Discuss the Premiere Pro 22.3 UI changes: Import, Export, and Header Bar

[MikeDy]

I'm struggling too, this UI update seems a step backwards requiring more clicks etc to do the same tasks... I also can't find options to do layouts that worked very well for certain tasks. Whats happened to the caption layout for instance?

If I wanted a Premiere rush like inetrface i'd use rush... This is professional workstation software why are you dumbing it down... Shades of Final cut 10...

[MikeDy]

So, the thread we were asked to raise this stuff on uservoice has now been closed. Despite it being VERY active with loads of ongoing posts about this situation. Got to love Adobe and thier request for user feedback, as long as it doesn't disagree with what they want to do (in which case it's just closed and ignored....)

And @Kevin-Monahan , There have been NO meaningful updates from Fergus, just 'we are looking at' with no real improvements of the main issues we all have with the new import/ export windows. This has been going on for nearly 2 years?

What an absolute travisty of UI design mingled with a travesty of customer service...

I will continue to raise this issue and discuss it on every forum  and social media platform until you take note and actually address it properly...

[R Neil Haugen]

You can skip the Premiere export window by clicking "Send to MediaEncoder" ... and over in Me, you get the old (and intended) behavior.

Neil

Mod note: Edited for content.

[Mike_Abbott]

I hope that fix includes combining the 'filename' and 'location' options into one unified 'filename & location' link - as it is in the 'Quick export' dialog.

Or is the new Adobe UI approach 'why make it one click when you can make it two?'

[R Neil Haugen]

As per the OP's comment, It will be back to simply displaying the filenames in the folder, as it used to, and as the Me dialog still does.

Neil

[Baffy19]

Leave this EXPORT window alone. Everything is fine there, it needs to be corrected a little with regard to the named errors in saving the final result. It should be like this and in no case return to the old design. The question is in the IMPORT page, which needs to be finalized so that it is useful, and not just a beauty balloon. I have already written here what should be on the IMPORT page. Then it will be a tool to get started.

[R Neil Haugen]

Unfortunately, this is NOT fixed in 22.4.0 just released.

Neil

Mod note: Edited for content.

[modabinomar]

I recently updated premiere pro to version 22.3, and I can't stand the "New Project" screen. It's so annoying and regularly glitches. I dont want to select my media in premiere pro before I can even see the timeline, the old new project window was fine!! I am on a company license so I don't have access to older versions of premiere pro. Am I now stuck with this new horrible UI? Is there a way to disable this and go back to the previous window that allows you to change ingest settings and scratch disks when making a new project? I wish I never updated it 😔. 

Thank you.

[Ann Bens]

You can skip the import section.

Just set the name and the location for the project then hit Create.

Now you are in familiar waters.

[modabinomar]

Hi Ann, thank you for your reply.

Is there no way to bring the old window back with ingest settings and scratch disks settings? Is it likely that that will become an option again in a near future update?

[Ann Bens]

Hi Ann, thank you for your reply.

Is there no way to bring the old window back with ingest settings and scratch disks settings? Is it likely that that will become an option again in a near future update?

By @modabinomar

Don't think so, you will have to revert to previous version.

You are not the only one grumbling about the scratch disks.

I dont use them (one setting for all projects) but I can understand why you want them at hand.

[R Neil Haugen]

I'm with Ann on this ... although it's possible that old new project screen will come back, I'm not hopeful.

As they've noted, a very small percentage of users every used anything past name, location, create. That's the reason for the change I think.

But for those of you who did, the new process is a complete pain, yea, You now have to create the project, then go to the Project settings menu.

I'm a solo user. I had my cache/preview and other things always set to the same location, so I never needed to use the options. I was a typical name, location, create. The new screen for me is just farther to the Create button.

For you, it's extra steps. Who ever wants extra steps? So yea, wish you could get that back.

Neil

[Ann Bens]

Looking at major changes in the past, I very much doubt the old New Project window will return.

At most a minor change/completion (or whatever its called).

[R Neil Haugen]

It was never expected that advanced users would ever use the new Import screen.

So ... what did they do, in total?

You know the old New Project screen? It had a bunch of options to set where previews, cache, all that went, right?

Did you ever use those? Probably not.

