Text searches persist across sequences and clips, causing unexpected jumps around timeline

[kit.kohler]

I was frustrated with Premiere Pro jumping around my sequence and realized last week why it was happening. If you search the transcript for a word in a clip, that search will persist when you switch to looking at your sequence if you keep the text panel open. Once at the sequence, the playhead will jump to the incidence of that word, and will continue doing so until you clear your text search or close the text window, even as you are editing, trimming clips, etc.

Expected behavior for me would be that the search persists only in the clip I was originally searching. That should mostly solve the problem, though people will still need to clear their search string from the text panel if they are searching within their sequence, or else it will create chaos during editing.

Premiere Pro 23.6.0 Build 65
Mac Studio M2 Max

[Ryan Fritzsche]

This was driving me nuts for a while too. Then I discovered... there's actually a setting to toggle this behavior.  If you notice the 2 icons and checkbox at the bottom of the text panel: one icon selects source/preview panel, one selects program/timeline panel(s). The default is the "Follow active monitor" checkbox which switches between the two as you change focus, and is resulting in the behavior you're describing.  But if you un-check the "follow active monitor" checkbox, and select the source switch, the text panel will remain focused on the source panel and not jump around your timeline (searching for words) when you switch focus to the timeline.

[Stan Jones]

@kit.kohler,

I'd upvote this, but I'm not sure how it would work. When you do 3-point editing, you may go back and forth between Source and Sequence views, or one Source and another. Some users will want to keep the search active. One option would be a toggle between the current behavior and one where the search box clears as soon as you change to another clip or to Sequence view?

The workaround is to "x" out the search.

@Ryan Fritzsche,

I agree there are times when your workaround can help. But sooner or later, you will switch to the Sequence view, or another Source clip - and when you do, the search will still be there.

Stan

[Ryan Fritzsche]

@Stan Jones I see your point. I have not yet encountered a situation where that's an issue, at least for my workflow.  It is rare that I have been searching within a clip in the source monitor and when cutting in the clip I was searching for, needed to immediately switch back to the timeline view of the transcript.  But I can certainly see where that would be an issue.  The option to map a keyboard shortcut for "clearing the search bar" would be another helpful option (I couldn't find one searching now), but i agree the option to auto-clear the search whenever navigating between source / program-timeline panels would absolutely be nice, and I would probably start to use it.

[Stan Jones]

Ryan,

This whole discussion is an illustration of the importance of getting broad feedback on different workflows. Speech to text, the new captioning workflow, text-based editing and more are still actively being developed, and staff cannot foresee all the workflows in use.

Your input is valuable.

Stan

[kit.kohler]

@Stan Jones While I agree that getting broad input is certainly important, I am trying to figure out a use case in which someone would want to be searching for the same word or phrase in both a source and the sequence in quick succession. It seems like a pretty extreme edge case. Can you describe such an example?

@Ryan Fritzsche Thanks for this workaround! I think that will help for sure.

[Stan Jones]

@kit.kohler,

> Can you describe such an example?

Nope! I can try to conjure one, but that is all it would be. I've discovered that there are often reasons for the programmers' choices, and feedback about workflows may result in changes - or not.

I just took a look, and (I think as expected) it is the same in the current Beta (I'm on 24.1.0.72) - the search word remains as you move from source to sequence to another source etc.

Stan

[Mia5DCB]

I have the same problem when switching between sequences. If I search in a second sequence - copy the text - switch to the main sequence - try to paste - but then the playhead jumps somewhere else - not where I was before, just because the same word I searched for is in that place. "Follow active monitor" doesn't change this behaviour. It is incredibly annoying. My workaround is to close and reopen the text panel - or just wait for it to crash, which happens a lot.

[jmhassel]

When there is text in the transcript window search bar, the playhead in the timeline will frequently jump back to that search point even when I am no longer working in the transcript window. I have to manually clear out the search box to keep my playhead where I want it.

Version: Premiere 24.1.0

Platform: Mac

OS: Ventura 13.6

[mattchristensen]

@jmhassel I'm not seeing this on my end. If you're able to figure out any steps that can get you into that state I'd love to get it logged and fixed. For example do you have to do certain edits, have your sequence a certain way, etc?

[jmhassel]

I haven't noticed any particular steps, it seems to just be triggered when there is text in the transcript search. Also, it sometimes jumps to the search point and sometimes jumps to a random point. My coworkers have all experienced the same issue, they are all also on Premiere 24 and on Mac OS. Happy to provide any additional information, just not sure what will be helpful!

[jmhassel]

I was able to get a recording of this happening: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gs0rkpTXvhJSvzoaEve98aDc-WtRCDOv/view?usp=sharing

It seems to be when I add something new to the timeline, and when the transcript window is not currently open.

[Nick Lear]

I have this consisently on 23.6.2 - if i have searched for a word in the text box and then moved on, the CTI will jump to that word at later stages, until I go back and delete the word. And for me I think I agree that the Text panel is often not at foreground and I'm doing something like cutting a section out of the current sequence.

[Nick Lear]

I have this consisently on 23.6.2 - if i have searched for a word in the text box and then moved on, the CTI will jump to that word at later stages, until I go back and delete the word. And for me I think I agree that the Text panel is often not at foreground and I'm doing something like cutting a section out of the current sequence.

