MacBook Pro Touch Bar customization

[Premiopolis]

The 2017.1 release of PPRO has a option for "Custom Touch Bar..." under the Premiere Pro CC menu.

What it seems to offer is a few (about 4 or 5) pre-selected commands that can be mapped to the Touch Bar.

They are different, depending on the context from which you enter the "Custom Touch Bar..." mode, but the choice is always very limited.

Looking for ways to expand on those commands -- to be able to bring any command down to the Touch Bar.

Is that possible?

[Guest]

any updates on the customization? severely limited options...

[Steve_Hoeg]

What other functionality would you find a priority to add next?

[ETorr]

Ideally it would involve a secondary change request which would inform and empower this one: that commands from Keyboard Shortcuts (i.e. the full suite of avail commands) can be dragged to command-mappable locations, like the button bars under the Source and Program Panels, not to mention the Timeline Panel, and any other panels, (all with regard for the fact that some commands don't apply to certain contexts).

With that functionality in mind, the Touch Bar becomes another location where commands could be dragged.

[Guest]

I've been trying to really think about this. I would collect all notes but ETorr has taken on some of this well. I think it shouldn't change based on the different panels. I think it should be one set of tools used across premiere entirely, should be as customizeable as possible. I'm talking button to button reassignment and in a perfect world, macros...macros that would allow me to assign one of two edit setup types. but really, just button to button assignment is all I want. I imagine commands without buttons would be problematic so maybe we could type in a name for the button within a confined amount of space/letters?

[ETorr]

danielr78503840  wrote

I've been trying to really think about this. I would collect all notes but ETorr has taken on some of this well. I think it shouldn't change based on the different panels. I think it should be one set of tools used across premiere entirely, should be as customizeable as possible. I'm talking button to button reassignment and in a perfect world, macros...macros that would allow me to assign one of two edit setup types. but really, just button to button assignment is all I want. I imagine commands without buttons would be problematic so maybe we could type in a name for the button within a confined amount of space/letters?

Would be good to construct a feature request (or series of feature requests) around command customizations.

With that in mind...

RE "Button-to-Button reassignment":

Are you meaning that in the Avid sense? In PPro maybe that maybe translates to dragging buttons from Keyboard Shortcuts to Panels

RE Set of Tools across Premiere entirely:

I can imagine interpreting what you're saying there in at least 2 ways, both valuable

1 - Ability to drag any commands from the Keyboard Shortcuts UI to buttons bars in the monitors, timelines, and Touchbar

    Q - Are you imagining buttons being draggable from Keyboard Shortcuts to ANY panel in PPro?

    Q - Are you imagining maybe a Commands Panel -- one that would allow you to drag to it any command from Keyboard Shortcuts?

2 - Ability to save custom button assignments as Sets in the way Photoshop does.

RE Macros:

Again Photoshop offers a template with its Actions panel.  Adobe has already taken macros giant steps further with Custom HTML Panels and ExtendScript -- creating a full-blown programming environment allowing powerful and growing control over the ability to customize.  But a Photoshop-style "Actions" palette would be nice alternative for those who don't want to dig so deep into coding.

I guess in some ways we're getting off topic of the Original Post, but it does lead to the idea of building powerful customization tools which are best thought through with a sense of how it integrates app wide.

[Guest]

Yep! In a perfect world, exactly like avid. It might be simpler though to only have the functionality come from the keyboard shortcuts menu since that would be simplest or perhaps because the toolbar launches a completely different screen they could build the keyboard shortcuts into that screen.

i absolutely think the touchbar should stay as a single touchbar through premiere no matter what pannel is selected at the time. consistency i think is more important and less confusing than conditional commands that shift around.

i haven't played with photoshop's touchbars but it sounds like that's what i'm interested in

[Premiopolis]

danielr78503840

i absolutely think the touchbar should stay as a single touchbar through premiere no matter what pannel is selected at the time. consistency i think is more important and less confusing than conditional commands that shift around.

If they're fully customizable, then you can customize them to be consistent across every context, while still afforded the option later to decide to go with something more dynamic.

[samgalison]

A thought from someone who works between video, music, design, and code: I totally agree with danielr78503840 that contextual switching should be optional. The default should be a stable control that you know will be there without looking.

You know what I'd like to see? An abstracted mapping workflow that's the same across all adobe products, one that unifies keyboard shortcuts, gestures, custom touch bar buttons, and external devices. Not sure if anyone's familiar with this, but Ableton Live does a great job with this. You enter "mapping mode," and you can basically control any parameter with any key or MIDI (or OSC or whatever) device. And if the versatility isn't enough, you can always go into Max and code your heart out.

