What in the world is this?

Widetrack wrote on 1/5/2016, 12:10 PM
I was creating a number of text boxes with different ins and outs, and apparently I pressed some key--no idea which one--by accident and I get weird grey text boxes on the track that I can't move or delete or affect in any way.

And the actual video that the texts are supposed to go over doesn't show up in the video preview and the preview window image is now long and short instead of a simple 1920 x 1080.

What the hell did I do, and how do I get rid of it???!!

I have a screen shot but can't figure out how to post it here.

Running vegaqs pro 12 on a core2 duo in Win 7.

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 1/5/2016, 12:20 PM
It would help if we could see what you're talking about.

Can you post your screen shot to another site and link to it?
Widetrack wrote on 1/5/2016, 1:43 PM
I never really use photobucket, but this URL should work:

http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee457/stormhill/Vegas%20problem.jpg

Notice how the video track at the bottom should be showing in the Preview window, but it's not. On the top 2 tracks, the 2 grey rectangles appeared and I can't get rid of them.

The preview window is the wrong shpae and is showing text from 2 different locations, I think.

Chienworks wrote on 1/5/2016, 1:54 PM
My first guess is that you've solo'd a track, one not displayed in that screenshot. That effectively mutes other tracks. That wouldn't explain all the issues you're seeing though.
ChristoC wrote on 1/5/2016, 1:57 PM
The dotted boxes are your "Safe Areas" display - does not affect output. There's a little "Overlays" icon just above the preview screen - toggle that to "Off".
Former users wrote on 1/5/2016, 1:59 PM
Place your cursor on the line between two of the titles.

Doubleclick on the area.

You are in Expanded Edit mode

That should clear it.
Widetrack wrote on 1/5/2016, 7:41 PM
DonaldT: BINGO!

Hard to beleive after all these years wallowing around in Vegas I don't believe I ever even heard of Expanded Edit Mode.

And now I are one, if you will.

Thank you Mr T. and thanks to Chienworks and ChristoC too. BTW, there were no muted tracks and the Safe Area lines I know about, and are not part of the problem.

PeterWright wrote on 1/5/2016, 8:11 PM
Glad you got it sorted Widetrack.

Expanded Edit mode doesn't usually change the appearance of the Preview Screen - did exiting this mode fix that too?
Widetrack wrote on 1/5/2016, 9:02 PM
Peter:

It did. Do you use this mode? From a brief read of the Help file, I got the impression it may be one of those handy tricks that are too complicated to ever use.

Tim
PeterWright wrote on 1/6/2016, 12:16 AM
No I never use it - it's a hangover from the old days - I think it was Vegas which pioneered the ability to "overlap on same track to get transition". Expanded mode was what older programs such as Premiere used - two video tracks plus transition track.
In effect that is what Vegas is still doing, but it does it all on one track - maybe they kept Expanded mode to help people coming from other programs.
Chienworks wrote on 1/6/2016, 7:32 AM
Yep. That's pretty much it exactly. There were occasional comments from some folks trying out Vegas who indicated their belief that Vegas couldn't do crossfades or transitions because they'd put clip A on track 1, clip B on track 2, and there was no way to add a crossfade or transition to the overlap. They simply couldn't get the idea of putting both on the same track and overlapping them there. Expanding track layers gives the same visual layout that they were used to from other systems.

I've used it on occasion too, but not for crossfade purposes. Sometimes i've accidentally ended up with a shorter event placed completely inside a longer event. It's not always obvious this has happened just by glancing at the timeline since there is no crossfade indicator. Expanding track layers moves the clips into separate tracks and then it's easy to spot the error.