You gave a project name, location, and clicked "Create".

The realized no one used any of the old extra options, and ditched them.

And added a process that newer users, and those with simple projects, can use easily & quickly. As an option.

They never assumed nor thought experienced users would ever do anything but what they always have ...

Type a name, set a Location, click Create.

Neil

[modabinomar]

I used the scratch disks window regularly depending on different clients I would use it to choose locations for each projects video and audio previews etc. I know it is probably better to keep a folder for those all in one place, but I work regularly on external drives and that isn't easy to use and so I had to regularly change it. It isnt an option either to keep those folders on my device locally as my built in SSD is low on storage. This is just to explain why I did need the old "new project" window's settings.

[R Neil Haugen]

Understood. And yea, easily the old window was easier/better for your workflow.

Just realize, you're one of a very tiny subset of users that ever touched those options.That's why the M&E types decreed there would be a change to a UI panel where at least some sized subset would actually use the options presented.

Users like you got the bummer. But more people use the options on that page already than ever used the options on the old page. So the M&E types will see this as better for the overall user base. Just a total bummer when you're the one discomfited.

And I've been in that spot before.

And of course, those location setting options are still there, in the Project settings panel now. Not as easily for you as before though.

But like you, I'll never use the new import page. Nor should most any advanced users. Wasn't built for us, nor intended we'd work with it. I hope they'll move the Create button next to the Project Location at the least. Then maybe we could simply set Location, tab, Enter, and get our new project.

Save some wasted time moving the mouse across the whole flipping screen.

Neil

[daapap]

"Did you ever use those? Probably not. ... The realized no one used any of the old extra options, and ditched them."

Who told them?

I use them. We all do and tell our people to have an eye on these options. When I create a project I want to see the options for the project. I don't need a full screen useless import screen with the ability to store hundreds of files in one bin.

Why would anyone appreciate a screen that was never intended to be used? It's ridiculous.

This program is addressing "advcanced" users, isn't it? Windows Moviemaker et alii can still be downloaded for free.

[R Neil Haugen]

Well, your people will now need to go to the Project settings menu to set them. And yea, that's a painful change for you and the users like you. I've been through changes like this with this app that were very, very painful for me, and most other users went ... what's the problem?

Because my workflow was different. They didn't use what I did ... because we're all different.

We notice when we're the shorted ones, don't we?

For most users, as with me, the locations never change. And as they're "sticky", I never need to check nor reset them.

And they never expected experienced users to use the new import page. They thought "we" would simply type name, select location, click create as always. I think the product team people at NAB were suprised so many advanced users were complaining about a change they didn't think we'd mess with.

Their M&E people do have some data on the number of times various things are used. No names or even IPs or anything. Just reports it seems by country on x uses of y tool. It's completely a theoretical thing. Data points on number-of-times tool usage in huge databases.

Plus their huge M&E staff ... far more than the mere plebes on the product teams ... are constantly surveying users around the globe. These are done both zoom and at live events in-person at say NAB and MAX. IBC.

If you haven't been through one, if they ask you to, go ahead. An ... intriguing experience. I've been through both in-person at NAB and several Zooms.

The M&E people only know the app from their metrics. So they know a ton about how often various tools are used, but absolutely nothing about why, and what's done with them.

So you'll get a screen and questions ... if you see this, would you respond by doing A, B, or C?

Rather typically, I'll come back with none of the above, because I need that to get me to "here". And they go ... interesting, comparing notes for a couple minutes before we go to the next screen & questions. It feels rather like being a lab rat looking up at people in white coats studying you.

Product teams are well below the M&E people. Product managers get to have input on the budgets, directives, and roadmaps presented by M&E. Note, "input" is very, very different than "control".

It's an interesting company. They have three main divisions I think ... the "consumer" product team like Pr, Ae, Photoshop, et al, truly the smalled section of the company. The Documents section of Acrobat & such for big companies to do communications on. And the Metrics Operations staffers that make apps for other companies to use on their own metrics to make decisions.

And over the whole thing ... is the upper M&E people.

I like most of the products team people I've met. They're very approachable, and actually passionate users of whatever app they work on. The M&E people ... um ... having an emotional reaction there seems somewhat ... misplaced ... I mean, how do you place that as a data-point in a matrix?

