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...

[Michael M. Kadrie]

Neil,

Thanks for the lengthy and thoughtful reply. You seem to be confirming some of my assumptions as to reasons behind this change and it's inability to connect with the users. I am also glad to see that I am not the only one who disapproves of this re-design.

I've seen Adobe make certain interface changes that, once they got a ton of negative feedback, they switched back or at least gave users the opportunity to select a "Legacy" mode that put the features back. Maybe they should consider something like that here.

Microsoft kind of ruined Outlook with a new interface too, but they give you an option to either use it or continue with the old interface. This is keeping the user in mind. What it would also do is give Adobe (and also Microsoft in this case) the ability to see how many people are using it versus rejecting it.

Also good to know that the developers pay attention to this stuff. Not sure how much my post will make a difference, I was more or less just expressing my opinions on the new feature and was curious to see if I was the only one. Clearly I'm not 🙂

I always try to be respectful with criticism and it's never personal with me. It's always about whether these changes have imporved my workflow or have made it worse. This change has disrupted and made it worse IMHO. Hopefully they aren't done and can either put a "Legacy" mode in or continue to improve it based on user feedback. Time will tell I guess.

Michael

[R Neil Haugen]

Totally understood. And keep posting!

Also, the biggest place we users can directly affect metrics for the M&E folks is their Premiere Pro UserVoice system. All posts are logged into their Slack system for engineers by an engineer, and all posts are passed up to M&E via a collated list process.

Ain't much, but ... it's what we got. The devs in person beg people to go there, vote early vote often ...

Neil

[Steven5C05]

Just came here to say this. Why are we going down what feels like the Davinci route now? The new Import and Export project panels or whatever you call them are a nightmare. Was something broken or not working properly that this horrible monstrosity fixed?

[Kartika Rawat]

Hi, we’re sorry about this. Can you let us know more about what’s happening? Let us know, we’re here to help! 

Thanks. 

Kartika

[Andy 1968]

Kartika, 

The Header Bar wastes screen real estate. 

One could argue the new GUI works about as good as the old GUI. Why waste time and effort making changes to the GUI if it is not going to be at least twice as efficient and easier to use? A GUI update should be streamlined lined to use less screen real estate not more screen real estate. 

Adobe could have fixed the bugs and made all the filters and transitions GPU accelerated. Instead Adobe wasted time and resources creating a new GUI that is not any better than what we had before. I think the programmers made changes to the GUI in order to get a paycheck as opposed to making changes that could have made Premiere Pro better. 

Why aren't all the filters and transitions GPU accelerated in 2022? 

[Averdahl]

Can you let us know more about what’s happening?

By @Kartika Rawat

The Header Bar wastes screen real estate. 

By @Andy 1968

@Kartika Rawat the waste of screen estate is one of the biggest issues. Since the shortcut for Maximize App Window is hardcoded into Premiere Pro i cannot compenstae for the loss of screen estate by using it since there is no native \-key on a Swedish keyboard.

In After Effects i can map the Maximize App Window shortcut in it´s Keyboard Shortcuts dialog as one expect. In Premiere Pro that´s not even possible since it´s hardcoded into the app. The screen dump below is from After Effects. So it would be a step in the right direction if this shortcut would be added to Premiere Pro's Keyboard Shortcuts dialog. *hint-hint*

[R Neil Haugen]

I'd agree that there's wasted space on the header bar for a different reason ... I don't want to make it go away, I just want to be able to pull the divider thingie over farther left so I can show more of my 9 custom workspaces on that bar. Why do you have so much empty space, then say we can't use it?

I mentioned that to both Wes Howell and Mike Hogan in the booth at NAB, by the way. Among other things.

Like ... the Import page, the "Create" button (for a new project) should be right next to the 'Location' slot up top. The majority of users will still be using the Project Panel or MediaBrowser processes for importing assets into bins speedily & effictiently.

I've no gripe with swapping the old "extra" options out, that no one ever used, for the new import assets model. There are some users with simpler projects for whom that is slick. Fine. But the majority of current users can't use that.

So we type a project name, give it a location, and SHOULD be able to simply Tab->Enter and have it create the project. Or at least, have the icon to click on next to what we were just working on.

Now ... after giving a location, you have to grab the mouse and go to the far corner of the complete desktop.

Yea, that's annoying.

Neil

[Phi.Def]

A list of just some of the problems with the new export interface:

1) Overwrites existing files (such as past exports) with no warning!!!

2) Can't create a new folder from the save location dialogue box!

3) New save location dialogue box doesn't show existing files, so when saving a new version of an export, you can't just copy-paste the old filename. Now you have to open the file browser, navigate to the save location and copy the filename from there. This is extremely time consuming.

4) When exporting from in to out points (such as exporting a single frame jpg), the export preview doesn't automatically show the first frame of the export. Instead it always shows the first frame of the sequence.

