Selecting a caption in the Captions tab of the Text Panel also selects clips on the timeline.

Report · Mar 17, 2025

This issue seems to be new to version 25. If you click and select a caption in the captions tab with 'Selection follows playhead' turned on, it used to just select that caption on the timeline. However, now it also selects clips on the timeline which have targeting enabled. This wasn't the case in version 24.

To me, this change is not great design. I often use the Captions tab to edit subtitles, sometimes joining two captions together by pasting from one to another, and then deleting the empty caption. The problem is that, if I click on an empty caption and hit delete, it doesn't just delete that caption, it also deletes whatever has also been auto-selected on the timeline. If you're focussed on the Text panel, then it's easy to miss this, only to discover that multiple clips on your timeline have accidently been deleted, when all you were doing was editing captions.

The workaround is to turn 'selection follows playhead' off when editing captions. But it would be helpful if the behaviour was the same as previous versions. I'm not moving the playhead. I'm selecting a caption in the Text panel, so I don't want Premiere to act as if I am moving the playhead.

Report · Jun 05, 2025

@steveignite,

I got into the weeds testing this when you posted it. I could not replicate, but also could not determine whether anything had changed. In the end, I could not see any difference in the workflow, testing 25.23, 23.6.9, 24.6.5, and Beta 25.4.0.40. But along the way, I overlooked variables, made mistakes, and reached wrong conclusions, etc. In any event, I was reminded of it when I saw the following thread, and posted yesterday:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro-discussions/caption-subtitle-cut-editing-issue/td-p/1535...

After posting that, I discovered that even though the shortcut “Split Caption Segment Under Playhead” is an Application level shortcut, it does not “cut” (a la Ctrl+K) but “splits” as it would using the split button in the Captions tab. If the Text panel is closed, this shortcut does not operate at all. If the Text panel is open, it works in the timeline, but does not work in the Captions tab. When selecting a caption in the Captions tab, the playhead is set in the timeline at the first frame of the caption. And the “split” button in the Captions tab, splits the caption in the middle. If the playhead is set in the timeline at any point over the caption, it is still split in the middle. Ctrl+K cuts it at the playhead position. I have recommended using this shortcut for some workflows, but it does not operate as I thought it did.

Here are my test results from PR 25.2.3.

Selection follows playhead [SFP] ON for these tests; it is Off by default. It only applies to targeted tracks in the Video/Audio tracks area.

Action	Result	Comment
Select caption by clicking in caption tab	Playhead moves in timeline to beginning of caption segment. Does NOT select targeted V/A items.	Deselects any V/A item that was selected before click.
Select caption by clicking in timeline	Playhead does not move. Does NOT select targeted V/A items.	Deselects any V/A item that was selected before click.
Play with spacebar from timeline or caption tab	When stop play, targeted clips under playhead selected. Caption is NOT selected whether targeted or not.
Ctl+Alt+Up/Down in captions tab	Selects next/previous caption in Captions Tab and Timeline. Does not move playhead. Does not select any V/A items, and deselects any selected before first action in Captions Tab.	Shortcut assigned in PR default.
Ctl+Alt+Up/Down in Timeline	Selects next/previous caption in Captions Tab and Timeline. Moves playhead to first frame of caption. Does not select any V/A items, and deselects any selected before execution of shortcut.
Ctl+K - V/A track items and/or Caption selected	Cuts selected V/A track items and/or Caption (targeted or not)
Ctl+K, None selected	Cuts targeted tracks
Split Shortcut; Timeline Only	Splits Caption (targeted or not; selected or not; V/A selected or not)	Shortcut “Split Caption Segment Under Playhead” is assigned in PR default as Alt+S, which does not work correctly on Windows. I reassign it to Ctl+Alt+Y.

Stan