Renaming a comp bumps scrollbar to the top

[isosceles.vj]

Suppose you have 100 comps and you want to rename a comp in the "Project" section. So you select a comp, hit Enter, and type in the desired name. But when you press Enter to finalize the rename (or click away) then it will bump the "Project" scrollbar to the very top.

When you're trying to rename a bunch of comps, this becomes very tedious to continually scroll down to where you were last located.

[Rick Gerard]

The project panel is auto-sorted by character or number if the Name Column shows the little up or down triangle. To keep layers or comps from moving as you rename them, you must do the same thing you would do using a Finder or Explorer window: pick a different property to sort the items. You can use Type, Size, or even Comment and then return to the Name column to get the items arranged by name. 

I suggest that you develop a folder and naming convention for your projects. I follow an industry-standard project, shot, bin, and take structure in most of my comps, editing, and photo projects by setting up a folder structure and keeping the assets in the proper folders. It was taught to me about half a century ago when I started editing my first documentary, shot on film by an Emmy award-winning editor with about 20 years of experience. It's almost the same name and file structure used in the half-dozen feature films I worked on in the late 70's and 80's and the two TV series I was a part of. You might consider developing or adapting a standard system for keeping track of assets and edits. It will save a lot of headaches when you have to return to a project a month later and change to shot 6 in scene 2 of your video.

[isosceles.vj]

The expected UX of the scrollbar behavor is a bit more subtle than that. Following a naming convention is important but not the topic at hand here.

In both Windows and MacOS, after a file is renamed then the scrollbar is not bumped to the top. This is the expected behavor and allows the user to more easily follow their train of thought.

[Airweb_AE]

Sometimes, it's better to spend a few minutes writing a script to automate repetitive tasks. Here's a very simple example:

var selectedItems = app.project.selection;
if(selectedItems.length){
    app.beginUndoGroup("Rename Selected Items");
    for (var i = 0; i < selectedItems.length; i++) {
        var item = selectedItems[i];
        var newName = prompt("Selected Item:\n" + item.name , "");
        item.name = newName ;
    }
    app.endUndoGroup();
}

[isosceles.vj]

The topic of this thread is the expected UX of the scrollbar behavor of in the "Project" section.

I'm a power user of After Effects and utilize "AE Global Renamer 2" when needed. But sometimes there is no choice but to manually rename the comps. Which is why I've made this request to improve the behavor of the scrollbar in the "Project" section.

[isosceles.vj]

Here's another situation that even more unexpected.

Suppose you have a comp open and the timeline is focused. Hit CTRL+K to open the "Composition Settings" and then rename the comp. After clicking "ok" then the Project window scrollbar will bump to the very top.