Now in Beta: Cleaner, More Organized Menus Across Premiere Pro

[mattchristensen]

We’ve taken a fresh look at the application, panel, and context menus across Premiere Pro and developed a new organizational system to bring editors all the same functionality in a more concise and discoverable way. Even on a 13-inch laptop, you’ll never have to scroll a menu to get your work done.

Our approach to organizing the menus:

1. Aggressively organize into submenus. Commands stay in the same menu as before, but the submenus mean the menu stays short and readable.
2. Give useful names to the new submenus. Editors new to Premiere Pro can more quickly learn what the menu items do.
3. Be consistent when similar items appear in different menus. Whether in the Project or Timeline panel, common items like “Label” or “Media File Properties” appear in the same parts of menus.

Across the application, menus that were updated average a 40% reduction in height, with some menus shrinking by half.

This is a big change to the feel of using Premiere Pro, and while we took time and care with these new menus, some parts may still need more work. Try them out while they’re in beta [version 25.6 build 39 or later] and let us know how they are working for you. Thank you!

Right clicking on a clip in the Timeline shows a major difference

[lavish_idea00831]

It seems like a lot of people are upset with this update and you keep replying to them trying to prove how no so bad this update is. 

[R Neil Haugen]

To me that is an odd reading. I keep pointing out that of the millions of daily users, they will be all over the place. No two users do anything the same way, nor do they have the same 'view' of the UI overall. At most, "we" may agree on a few things.

How is that trying to prove anything? I simply can't see it.

If you don't like it, fine ... and do please say so here, in full detail of how it affects your working processes. That is all useful and I wish more posted their data.

Just don't ever assume anyone else shares your viewpoint, out of simple respect for other users.

Remember, those who like something normally never post, so you never see their comments. Right?

And please understand, I have posted epic rants here myself, when I disagreed strongly with a decision.

Such as when they discontinued SpeedGrade, still one of the most short-sighted decisions I can recall.

But ... I did keep comments professional, respectful, yet thoroughly detailed as to why that decision was not ... wise ... nor useful for the users.

And from comments both 'here' and at NAB, that series of posts were definitely recognized as rants ... 😉

[iDag]

Dude, take a look around the forum and you'll see that in many places R Neil Haugen answers everything in a row in this vein and with similar statements as if it were a stopgap

[iDag]

I made a typo. Basically, I meant that this person (or bot) is everywhere on the Adobe forum responding to everyone who is often outraged. Often the context is like this - you are outraged, but others like it. Figuratively speaking, it reads like "You are an idiot, you don't understand anything." It looks like a plug in every hole

[iDag]

optimize the contextual as you wish. JUST LEAVE THE POSSIBILITY TO RETURN THE MENU APPEARANCE TO THE WAY IT WAS BEFORE YOUR STUPID OPTIMIZATIONS THAT INCREASE THE NUMBER OF CLICKS AND SLOW DOWN THE WORKFLOW!!! EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE A CHOICE! AND NOT THIS TYPE OF YOUR STUPID CHANGES IN THE NEW INTERFACE AND ITS COLORS

Please do not write in capital letters!!! Mod.

[R Neil Haugen]

Please respectfully recognize your experience is your experience, and like for all of us, is not necessarily shared by any other user. We are all different ... your post would indicate you would think all the users who like the changes are somewhat ... mentally deficient, perhaps?

Do you really want to say that in a public forum?

I'm not a fan of some of the changes at all. But many users love them. I will not imply they are idiots, they just think and work differently from me ... as does everyone.

[iDag]

Who are you, who lives on this forum forever and is so smart? Get to work, and stop teaching everyone how to live! Who are you to explain to me that the experience of a decade of work in a familiar color environment must be crossed out by a bunch of idiots from the newly-minted programmers and designers of the new school, so that I accept it and so that millions of people accept it? Who are you to explain to me that the previous 10 years were bad only because now someone decided to cross it out under the guise of improvement? Go and do your job, old man!

[R Neil Haugen]

I could say so many things in response that would be perhaps painful. But on a public forum, such things are a waste of space, besides rude.

I'll just say that over time, a little wisdom in how to work with people is a good thing to learn. Especially with those with a lot more knowledge and experience ... 😉

[iDag]

I am tired of these improvements for the sake of improvements. No. I am not a supporter of old software and outdated PCs. I use the latest OS and hardware. But I, like many others, absolutely do not accept the implementation of radical changes that are introduced in the interface of the working environment. The editor's hands get used to it and the muscle and visual memory is trained so much that the slightest changes for the sake of changes have a detrimental effect on the performance and perception of the software. It is categorically unacceptable to make changes without the ability to switch back to the previous version of the user experience. Do you want to implement something new? You implement it and even make these options the default. BUT! LEAVE THE OPTION TO SWITCH TO THE PREVIOUS OPTIONS! And what they did with the color scheme and other changes in the working environment is a nightmare!

[R Neil Haugen]

That post actually includes some useful statements. Valid, and to the point, thank you.

[iDag]

I will repeat myself to you once again in response to your numerous responses to my posts in different threads. I see that you have nothing to do, you live on this forum and do nothing. Just like those who make incompetent changes, you write incompetent comments because you have nothing to do. I have visited this forum before and seen your numerous comments on the indignation of many people. I don’t even know who you are. Maybe you are a person from Adobe creating the appearance of an alternative opinion. Maybe you are an AI bot, of which there are many now. I have seen a bunch of your messages before. I just rarely write and was surprised where this person finds so much time to write and respond to every comment. A person who works and is busy with work does not have so much time to respond. Unless he is an employee of the PR department and the like. Leave your inappropriate statements about “millions of people who like it.” They do not exist and cannot exist. Perhaps some bunch of people, nothing more. People are used to being indignant anywhere, but not where they are needed. And some people don't have their own opinion and follow the lead of others. I don't belong to either category!

