Cannot bind Selection tool to 'A'?

Question

Hi all,Primarily a Premiere Pro user here (and prior to that, FCP 7). I've been dabbling with After Effects a bit at work which runs a 2015 build of After Effects. I've been getting familiar with the software and noticed there was no way to rebind keyboard shortcuts. Decided to try it at home now too with of course the latest build: 2019 (16.1.2)Was pleased to see it had a customizable keyboard shortcuts UI a la Premiere, but was shocked when it wouldn't let me rebind the selection tool to "A" (like I said, come from a FCP7 background and have migrated that to my Pr and Ps workflow with no issue). Is there any particular reason why this is?I noticed that the Anchor Point keybind is in that spot, and also cannot be removed. Does After Effects really not allow me to switch the binds? I'd love to trade the two: V for Anchor Point and A for selection tool. Am I missing something here? Seems to defeat the purpose of customizable keyboard shortcuts if I cannot in fact customize them the way I'd like.Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Martin_Ritter · Accepted Answer

Dave,I partially agree, but also disagree. From professional-grade software, especially when the precedent to have full control has been established among many other Creative Cloud applications (such as Premiere and Photoshop) that are offered at equal or lesser cost, it should be a standard.Since Premiere and Photoshop are incredibly customizable, I had no problem switching over from FCP 7 previously and tailoring the apps to my taste. In a working deadline environment including training several other staff members - the expectation of everyone to break down and rebuild their muscle memory at the cost of efficiency and potentially missing slot makes it not always viable, and with a switch to Premiere: it was all possible.I get that some things will need to be re-learned, as After Effects is in fact different than Premiere but that's completely expected. The fact that I cannot bind a primary tool to a basic key without modifiers however, is a bit silly. That's what I expect out of iMovie or Windows Movie Maker, not professional software.Either way, it is what it is for now, and persist I shall. However fingers crossed Adobe can improve the system further.The shortcut system is still based on a simple text file located in (on Windows)C:\Users\Martin\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\After Effects\16.1\aeksYou can give it a try to edit the key there. At least, that's how one used to personalized the keys back in the old days.*Martin

Kyle Hamrick · Answer

I haven't looked to see if something similar is already there, but this sounds like a great thing to post on the Uservoice:After Effects: Hot (1827 ideas) – Adobe video & audio apps

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