The new export screen is clumsy, bulky, and requires more clicking. [Export]

[Zoe7traveller]

I used to be able to easily zip up and down the various settings just with a quick scroll of the mouse wheel. Now, I'm constantly clicking, clicking, clicking to open various tabs. Because the boxes are much bigger, far less information is being displayed on my screen. Please, is there some way I can go back to the friendlier older version??

[Fergus H]

Hi all,

As mentioned last week, I’d like to provide an update on Export mode. First – and I should have said this in the previous message – we’re very appreciative of all the feedback we’ve received here. Your comments – all of your comments! – about Export mode have been read by the team of designers, engineers, and product managers who work on Premiere Pro. We are committed to improving Export mode.

We have made some improvements already. These include:

1. Changing the Save dialog so it’s easy to use the file name of a previous export as the basis for a new export.
2. Fixing the bug that prevented numbers with decimal places from being entered into target bit rate.
3. Fixing bugs that caused the Export mode to be slow. (We’ve got more work in that area coming.)

Another improvement is already in beta: the ability to export directly to Media Encoder. (There’s a Media Encoder button in Export mode already but the new option will be in File > Export and, most importantly, will have a keyboard shortcut.) You can use this forum to provide feedback on beta. Adding this feature doesn't mean we expect everyone to use Media Encoder or that we are not working to continue to improve Export mode; it's a response to customers who have said that they would prefer to use Media Encoder, regardless of how Export mode works. 

Another feature we’re currently working on is making the existing “Add Media File destination” more useful. Today, these media destinations are project-specific. We are changing this to make the destinations available to any project. We think this will be a big improvement as it will make creating and using custom destinations very easy.

Other improvements are coming and we’ll let you know as they go into beta.

Again, thanks for all your feedback. It has been invaluable.

Regards,

Fergus

[Pierre Louis B.]

I'm glad to see this will be getting fixed: "Fixing the bug that prevented numbers with decimal places from being entered into target bit rate."

[stevenprobets]

Tiny improvements but thats for an update.

It is obvious this redesign is a push to make pros use Media Encoder only and have an export option for not so much pros.

This is fine and I always use Media Enocder BUT the big big thing here is that using Media Encoder has been such a pain becuase of bugs such as media offline when it isnt, dynamic linking not working, sending to media encoder but the previous version is sent, clicking in After Effects makes the whole dynamic link offline. 

These issues need to be fixed before you forcabily move to Media Encoder.

Even now I have to export directly from Premeire becuase I have so many issues using Media Encoder with bugs and also waiting sooooo long to connect to the dynamic server (it seems to be fine though in the recent versions).

Thanks

[WizWorldLIVE]

@Fergus H I just don't understand why you're committed to this workflow that has caused users such grief & which has such obvious usability issues. A lot of the "fixes" are making it...more like the old export workflow. Shouldn't that be a sign that the previous iteration was better? And if you are adding a shortcut to bypass it entirely, is that not an enormous red flag? If you have to build in a feature to skip your own new process, maybe the new process is the problem.

[lukalumen]

Sending directly to Media Encoder definitely helps. I exclusively export
everything using Media Encoder and it will save me time and feel less
clunky to not have to ever see the Export window.

I've noticed the exodus of many big YouTubers to Resolve, if that's what it
took for Adobe to start listening, so be it.

There's something about the new drop-downs and buttons on the import and
export windows that make them more sluggish than the old way of coding them
that was fast (like in Media Encoder). The main UI doesn't have these
"updates" yet luckily and please leave it at that. It's more important to
have *fast* drop-downs and buttons than to have fancy outlines and graphics
on them. I have the fastest CPU on the market and I can feel the
difference... Thanks!

Hopefully some of the billions of profit can also be spent on improving the
performance and getting it in line with the competition.
I did notice a lot of the bugs and dynamic link problems that plagued
Premiere and After Effects have been fixed, but it's not there yet. For
one, every single time I close After Effects I get a pop up box saying it
crashed. So hopefully it'll keep improving...

Thank you for the update!

[scrozier]

I'd like to add to the incoming tidal wave of comments that forcing users to export direclty to Media Encoder is not the solve. Most seasons pros, as @stevenprobets mentioned have learned to avoid Media Encoder for anything but the simpliest exports as it has a host of issues. Dynamic Link, audio glitches, failed exports, and more. The most reliable way to export from Premiere is from the host program. 