[R Neil Haugen]

I pop in and out. Read interesting posts to learn, and post to help others. Takes a few minutes here and there.

I'm not sure you have a good grasp of the concept that we are all different and approach everything in a unique way. 

I'm actually considered by many upper users to be rather knowledgeable in the arcanities of Premiere color management and color corrections. I teach and advise professionally on those.

Among the long-time forum volunteers, I'm also have one of the highest listing across the Adobe forums for being credited by posters for giving correct answers. By the data, many search by my name for my responses here and elsewhere.

Perhaps you have difficulty understanding someone else, who loves to learn, to teach, and to help?

At any rate, please understand that jumping to assumptions about motivation on forums nearly always results in a wrong assumption.

Please add your frustrations and complaints about the software, everyone's input is needed.

But again, be specific as to the problems the software causes. How if built differently it would work better for you.

And save the hassle of stating motivation assumptions. There are a good number of other major volunteers on this forum who know many things I'm weak on. And most will simply avoid a thread with hostile posts.

As a user, you should want them interested in helping you.

[hellopaul4]

I'm not keen on some of the menu items now being hidden away in sub-menus, in particular the "render in to out" and "Remix Properties" which I often use. I find it easier and much faster to find a thing in a long menu than a menu full of sub-menus.

And I do share the opinion of many on this forum that those of us who have used PPro for years (decades, even?!), we've developed muscle memory of where to find stuff, and to change that is a really bad idea. I'm all for having the option to switch between the condensed sub-menu option and traditional long menus as a preference, which would keep everyone happy.

In ye olden days, I worked on Quantel stuff - Henry and Editbox, and NOTHING was customisable on there, which meant I knew exactly where every on-screen button was, and could even continue editing, incredibly quickly, while looking at the client (not for long!) because I knew precisely where, on the graphics tablet, to click. It's like me typing right now on a QWERTY keyboard. We all know it's a crap layout deliberately designed to slow down typing, but I know where almost all of the keys are and can type at a reasonable speed while only glancing at the keyboard. If someone suggested "let's put rarely used letters, like Q, Z and X, under a 'sub-button' and just move things around" nobody would be happy! Let's not move stuff around in PPro for the sake of it, please.

[gmc99]

I've used the new layout for a while and have been using PP for many years.  Every time I want to find something in one of the sub menus (which is frequently); I grind to a stop to try and find the correct location.   The muscle memory thing has now gone and everything takes much longer.  I suppose I will eventually get used to it but wish we had been given a choice.

[Piotr Gardecki]

At first I was surprised, but I'm getting used to this new layout. All in all, it's quickly becoming a habit.

[AndrewTheGreat]

Hi, Adobe. The problem with people not liking this update can be simply resolved - add a preference item to toggle it on and off.

[florianlazzari]

Where the hell did they put the masks??? I can't mask my filters/fx anymore.

[R Neil Haugen]

Not sure what you're referring to ... masks as part of an effect always show in the Effects Control Panel, which hasn't changed.

[RRKing]

I know what you mean.  you now have to click another option within a menu and assign it to a Opacity (or rather "change it to opacity" and it will be where you expect it then.  Everything by defauklt now is unassigned.  threw me off at first as well. Just like this new "optimized" menu layout. 

[Gabriel Calderón]

This is awful. Making us press more buttons just to reveal a clip in finder or project, who thought this was a good idea? 

It's simplicity without thinking of the user interface, aesthetic over pragmatism. Awful.

[alexanderb2812866]

I hate this. Making me press more buttons just to get to things. Scrolling was simpler. I knew where my cursor had to be and how much I had to scroll. With all due restpect and kindness and not targeted toward anyone specifically, whoever pushed for this should be fired because they obviously have more OCD panic attacks than they've ever used this program in their life. 

[R Neil Haugen]

And to the users that love this, you say ... ?

As there are many. We all work differently. That's always a troublesome thing for designing apps, as what one dislikes will overjoy another.

Hard decisions, always.

I think a toggle or preference would be a good thing to add.

[umutizgi]

How can I turn off this ridiculous feature? Do I have to navigate ten different menus to get the video size to fit within the workspace? This is pure dictatorship!

[Ann Bens]

Please make it less buried

[Stan Jones]

I am very accommodating; I can get used to anything (almost). I hate this change. Ann's example is one of the most inconvenient, but EVERY distraction to a workflow is time wasted. And there are JUST TOO MANY shortcuts needed to avoid the mouse.

I really like @_nicdean's suggestions. It's a much better solution for laptop users than resizing for all.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro-beta-discussions/now-in-beta-cleaner-more-organized-menu...

Or a preference setting for the new vs longer menus.

I did take a look at the Beta on my Surface Pro, which I edit on when on vacation. Yes, the new menus fit fine, really TOO abbreviated even there. After all, the bigger problem is the UI font scaling issue. And yes, making it easier for users to see the UI text on a laptop works in the opposite direction to getting menu options on the screen. But if it meant giving up the convenience of longer menus on my 4K monitor, I'd rather have a mouse scroll option to facilitate menus on a laptop rather than the tiny up/down arrows.

Does the new iPhone interface mean the menus will get reduced even further? (tongue in cheek)

I hope you can rethink this and NOT roll this out to a Release without an alternative.

Stan