any effect dialog for that matter).

A related issue is: When you open pan/crop dialog, the cursor focus is on the Preset textbox (the first field in the tab-sequence--press tab and Preset name becomes highlighted). Frankly, it would be more convenient if the cursor focus started at the current keyframe position when the dialog opens, so one could quickly go to first/last keyframe with home/end etc. I have discovered that you can make the current keyframe position the active cursor position by pressing tab and then shift-tab when you first open pan/crop. Unfortunately, my original ContourPRO only takes single keystrokes.

Anybody have any keystroke solutions? Or is this a wish-list item to the Madison crew? By the way, the above also applies to the Track Motion dialog.

Douglas Clark

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 9/26/2003, 7:08 AM
My personal guess as to why this keystroke isn't available is that it's because there is no easy way to select an event with keystrokes either. When you use the mouse to open Pan/Crop, you're also selecting the event you want to work with at the same time. I suppose a keystroke for the Pan/Crop window could be useful if the event you want to work with is already selected, and i suppose this could be true a significant portion of the time. However, if you want to switch to a different event you'd have to use the mouse anyway, and since you're already clicking with the mouse, why not click on the Pan/Crop button while you're there?
mark30 wrote on 9/26/2003, 7:13 AM
That sounds like common sense, Chien!

Selecting an event and then pressing a keystroke is more work then selecting the pan/crop while selecting the event in one click..

Mark
DouglasClark wrote on 9/26/2003, 7:45 AM
You're both right...but when fine tuning some pan/crop keyframes, I went back to the timeline several times to adjust the ends of the clip, leaving pan/crop open. I've been playing with programming of my ContourPRO, so I naturally looked for a keystroke to jump to timeline (Alt-0) and also for one to jump back to pan/crop...but I didn't find that one. So I asked.... And I'm still hoping someone knows a keystroke for this.

And now, continuing on keyboard shortcut fanaticism, I have another related keyboard question/wish for pan/crop: It does not appear to be possible to select multiple keyframes using the keyboard (in order to delete them). You HAVE TO select with mouse. It would be nice (and logical) to be able to select multiple keyframes with ctrl-shift-right/left, but this acts just like ctrl-right/left to move selection to next/previous keyframe. It would also be handy to be able to use ctrl-A in this context to select ALL keyframes. Anybody agree?

(My arm is very sensitive to click-drag mouse operations....so I'm always on the lookout for keyboard shortcuts to minimize this. Vegas is very good in this respect...but not everywhere.)

Douglas Clark
mark30 wrote on 9/26/2003, 8:19 AM
I'm not at home right now, so I can't check and I don't know for sure, but isn't there a keystroke for view?

So, if you have the pan/crop window, and you go to the timeline you should be able to use Alt + ? to open the video events window? Just like you can choose Video Preview, Media Pool etc... you might have to press twice if the first time you press it it disappears but if you press it twice it might open up again?
You should be able to see it under view in the menu?
johnmeyer wrote on 9/26/2003, 10:39 AM
When you use the mouse to open Pan/Crop, you're also selecting the event you want to work with at the same time.

Chienworks: Actually this is, unfortunately, not true. The way you describe is how it should work, but it doesn't. When you select Pan/Crop or Event FX buttons, the current event remains selected, not the event that contains the buttons you just clicked.
Chienworks wrote on 9/26/2003, 11:50 AM
johnmeyer: quite true and i concede your point. However, the event that is being effected by the Pan/Crop window is the one that you've clicked on even though it's not selected, and in this context i believe that is what matters.