Neil

[WizWorldLIVE]

If anyone's looking for the appropriate thread on UserVoice, it's this one: https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911233-premiere-pro/suggestions/45057511-give-us-option-to-...

Vote it as "Critical" & leave a response, since apparently the team refuses to read this giant thread with feedback? Which is weird, but, oh well I guess.

[R Neil Haugen]

I went an upvoted that, quite happily.

Hope a LOT of others do also.

Neil

[Kevin-Monahan]

WizWorldLive,

A Premiere Pro product manager has already responded to this other post with the same feature request. You may want to upvote this one too for that reason: https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911233-premiere-pro/suggestions/45034867-new-export-tab-is-...

Thanks,
Kevin

[R Neil Haugen]

Premiere Pro has several million daily users. So ... the diversity of the user base around the world and how they work is beyond belief.

I was just at an SMPTE event & class, including some of the main video staffers for one of the most massive online companies in the world taking the class. And that was fascinating, as how ... and what ... they do in-house is very different than I would have expected. If totally logical within their company.

And required me to rethink some of what I thought I knew about how & what folks in different aspects of this trade do, how they work, the conditions that apply to them.

The "export page" clearly was the least of their concerns with working in Pr. It's fine for them. As it clearly is for many of those millions of users.

Which is not to say it's fine for thee & me of course. Just understand, thee & me ... and 856 others ... are just individual data points. Out of millions.

Which may well be why they haven't followed what thee & me might have preferred. Adobe does a massive amount of user-testing across software apps. That is something most users of course don't see, but it is HUGE.

And I've been through several user testing sessions in-person and online.

I would like to see some changes as do you. But ... don't assume "they aren't listening to their users" because they don't do what thee & me want. They have millions of users to listen to.

And sadly, many of them ... don't want some of the things that I want. Ah well.

Neil

[Untold Entertainment Inc.]

"They have millions of users to listen to."

Out of those millions of users, they have (at least) 857 who took the time
to find out how to submit a complaint online, and did so. For how many of
those millions of other users is this an issue, but they're posting on
boards in other languages, or they don't know how or where to submit
feedback, or they're students and they don't know enough yet to understand
how changes like these impact workflow? Short of a referendum posed to
their millions of users, how else are they supposed to determine when
something isn't working?

[R Neil Haugen]

Hey, I'm in pretty much the same 'group' as you over that export page setup.

Although ... I was annoyed enough with it, to spend a few minutes setting up a precise list of starred presets. Self-protection, really. So I don't HAVE to click to open sections anymore. So actually, I'm faster at getting through exports now than I was on the old page.

Still, that 857 is a very small subsampling, even if it includes you and me. And maybe we represent as much as 10% of the total user base ... which would be a LOT of people.

But I live in Realville.

There are still vastly more for whom this is either 1) great or 2) a total non-issue. The major-company in-house video production staff I referenced above seemed to like the page. For direct example.

It's like a lot of the things in Resolve that I find terribly annoying ... such as the locked-down UI, and the locked-down mapping for control panels. Both get plenty of complaints, and neither of those is ever, ever going to change.

So ... you wanna work in Resolve, do what you can. Same thing in Premiere. Baselight. Whatever. And yea, for any one of us, there's things that will be annoying. Guaranteed.

Neil

[Tomghzel]

Neil, I don't get it. The issues we present with it are objectively true.
More mouse travel time, more clicks. If the import or export screen got
more functions that's great, but to do certain things a lot of us do, it
takes more time. Look at the post a few comments ago, the wide spaces
between the drop downs. Your reasoning doesn't cut it.

[R Neil Haugen]

"Objective" varies with the observer in my experience. And how they tend to measure it.

For example, because I found the "more ..." section of the Export Page a royal pain, I spent time making presets. A few minutes one day. And now I export with fewer clicks and less time spent than before.

So, using that same page, I spend less time clicking and/or scrolling than I used to.

Those who work with typically simultaneous exports to various media ... which includes a ton of major corporation in-house staffers ... apparently love the new page. That would be alone thousands of users a day.

I get that those people exist, and as as "important" as I individually. Even though I don't like much of the stuff that makes their work better.

Neil