If Adobe had admitted their mistake in 2022, put it back to how used to be after a month or so,  we would have moved on by now. But you have stubbornly dug in your heels and are now forcing paying users into a broken workflow: Media Encoder, or to waste time twirling and scrolling through this Fisher Price eyesore just to get to the bitrate. Why do you refuse to at least give us the "legacy export dialog" option if you are so set on having the full screen exporter from hell as the main option?

Please listen to your users? Are we still not your customers? 

[Pierre Louis B.]

@R Neil Haugen  "But again, I'm one data point. Period."

Yes, but then again the same could be said about any employee on the Pr team, could it not?  It's not just about asking a whole bunch of people what they think.  It's about asking the RIGHT people what they think.

I would put myself in that category given that I've worked as a beta tester and gone above and beyond with FRs and BRs over the years, becoming an expert at offering 'outside the box' solutions that I don't see anyone else suggestion.  So, yes, I may also be just "one data point", but I'd argue that the perspective of a single, level-headed, outside the box-thinking expert can easily be worth more than the random uninformed perspectives of 100 or ever 1000 beginners who don't think outside the box.

Don't dismiss the power of a single data point when it's capable of offering the right perspective. 😉

[Ryan Fritzsche]

There's a lot of anger on here, and I very much understand it, although if I could speak to my fellow editors: chill out. Writing computer programs is hard, and every user and every engineer has their own opinions.  

Still, it now just takes more clicks and more navigation work to get to the nuts and bolts export settings (bit rate, etc) and to get to my list of presets.  I realize some users may find those granular controls confusing, but I'm struggling to understand how this new interface actually makes things easier for the novice. I'd like to see some kind of option, whether it's a return to the old export dialogue or am adjustment to this new one, to have all settings and presets more readily accessible.  

Second, exporting via AME has historically been fraught to say the least, (I've had lots of issues in the past) and even if those historical bugs are now vanquished, I surely hope that Adobe can understand why we would still feel safer exporting complex timelines directly from Premiere. AME is a separate application and moving a sequence from one app to the other introduces many more opportunities for errors by definition, and since new features are a constant part of our world, that risk will never fully go away, if it's at a lower ebb now. Exporting to AME has its place, and it's a feature I'm grateful for, but it isn't a replaement for Premiere's own export dialogue being its best, and even bug-free, is itself yet another hurdle to now jump through.  

Other than less cumbersome access to my presets and the detailed settings, I'm mostly ambivalent about the new interface. Yet I don't know why you've done it.  I could handle a downside tradeoff if I understood the upside.  But  I don't see any value add, only new,unnecessary complexity.  

@Fergus H, could you offer any insights into why this change to the export dialgoue was made in the first place?  What value-add (future or present) am I misisng here?  I certainly don't want to be a luddite so stuck in his habits he can't be open a new innovation. Please enlighten me.

[Fergus H]

Hi all, 

A few updates on my previous post and about this thread:

1. I edited my post to clarify the point about directly exporting via Media Encoder. That is: it's in no way a message from us that we're not going to continue to work on improving Export mode. 

2. I deleted some posts because they crossed the line for what is acceptable language on this forum. Calling people "illiterate" or "fools" is going to get a post removed. My take is that if you wouldn't say it in person, you shouldn't say it on a forum. Conversely, I'm very happy to talk to anyone who really feels they need to vent; DM me and we'll get on a call or, if you're in the SF Bay Area, get a drink together - seriously. 

3. I also deleted a few posts that went down the path of "but some people like the new Export mode and people who don't like it should take that into account". That's not really relevant for this conversation and the last thing I want is for anyone to think we're dismissing their frustration with Export. (And, again, my sincere apologies if we've done that in the past; it certainly wasn't intended.)

Several of you have asked a similar question: Why don't we go back to the old version and what's the point of the new version? That's definitely a conversation I'd love to have in person (particularly over that drink!) because it's nuanced and I don't want do what I was just talking about in point 3 above. So, I'll keep it short. First, we had a great deal of feedback, over a long time, that many customers didn't like the old Export screen. We wanted to do something better. However, we missed the mark in several ways, either with annoying bugs, poor performance, or features that you would have liked not making it into the release. (Media destinations being a notable one.) We know that going back to the old version would make some people happy (you!) but would be frustrating for other customers. We think the best way to move forward is fix the immediate issues, put in things we hoped originally to include, and keep engaged with all of you as we do this. 