5) When it's necessary to adjust a single export setting (i.e. when creating a whole preset isn't necessary), you have to mouse-click to twirl down the settings rather than just using the scoll wheel like you could in the past.

6) When using a massive UHD display, you have to move over to look up in the top left corner to adjust settings and filename. Then move over again to find the export button in the bottom right. The preview window is A) useless, B) enomous, C) takes up the entire central area. And changes made to the export interface panels reset every single time you navigate to editing mode and back.

7) The export button must be mouse-clicked. Hitting enter/return doesn't work.

[R Neil Haugen]

1) Yea, totally agreed that can happen easily. Bad behavior. Should never overwrite without user agreement. Period.

2) Are you on a Mac? On my PC, that dialog is still the Windows one, and the option for a New Folder is the same as in any Windows Explorer dialog ...

3)  According to the senior staffers here, that was an unexpected an unfortunate (let alone embarassing) "oversight" that was never intended. And will be fixed on the next patch sent out. They released a patch a few days ago for the "34 minute export bug" ... this and a few other things are coming in a patch sometime soon.

4) SO true. Not good behavior. Needs changing.

5) Agree here also. Don't like the Resolve UI, didn't need it "here" also.

6) Yup.

7) Yup.

Neil

[R Neil Haugen]

The new import page doesn't need to change your project startup one bit, nor add a single click to the process.

Type Name, type Location, click Create. Boom your project opens just as before. Import via Project panel or MediaBrowser, just as before. Nothing changed.

The first time you create a new project you do need to uncheck anything that's blue on the Import page. It should stay that way.

And your project start will not be one bit different than it has been.

For some users, that new project start/import page is awesome. Works splendid for their needs. That's something everyone need to think about, as we all do about everything different than anyone else on the planet. Let others have something that is useful for them.

You and I will never use the import process on the import page, nor was it ever expected we would. Which is why the 'old' method is still there, exactly as before. The only change really is the old section of setting preview/cache file locations ... which like 1% of users every touched! ... is replaced by a different set of options many of us won't use. But more are aleady using and liking the new page than ever used the complete project setup dialog.

As to export ... IF you go through a couple steps that take a few minutes, your exports will be easy & painless.

First ... go through ALL listed presets, unstar those you'll never use so they don't ever show in the dropdown.

Second ... make detailed presets of all the things you do use. Including separate ones for say when you need X option from down below occasionally but not always.

Once you've done that, it's easy. And the missing filenames of the export naming process will be back soon. That was never intended, and will change in the next update.

And of course ... queueing to MediaEncoder gets you the old export proces without having to do anything but click the button.

Personally, I'll probably use the new import process once or twice ... because in some projects it will work fine. But most of my stuff has mulitple folders setup already because I want those in BINS in Premiere. For that, we just do what we've always done.

Neil

[Steven5C05]

Thanks for the advice, I just unstarred and starred my presets and that is already working nice.

I also miss being able to just click on a file name in the Save As menu and it auto-filling the name rather than typing it out like they have it now. Sure you can still do that in ME but its annoying when you're moving fast and don't want to go through another software for one otherwise quick export. Glad to hear they're working on a fix for that. 

[Ann Bens]

The new import page doesn't need to change your project startup one bit, nor add a single click to the process.

By @R Neil Haugen

Well, that is not entirely true.

I would always check the project settings

and scratch disk and ingest settings are missing.

[ryans27674822]

"The new import page doesn't need to change your project startup one bit, nor add a single click to the process.

Type Name, type Location, click Create. Boom your project opens just as before. Import via Project panel or MediaBrowser, just as before. Nothing changed."

I wish that were true. But it’s not.

Before you could start a NEW project WITHOUT defining a project name or saved location. That could be done at anytime after the project opened.

The field for naming the project, and the dropdown for choosing the location ARE TERRIBLE. Nowhere near as good as the general file browsing of Explorer.

All that has to be done is allow the users to move forward to the EDIT page, and entirely skip the IMPORT page. No need to predefine a project / locaton. Then essentially nothing would have change.

But as it stands now, the user CANNOT move forward without using this terrible interface.

It’s more clicks, it’s annoying, and it’s unavoidable. Huge step in the wrong direction.

[R Neil Haugen]

Interesting post.

I've been using the app near a decade, since the old CS versions. And I've always had to create a project before using it. Name & Location. It has to have a name & location as what a "project" is, is a DATAFILE. It has to create a datafile, and a bunch of related cache files.

And if you were going to have to create a location, why would you have Premiere put it somewhere and you then have to move it? As that adds another step definitely.

Unless you are positing that Premiere used to be able to work completely in say RAM?

If you didn't create a project, the only thing it could do was perhaps open the last project you were working in.