I want to be able to define a custom slider on the touch bar, then open a single mapping interface and map that slider to (for example) the timeline in Premiere, page selection in ID, layer opacity in PS, keyframe easing in AE, and file scroll in Bridge. I don't want to have to write special macros for each app, or tunnel through keyboard shortcut menus every time I want to edit the mapping.

I feel like the touch bar is a perfect test bed for this kind of thing. It really shines when it doesn't just emulate buttons, but instead acts like a control surface, with dragging, multitouch, etc. So it seems to me a natural pairing for effect controls (not just in premiere). For that to be useful, though, it has to be easily and fully customizable.

In an ideal world, that customization would have a fast, intuitive GUI that could then be easily modified/extended in code (without finding some obscure buried preferences or script folder).

[Premiopolis]

Excellent, excellent suggestions all around.

Feature requesting at Feature Request/Bug Report Form: Improvements to the MacBook Pro Touch Bar at

Check out the array of inspired and insightful suggestions by samgalison at https://forums.adobe.com/message/10013598#10013598

[Chendrila]

Please, add buttons for clip keyframes ("fx" pictogram) for Time Remapping->Speed switch. Or better, make possibility to choose default clip keyframes in preferences. By default it's Opacity keyframes, which is useless. When I have 200 clips in timeline and on each one I right click "fx" to choose time remapping->speed, it's colossal waste of time...

[bblittles]

Timeline scrubbing! Already out there for Final Cut...

[davidgclarkjr]

I also realize this is an old thread, but I would love an easier way to navigate the timeline using the touch bar. How would you feel about dragging across the touch bar to correspond to the timeline? Or having the first channel video/audio to roll across the touch bar in live as you scroll across the timeline? Or easy access to effect controls. The current commands are pretty limited, plus they align left which is kinda lame.

[birutaf22451472]

At, least INSERT and OVERWRITE commands. It's just so annoying to have to hold "fn" to access those two most used shortcuts.

[m.goff]

Make the touch bar a virtual keyboard with 'buttons' i can program the way i would any other control panel buttons i.e. Pallette, Keytronix, Shuttle Pro, etc. For which I can create different sets of 'buttons' for different steps in my work flow- logging - editing - grading - etc....

For instance 10-12 buttons and maybe a centered slider that auto centers and functions as a jog/shuttle wheel

Maybe even an 'alt' type 'button' that while tapped 'on' changes the displayed set of custom keys to an alternate set or maybe a key set aside to step through the custom sets of keys one has created?

[austintaylor]

I'd like to see timeline navigation and interaction similar to FCPX's capability.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c_nddRA9pk

[SpacefishYT]

Same as Austin, I think being able to scrub through the timeline in Premiere Pro just like in FCPX would be a great feature and would greatly add to my productivity. Is anything along those lines planned for future updates, given that there were apparently already first requests years back? 

[thomase]

Dec 2020, still no timeline nav / scrubbing 😞

[defaultq5l7siomsl1o]

can we scroll the timeline with the touchbar in Premiere pro? looking for that option.

[gafafafafaf]

Call me old-fashioned, but I'd like to see the edit buttons as an option - to Insert/Overwrite instead of having to hit the FN key to get the old keys back.

Truthfully, the touchbar controls on Premiere are not just limited, they're pretty pointless too. For instance, the shortcut (on my setup) to add a marker is "m." The button that is right above the trackpad. Why would I ever want to venture six inches higher to hit the touchbar for it?

[Premiopolis]

gafafafafaf  wrote

Call me old-fashioned, but I'd like to see the edit buttons as an option - to Insert/Overwrite instead of having to hit the FN key to get the old keys back.

Agreed.  The value of that touch bar is that they are a) dynamic / context sensitive; b) self-descriptive via icon or text.  But at the cost of having to hit the FN key.  Would be great if that were an option.

Truthfully, the touchbar controls on Premiere are not just limited, they're pretty pointless too. For instance, the shortcut (on my setup) to add a marker is "m." The button that is right above the trackpad. Why would I ever want to venture six inches higher to hit the touchbar for it?

Here I'd disagree.  The more buttons the merrier.  The touch bar isn't intrinsically pointless because of its location.  Its just that it can't be customized to any reasonable degree.

[wkutu]

Timeline scrubbing/scrolling would be more useful to me than anything else.  Clip dragging an nudging might be a second one.  All the current options are easily accessed with hotkeys that provide tactile feedback.  For a pro-level machine, professionals will just find quick buttons on the touch bar to be an impediment to efficiency.

[Eric Schaechter]

I know this is an old thread, but the ability to have sliders for values would be nice (for example once you hit a number in the effects editor, drag its value with the touchpad.

Also, buttons with modifiers would be nice (so that if you press Option or Command, a new set of buttons come up on the touchpad, effectively giving you threefold as many touchpad buttons).