For me, the workaround of not having "follow active monitor" is not useful as it's a pain having that off. Plus for me it's not about searching source and then record. Usually I'm searching in record, then it just keeps jumping back to that word at random points. 

It would be better if I had to click the down arrow to activate the search again once I'm finished with it.

[Nick Lear]

Also to note there is a dupe of this https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro-bugs/text-searches-persist-across-sequences-and-clips-ca...

[R Neil Haugen]

An easy example where you'd want this behavior is corporate 'splainer vids, where you have several people interviewed or talking about something and 'mash' them together. You need to check for certain word usages ... so then, yes, you would definitely want that Search to apply down the line.

In nearly all other use, this is a royal pain though ... so the question is how to set so that both types of user get what they need without extra hassles?

[Nick Lear]

I disagree Neil - I think this is a bug. In your example it would still
work that someone can hit the down arrow to go to the next usage, which is
definitely behaviour to keep. The point here is that it is jumping to the
word 10mins later or an hour later, long after you've moved on.

[R Neil Haugen]

You say poetatoe ... no, I can't agree.

It's simply a different usage, and why so many simply seem incapable of accepting the needs of others as valid is beyond me.

Your return comment indicated that you don't think someone with the other workflow would be hindered or annoyed at having the problem you are complaining about dumped on them.

Interesting perspective. If very human.

[kit.kohler]

The issue at hand here is that the search persists between the source clip and sequence, not between multiple source clips. Certainly searching for a certain word across multiple sources might be useful, but I still cannot come up with a use case where I would want to search for a single word or phrase quickly and repeatedly across both sequence and source clips.

And for the record, explainer videos are pretty much my bread and butter.

[R Neil Haugen]

Good comments.

I was at a SMPTE class a year ago, and was with some people in major companies in an array of workflows. I think all in general vastly faster editors than me.

Yet they were so "siloed" in their practices that I actually knew a lot of production things they didn't. That was an eye opener for me, even after years of NAB shows.

Everyone's mileage always varies.

[Nick Lear]

Neil I have to continue to respectfully disagree - I am not complaining about any feature that someone else might want to use - eg being able to search a word and see it multiple times as you hit the down arrow (I myself use that feature). I am talking about a bug, where the search is happening when the user didn't initiate it. eg You have searched a word, maybe found it in a few places, then moved on. Then a while later the CTI can just jump to that word when you weren't expecting it.

It seems this doesn't happen to you which is great. You do amazing work here on the forum and have often helped me over the years, so I don't really appreciate how this is going, but I do understand that forums can be places where people act like how you think I am acting, but I can assure you I am not.

[R Neil Haugen]

Don't worry about seeing things differently. I never expect anyone to work or view an app like I do. I sincerely enjoy discussing the differences as I do routinely learn from them.

And thanks, of course. I love to help almost as much as to learn.

[Stan Jones]

This bug report shows no staff attention. If this is the expected behavior/by design, what is the proper workflow to avoid the problems? The only thing I see is deleting the search word.

For me a key question was @kit.kohler's here:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro-bugs/text-searches-persist-across-sequences-and-clips-ca...

What is the "use case in which someone would want to be searching for the same word or phrase in both a source and the sequence in quick succession. It seems like a pretty extreme edge case. " In any event, he describes his workflow that makes the current behavior problematic.

If this behavior remains, one option would be a preference/Text-panel-search option to not automatically go to the next found item? I first think in terms of limiting the scope of the search to the transcript panel, but I think that is really about the syncing of location in panel and timeline?

@Kevin-Monahan @Kerstin Ebert @alexander-riss 

Stan

[Kerstin Ebert]

Hi everyone,

thanks a lot for all your feedback! This is valuable input for us as we continue to improve the workflows around the Text panel.

Currently the search is persistent, even when you switch between different sequences or source clips. The playhead losing it's position when switching between sequence while the search is still active looks like a bug to me (and yes, the only workaround would be to reset the search). I'll take this to the team so that we can improve the behaviour around search hits an the playhead.

Thanks,

Kerstin

[johnm11376824]

I'm glad this is recognized as a bug. Losing my cursor position on the timeline beacuse the search box is jumping to text in the search box is a very frustrating way to work. If you disable auto scrolling in the text window, then it is hard to find and follow the text.

[Stan Jones]

I stayed confused over this "bug vs expected behavior" and the relevance of the "Follow active monitor setting." I tested again in Beta 24.6.0.37 and Release 24.5.0; Win10. Auto-scrolling is enabled. "Follow active" is on.

I now understand that turning "Follow active" off avoids switching transcript views, so the search does not have the same effect on the playhead. I tested with "Follow active" on because that is a better test for whether the bug has been fixed.

I believe this has been improved and appears the same in the Release and Beta versions. I created source media transcriptions of Clip 1 and Clip 2 and created sequences from each. I entered "the" as the search term. If I switch from Source monitor view to sequence view and from one sequence to another, the playhead does not jump. I do get odd behaviors - for example, when switching views the search may advance even if the playhead does not move. (If Sequence 1 is on search results 4/nn and playhead position 20:00 when I switch to Sequence 2, it has jumped two search steps and is on search results 6/nn and playhead 20:00 when I return.)

Unrelated: Is there a way to go to result x/nn directly? I don't see it. I can navigate through the transcript, switch to the Source Monitor and jump ahead, but as soon as I click next, it advances only once search result.

Stan