[Kdenlive-devel] Finally, a few keyboard shortcuts.

Wed May 7 13:35:14 UTC 2003

On Wednesday 07 May 2003 14:47, Reinhard Amersberger wrote:
> > My biggest concern for the text edit-style idea is of how to choose which
> > clip you want to insert in the first place. I'm still thinking about that
> > one.
>
> Now I'm not sure I follow you ;-)
> But I think you have to do a simple 3-point edit, right?
> I mean ... first you have to select a clip to insert, set an In and an Out
> point, then you have set an In or Out point (or both) in the timeline,

This sounds like a very complicated descriptio for "open a file and drag it to 
the timeline."  You can set in/out point anywhere, and usually setting them 
once is enough...

> select a track and finally hit a key to finish this edit (maybe Enter ?).
> This edit could be based on which edit mode is activated ... normally there
> should be an insert and an overwrite mode.

No, we don't need an "overwrite" mode. You just drack the clip to the 
timeline, and the clip will only attach to a empty track. "Overwrite" is a 
redundant operation for an editor with infinit number of video tracks. It 
just adds to the confusion.

> So when the insert mode is
> activated the new scene will be inserted without deleting the other scene -
> movie will be extended - and in overwrite mode it will be deleted -
> duration stay the same -

As I said, that doesn't make much sense if you have unlimited video tracks 
and. To "overwrite" a part of a clip with another clip, just drag the new 
part to a video track "above" the old clip (and define a transition effect if 
you like)  This behaviour seem ver simple. Easy is beautifull.

> The only difference is that this modes (capture, editing, playout) could be
> helpful for beginners, so they don't have to know very much details about
> Kdenlive. Advanced users could use the advanced layout in adition to this
> general modes.

Kdenlive cannot do any capturing yet, and when it comes to that point, we'll 
have to provide a special GUI for capturing anyway. caputing id something 
that is very much independent from editing anyway.

> > > > I also would like to move the selected stuff more precise.
> > > > The idea is to select a thing that should be moved by entering an
> > > > exact value. Things could be clips, borders, markers, In/Out points,
> > > > key frames, ...... Some examples:
> > > > - Select one or some clips or just a part of a clip, then enter 10
> > > > and hit a key  to move this 10 frames to right. - Select the right
> > > > border of a clip, enter -1.10 and hit a key to move this clip border
> > > > 1 second and 10 frames to the left side.
> >
> > You mean vi-style editing commands, right? It has crossed my mind ;-)
>
> I never used vi ..... but you can tell us more details about your thoughts
> .... Maybe I will be a vi-user afterwards ;-)

I wouldn't bet a cent ;-)

> > > > - Enter a value and press the I or O key to move the In/out point
> > > > (like the axamples above).
> >
> > Ok, I'm not sure how easy this is to do with the KDE shortcul/accelerator
> > architecture but I'll take a look.
> >
> > > > - Press U to reset the In/Out points.

[... snip ... many keys ...]

Ok, here my two cents for all this "press-n-keys-m-buttons-and-drag-something" 
ideas. This might provide some quick access to some functionality and there 
might be people who prefer a "shift-P-click" to an additional "[x] loop" 
checkbox option. But PLEASE, whatever chift-Ctrl-w-u-left-click you 
implement, PLEASE, don't hide these shortcuts in a "soon-to-be-released" user 
guide. Make them _AUTOMATICALLY_ available in some sortof configuration file 
a help window or whatever. But if you need to update some additional file, 
after you invented a new key-shortcut, then the hole thing will fail. Adding 
a new shortcut must _automatically_ add some kind of documentation for the 
shortcut somewhere.
  A very easy way to achieve what I mean is, if you just use standard KDE GUI 
design. In the above case for the monitor window, if there are just a few 
option, I would add a few buttons to the window, if there are too many, I 
would add a menu bar to the window. All the operations can then be 
implemented as menu bar entries with short-cuts. The beginner willhave to 
click through the menu, but he will automatically see what kind of 
key-shirtcut would have done the same thing, and after a while, you can just 
use the key shortcut.
 Also I don't think too many of these shortcuts make editing easier. Exactly 
the same functionality can be achieved with a check box in the monito window 
"[x] &loop" and then pressing the "l"-key   will toggle between looping and 
non-looping playback. This has the BIG advantage, that you don't have to 
remember the key (the 'l' will be underlined, thus this is self-documenting), 
you see which mode is currently selected, you can click if you prefere the 
mouse to the keyboard, it is much more common GUI design and thus 
selfexplanatory to any average user. If there are more checkboxes, 
("[x] ignore in/out points on play" comes to mind) and they clutter up the 
window, just move them to a "&Play Option" menu bar entry and attach a 
short-cut.

Oooops.. many words... did I make clear what I want to suggest? Does it make 
sense?

Cheers,
Rolf

***************************************************************
 Rolf Dubitzky          http://hep.phy.tu-dresden.de/~dubitzky
 e-mail:         Rolf.Dubitzky at Physik dot TU-Dresden dot de
***************************************************************