So I've never, ever in all these years seen the behavior you describe. Fascinating.

Neil

[Tomghzel]

Me neither, but After Effects does this standard, so it is possible without
much ado.

My issue is with forcing me to use an in-app interface which is stiff,
uneasy and awkwardly layed out.

I can't accept the general statement that everyone is different and uses
the program differently as answer for forcing new awkward layouts. And in
case of the export screen: inconvenient.

I do appreciate the example you gave Neil, of why some new features
could be useful in some workspaces. But it doesn't validate the overturn of
something that worked and was actually for the features most people
use: more convenient.

A quote from the adobe-video.uservoice forum I find fitting:
*"Keyboard shortcuts for effects and presets: 665 votes*

*New Export interface that introduced over a dozens new bugs rather than
fixing the 2-3 bugs of the perfectly adequate previous interface: 0 votes*

*Guess which one of these the Pr team decided to give us..." *

[R Neil Haugen]

I don't think the idea for this new interface came from the program team, btw ... they have their M&E folks above the program teams who do overall Creative Cloud decisions, and this seems like one of their ... gems.

They divine what users really need from their studies of metrics ... sigh.

Neil

[ryans27674822]

Ha! You’re right Neil.

That is my bad. 😊

I’m getting it confused with every other Adobe program that allows you to hit the New project button and it defaults to open an “untitled” file.

Like After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Audition, InDesign, and others.

Some do require selecting canvas dimensions. But the programs are functional before having to save a physical project file.

I hear what you’re saying about a DATABASE. However, media cache isn’t project location specific, and depending on your scratch disk setting, neither would any of the other items (Auto-Save, Audio Previews, & Captured Audio).

Speaking of which, where did those “Scratch Disk” setting go?

[Ann Bens]

Scratch Disk settings are still under File > Project Settings.

[ryans27674822]

Cheers. Thanks Ann

[Stan Jones]

ryans,

Curious after your and Neil's responses. I opened PR CS6. I get a "Welcome to Adobe Premiere Pro" dialogue. It lists Recent Projects, if any, and 3 buttons: "New Project," "Open Project," and "Help." There is also an exit button and an "x" to close the window. Either exit or x results in the application closing.

If I click on "New Project," I get to the "New Project" dialogue. I includes a "location" (path) that only allows selecting a path. And it includes a "Name" that defaults to "Untitled."

I see no way to proceed without naming and saving the project (.prproj) to disk.

Stan

[ryans27674822]

Hi Stan.
I was incorrect. PP has always required setting a project location. I think I got confused because the new UI feels cumbersome and felt like more steps.
I was going off muscle memory. The new UI requires a couple extra clicks to do the same task (adding a browser button would solve that), but you’ve always had to define a location.
Every other Adobe application does not require this, which added to my misinterpretation from muscle memory.

[Tobshowhost]

I've talked also to a couple of fellow editors and they hate the new import/export windows. I don't likeit either :-///

the old one was working & looking wonderful. why change :(((

[R Neil Haugen]

Why worry about the new import page? It's really no different for you or I than before. Type Name, type Location, Create.

Bing bang bong, done.

The only change there is to remove a series of options almost no one ever used with some that quite a number of users are using. Nothing that forces one user to change their patterns.

The export process is a bit more annoying. Until and unless you take a minute to customize, and then it becomes very fast and useful. I've surprised myself by using it a fair amount now. NO, I don't like all the silly dropdowns. Sheesh ... just, no. But after creating all my needed presets ... which only took a few minutes ... I don't use the dropdowns because anything down there I need was already selected when I made the dropdown.

And ... yea, at times I just hit Queue to Me.

So really ... import shouldn't be an issue as there's no added work for anyone there. There's only added capabilities appreciated by some users.  Export ... that's annoying you'd need to mod it to make it useful.

Neil

Neil

[R Neil Haugen]

Why change? Well, everyone's gotta change, right? Or ... not.

Yea, this would never have been a choice of mine either. I can see what they are doing from their perspective, which is simply giving one group of users a faster way to get started (supposedly) without interfering with anyone else's workflow.

And the way so many of us have reacted seems to have been quite a surprise to them. Because, again, they didn't see they took away anything, just gave a different and new set of options if someone finds them useful.

But it doesn't look that way, does it? It sure isn't obvious you can pretty much ignore it and go on as before.

And I do love the suggestion that's been made to give a start-up user choice for this or simply the old-style Name/Location/Create dialog box.

Neil

[waterbilge]

I hate the update for multiple reasons. For a simple couple of tasks I'm doing more than twice the work and consuming more than twice the time. As well, I despise losing the display real estate, and having no temporary fix for this (such as  floating and minmizing, etc) due to the randomly defaulting UI is absolutely maddening. The update is p***ing me off to the point where I'm considering dropping my subscription.