A couple of other points, addressing specific questions or comments:

@stevenprobets I hear you about dymamic link. I don't information to share right now but it is an area of renewed focus for us. 

@scrozier Having two entirely separate export modes is something we've discussed internally. However, we think we can do better and have one feature that works for everyone. 

Thanks again for the comments! And seriously: I'm open to video / phone / in person conversations about this or anything else. 

Regards,

Fergus

[scrozier]

@Fergus H well if you have to choose one...*guestures vaguely at huge thread.*

[williamc37483738]

Thanks Fergus. Being able to jump to ME will be great. We always use ME; it works great for our team. We never have exported directly. We continue working during the export. 

[BenatTybee]

Isn't this just using a shortcut to directly send your sequence to Encoder? I'm pretty sure  I've been able to do this since like CC 2017? How is this any different?

Maybe I'm not understanding something...

[BibbidiBobbidiBob]

Hi Fergus, I think this kind of communcation and staying in contact with the community is a step in the right direction. Having at least a little insight in what you're woking on with these updates helps everyone, I think.

Thanks a lot, keep it up.

Have a nice week 🙂

[TyleratTheCrossing]

This is the response/reach that better aligns with Adobe's values.  Thank you.  Sincerely, thank you.

[R Neil Haugen]

Like the others, I sincerely appreciate your comments, Fergus. These are very informative and helpful clarifications.

At a SMPTE-sponsored event last week, some attendees were from the world's biggest mega-corps, in-house video production team members. It was interesting to have them there, hear their questions, and learn about their processes.

It sounds like they usually need to create multiple exports for different services from the same project. And from their comments, I think they use the left-side section with the various 'services' options all the freaking time.

With the exploding amount of video production, corporate production is one of the bigger ... parts. Some of their considerations and needs were very different from what I expected.

Interestingly, so many corporate users would find it helpful. It needs to be there. It would be great to talk about making it more helpful or less painful for the rest of us.

Ideas to improve the current Export page

The " more ... " thing ... added to get to export options ... was for me and many a painful introduction. Enough for me that I sat down and de-starred all the included presets with them and created a TON of personal presets with variants so I wouldn't have to tick the 'more ... ' thing hardly ever.

Now, exports are better than before. But seeing the UI is still bothersome. Users probably won't take the time to make all those presets, as it takes a bit of time and tons of scrolling to get to the right one. So ...

How could we more quickly see groups of presets and grab one with as little scrolling and clicking as possible?

How could a more visible group of presets ... or something visual ... be built to quickly grab a needed one?

Mod note: edited for content.

[Heathenlamb]

Thanks @Fergus H . I just want to say to the other users. When Fergus says he is happy to jump on a chat with you to discuss the issues ... he 100% does. I am one of the fortunate people who have a had a chance to connect with Fergus and Patrick for that matter over this issue. They were very repsonsive to my feeback and took the time to hear me out. 

[Fergus H]

Hi all, 

@scrozier and I had a nice DM about some of the changes they'd like to see in Export mode. One request I'd like to mention to the larger group is this:

"Default range should not be entrie source, it should be set to in/out points or work area. Many editors have a trash heap at the end of their timelines they would rather not export. Don't default to entire soruce please."

Initially, this confused me, as Export does already default to Source In/Out or Work Area. However, on further investigation, this turns out to be a little more complicated:

If you create a sequence, then set Source In/Out or turn on Work Area, and then go into Export, we'll set Range to Source In/Out or Work Area. 

However, if you've been into Export before setting Source In/Out or Work Area, then turn either option on, and then go back into Export, Range will still be set to Entire Source. 

My take is that this is a little confusing and I've written it up as a bug. Oh, if you're curious, below is the way we format bugs. This one is simple but in general, we put a lot of focus on ensuring the steps to reproduce an issue are very clear. 

Regards,

Fergus

--------------

Method:

1. Create a new project
2. Import media and add media to a new sequence
3. Switch to Export mode; note that Range is Entire Source. 
4. Return to the Edit mode
5. Set in and out points on the sequence timeline
6. Return to the Export mode 

Result:

Range is still set to Entire Source

Expected:

Range should be set to Source In/Out

Note: if steps 3 and 4 above are omitted, Export mode Range does changed in Source In/Out. 

