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JonnyLP
Participant
January 5, 2018
Question

Cannot scroll timeline horizontally

  • January 5, 2018
  • 6 replies
  • 10153 views

Hi,

It seems there is no way to scroll horizontally on the timeline view? It only scrolls vertically and there is no modifier (control, alt, etc) that allows you to do that. It would be an understatement to say this is really inconvenient and it's unacceptable to have to click and drag on the bar to move my timeline around.

I understand Adobe has not provided an answer on this that I have found at least. Does anyone have a workaround for this?

Appreciate any input on this.

Best,

Jonny.

Additional info:

Running the latest version of Adobe Premiere Elements 18 on 64b - Windows 10

6 replies

B
Benjamin30666328kzie
Participant
April 21, 2024

Note: Just tested it in Premiere Elements 2024, still no possiblity to scroll horizontally using the mouse wheel. It's hard for me to understand how they can ignore such functionality that basically any program on this planet offers. Shift+Mousewheel for horizontal scrolling, Ctrl+Mousewheel for zooming in/out smoothly would be so helpful.

Also, the + and - buttons for zooming seem not to work on my enabled numpad.

N
nilsw34581600
Participant
September 26, 2022

I was quite happy with Premiere Elements, but the lack of this particular feature was almost a dealbreaker for me.

However, I found a solution for me that worked quite well, but it requires an external Macro Tool called "AutoHotkey". 

Install the tool and create an empty textfile with the file ending .ahk. Copy and paste the following lines into the file:

 

^Wheelup::
send, {+}
return
^Wheeldown::
send, {-}
return
+WheelDown::
send, {WheelRight 4}
return
+WheelUp::
send, {WheelLeft 4}
return

 

Run the file with AutoHotkey and now CTRL+Mousewheel will change the zoom level in the timeline. Shift+Mousewheel now controls the horizontal scrolling.

At least for me, this solution immensely increased the usability of Elements. Since there seems to be no plans of including this kind of control natively in the software, external macro tools seem to be the only option right now.

    Thérianthrope
    Thérianthrope
    Participant
    June 28, 2023

    Thanks for the tips, it works with AutoHotKey V1 !

    A
    Arren5FEC
    Participant
    July 31, 2021

    Click on Edit -> Preferences -> Timeline
    In timeline setting, change Timeline Mouse Scrolling from "Horizontal" to "Vertical" as mentioned in the image below. You're welcome. 

      Ann Bens
      Community Expert
      Ann BensCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      July 31, 2021

      That works just fine for Premiere Pro but this is Premiere ELEMENTS: no such preference.

      B
      Community Expert
      Bill SpragueCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      November 3, 2020

      Anybody try grabbing the horizontal bar with their mouse?  The same mouse as the scroll wheel.  Same finger but on a different button.   Between the wheel, left button, plus key, minus key and backslash key, I don't have any trouble finding my way around in the timeline.  

      All that said, it would be fun to edit with the DaVinci Resolve and the Resolve Mini Panel!

       

      Ann Bens
      Community Expert
      Ann BensCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      December 22, 2020

      I still think horizontal srolling should have a modifier key.

      For vertical scroll I can put the mouse anywhere in the timeline.

      For horizontal I need to put it exactly on the bar otherwise it wont work. Mod. key would solve that.

        H
        HomoHab
        Participant
        July 8, 2019

        You're quite right Jonny. This is an obviously serious omission from such an important GUI as PRE. Prem Pro too.

        Just imagine an enlarged PDF that your can grab with a mouse-grip and move its pages around. With Visio diagrammer you hold Ctrl and Alt and similarly move the page around. XnView has a settable grip that grabs pages and moves them. More...

        Computers are an analogue of our physical world, and in that we most certainly move pages around, slide canvases or shove our work to suit us.

        Yes, we all know about Windows' horizontal scroll-bars and blocks within them, but they're a small target, over-sensitive and distracting.

        Adobe - of all the quirkiness-for-the-sake-of-it that you implement in your products, please put a simple horizontal scroll of the timeline function into your editor. A simple benefit for users.

          A
          Anonymous
          August 10, 2020

          I was just checking out the free trial and saw that the timeline could not be horizontally scrolled with the mouse. That's  a deal breaker for me. I don't care if you have to use shift, control, shift+control, or whatever to enable horizontal scroll with the mouse wheel, but for goodness sake, something should enable it.

           

          Additionally, there does not seem to be a way to easily expand each track vertically. I have grown acustomed to being able to expand or contract all tracks vertically in other software I use. The use case here is, sometimes I need to see the audio wave. For instance, suppose I want to match up an audio track with a video track. I'm working on one now where I recorded a music performance live. The performance used a backing track. That backing track didn't come out too well on the recording, so I'm adding it in as an audio track. It would be nice to be able to expand all the tracks vertically with some keyboard modifier + mouse wheel. As it was, I had to manually drag each to expand them. Then I had to drag them again to contract them.

           

          It looks like a nice program, but I really don't want to be fighting an interface in a program that you have to pay for. So, I'll be moving on to something else.

          S
          Steve Grisetti
          Legend
          August 10, 2020

          Thanks for sharing, fp. That's the purpose of the free trial -- to find out if the program fits your workflow.

          S
          Steve Grisetti
          Legend
          January 5, 2018

          My timeline scrolls as I move the playhead along it. I can also set the playhead to jump from cut to cut on the timeline as well as to jump to a specific spot. I can also move my view of the timeline by dragging the slider along the bottom of the timeline.

          Are you trying to do something else? There's not a keyboard shortcut for sliding your view of the timeline without moving the playhead, if that's what you're asking.

          J
          JonnyLPAuthor
          Participant
          January 5, 2018

          Firstly thank you very much for taking the time to respond. I don't mean mean moving along the timeline in playback. When you say "I can also move my view of the timeline by dragging the slider along the bottom of the timeline" - that's exactly what I want to do except most other video editing programs allow you to use the mouse wheel instead of having to drag the damn bar.

            Ann Bens
            Community Expert
            Ann BensCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            January 5, 2018

            I agree its a big pain scrolling horizontal.

            a modifier key should be added.

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