Put another way, the action of setting in and out points should trigger Export to use Source In/Out for Range, regardless of previous export actions.

[Alli and Will]

Agreed! The old style of exporting is significantly better! The new way takes way more steps and all the buttons are on the top left, then to export you have to go all the way to the bottom right to press export. You also can't press 'Enter' on your keyboard to start the export. Beyond that, the new presets style seems disorganized. For example, now all the presets exist for all formats. Before, I would have to choose the format, then the presets would show for that format, which was better. Now, if I click one of my 1080p presets, I have to double check what codec it is every time because any codec preset can be saved in the list now, which means you can click one preset which will be lets say Prores, then you can click another preset right below it in the same list and it could be a completely different format/codec. Also, the button 'see more' for additional codecs is a completely new window that pops up, which is unnecessary. The old exporter was way better and centered on screen. For larger monitors, the new exporter has all the buttons at the very top left so for my ultra wide monitor, it's not ideal.

[R Neil Haugen]

A vastly better design at first, for both Import and Export pages, would have been tabbing to the "execute" button.

And yes, being able to group presets would also be a huge improvement.

[J-D-F]

Thank you for update. I understand this isn't your fault, bit it should not take this long for an update on what is probably the top complaint on the site. Zero feedback for months and no updates with a message from the VP saying suck it up and that it's our fault for not being amenable to change is at the very least a compounding issue, and at most a bad response.

Again, thank you for the update and response to the thread.

[J-D-F]

Agreed, when adobe messed up the M1 render on Macs, media encoder was useless, and incidentally premiere was as well, so I had to round-trip everything through After Effects until I bought a 3rd-party codec. This went on for over a year and the current fix is still only in beta.

[csscms]

@Fergus H "We wanted to do something better. However, we missed the mark in several ways, either with annoying bugs, poor performance, or features that you would have liked not making it into the release. (Media destinations being a notable one.)"

It almost doesn't matter how you re-arrange and present features if you properly implement established keyboard interaction for drop-downs, buttons, fields, dialogue boxes etc. That's because if you adhere to established standards, pros can use shortcuts to bypass the nonsense like we always do (within reason).

Also, the new project tab is arguably worse from this POV. If these new tabs represent the future, it's a genuine worry because we're not hearing much to indicate Adobe understands why they're so worrying. It's not about change, that's a given. And it's not about bugs or reliability although, that's hugely frustrating (workspaces have been broken for years as one example of many). It's that new features are missing established standards. 

• Does Adobe have QA teams looking at the amount of clicks?
• Is there an acceptable click threshold for basic tasks like creating, saving and exporting?
• Do you ever try to accomplish basic tasks without touching the mouse at all? We do.
• Do you have a 27" monitor (or larger) for testing the mouse work new features create? 
• Are there CC-wide standards/shortcuts for file-related features?
• Are there CC-wide standards/shortcuts for interacting with drop-downs, 'Cancel' and 'Enter' buttons?
• And if so, do you follow them? 

Because with respect to these two new tabs, it doesn't seem like these sorts of quality basics were properly considered - right?

Speaking on behalf of those who use multiple apps all day, we're looking for a unified workflow. Premiere is part of a suite, so let's hope there's an overall Adobe CC team who aren't dismissed/ignored as 'brand police'. And if you are dismissing them, thinking you're creating 'the best app for a given industry' no matter the cost, be careful because inconsistency is always corrected - usually at great pain, time and cost!

That's why consistency is the first thing designers are taught, no matter the discipline - right?

[R Neil Haugen]

Good post.

Especially about the lack of consistent keyboard shorts to jump around the UI. Being able to say, simply "tab" over to the Create Project after setting a location in the Import page by itself would be a major improvement.

[Dragos Stefan]

Speaking of consistency, I still wonder, after all these pages, what was the thought and intention behind making these two dialogs completely alien from the whole Premiere Pro interface model of floating, dockable windows and pallettes?

If anything, I see at least the Export "window" being rather a dockable panel (like Lumetri, or the Render Queue in After Effects) instead of that full screen... thing?

[R Neil Haugen]

Excellent questions, and many of us would love seeing the answer ... I don't recall the reasoning for the "page" thing having been listed, though it may have been initially. Other than I seem to recall something about general testing and/or moving to a 'more modern' look or some such thing.

But not really ... an explanation of the reasoning that I can remember. I'd love to have a staffer discuss that.

Neil