- Top 10 Premiere Keyboard Shortcuts
We've gone to our Premiere training expert Myron Achtman and asked him for his favorite Premiere keyboard shortcuts. Myron is founder of ADITA Video and the author of our best selling series of Premiere CD-ROM Tutorials. He has recently completed his all new CD-ROM Tutorial for Premiere 6.5 It is his best work so far! The tutorials are loaded with screen grabs and easy to follow instructions. Best of all, you learn not just how to use Premiere, but how to become an expert.
- Shortcut #1 - {TAB} key
Press the {TAB} key to toggle Premiere's palettes off and on. With the palettes turned off you will have more room on the screen to expand your Project window, Monitor window, and Timeline window. This will also give you an unobstructed view of the Audio Clip window when working with audio wave forms.
- Shortcut #2 - { + } and { - }
The plus key { + } and minus key { - } on the main keyboard (NOT the numeric keypad) will expand and contract the time scale in the Timeline window. HINT: Position the Edit Line before you press plus or minus to keep the clip centered in the Timeline window.
- Shortcut #3 - { \ }
Use the backslash key { \ } to automatically re-size the Timeline window so that you can see all the clips in your edited program.
- Shortcut #4 - { Space Bar }
The { Space Bar } is the largest key on your keyboard. Use it to start and stop playback in the Timeline window, Monitor window or Clip window. In the Timeline window, pressing the { Space Bar } starts playback from the location of the Edit Line. Playback will continue until you press the { Space Bar } again, or the end of the project is reached.
- Shortcut #5 - { Enter }
Press the { Enter } key to playback ONLY the section of the Timeline defined by the yellow Work Area Bar. If there are any video segments or audio segments that require preview files, these will be rendered before playback commences. Playback will automatically stop at the end of the yellow Work Area Bar.
- Shortcut #6 - { Alt } + { Click Yellow Bar }
Hold down the { Alt } key while you click the yellow Work Area Bar. This will automatically expand the yellow Work Area Bar to cover all the clips in the Timeline window. NOTE: If there is a gap anywhere in the Timeline -- even as small as 1 frame -- the yellow Work Area Bar will STOP at the gap. This is an excellent way to troubleshoot your program and check for any accidental gaps in your Timeline. HINT: If you simply double-click on the yellow Work Area Bar, it will be automatically sized to fill the current viewing area of the Timeline window.
- Shortcut #7 - { Alt } + { period } and { Alt } + { comma }
When a clip in the Timeline window is selected (i.e. surrounded by the animated marquee), you can nudge it forwards or backwards one frame at a time by holding the { Alt } key while pressing the { period } or { comma } respectively. If you hold down both the { Alt } key and the { Shift } key, you can nudge the selected clip 5 frames forward at a time with the { period } and 5 frames backward at a time with the {comma}.
- Shortcut #8 - { V } and { Z }
The letter { V } selects the default Selection Tool and the letter { Z } selects the Zoom Tool. With the Zoom Tool { Z } selected, click and drag inside the Timeline area to specify exactly what clips you want to fit into the Timeline window. Then press the letter { V } to return to the default Selection Tool. Once you start using this technique you will really appreciate how easy it is to get just what you want to see in the Timeline window. Just remember, it's eazy with V and Z.
- Shortcut # 9 - { Home } and { End }
When any clip in the Timeline window is selected (i.e. surrounded by the animated marquee), pressing the { Home } key places the Edit Line at the start of the clip and pressing the { End } key places the Edit Line at the end of the clip.
- Shortcut # 10 - { * } on Numeric Keypad
When working in the Timeline window or Monitor window, pressing the asterisk key { * } on the Numeric Keypad will create a Marker in the Timeline window. These markers are extremely useful when combined with Premiere's new Automate to Timeline function. HINT: Press { Shift } + { W } to move forwards from one Timeline marker to the next. Press { Shift } + { Q } to move backwards from one Timeline marker to the previous one.
Here's two more sent in by WTS, one of our messgae board contributors!!
- Shortcut # 11 - { uparrow } or { downarrow }
When you are on the timeline, hitting the up arrow and down arrow will bring you to the first frame and last frame of your project.
- Shortcut # 12 - { shift } & { ctrl } & either { rightarrow } or { leftarrow }
If you select 'shift'-'ctrl' and either the left arrow or right arrow while on the timeline you will jump to the next juncture between clips to the right or left depending on which arrow key you used. Its a quick way of jumping through the transitions between clips on your timeline..
- Videoguy's Adobe Premiere Productivity Pack
Once you start using these time saving shortcuts, you are going to wonder how you ever edited without them. Keyboard shortcuts are the easiest way to quickly navigate the interface and more quickly edit your videos. That's why we call our Premiere 6.5 Super Productivity Pack the best $129.95 you will ever spend on your NLE system. You get our Premiere 6.5 EZ Keyboard, ADITA Video CD-ROM Tutorial and our Getting Started video. Purchased individually you would spend almost $200 on these 3 must have items, for $129.95 it is a tremendous deal!
- Use the capture card presets.
Most of todays cards come with special 'hooks' that let it get optimized performance with the NLE software. If you do not use the vendors presets, then these 'hooks' are not utilized and your performance will suffer. In Premiere make sure you select the capture cards preset as your editing mode and that you load one of it's preset settings when you first open your project. This will automatically load all the correct compression settings for your project and clips. If you do not use the proper compression, then the capture card will NOT be able to output your project back to tape.
Premiere 6.5 has a great feature you can use to make sure you have all the right pre-sets. It is called the VIEW SETTINGS option.
With this simple 1 click tool you can now check all your settings; project, capture, clip and export. This is a wonderful troubleshooting feature.
- If Premiere starts acting funny, it could be the preferences file
For Premeire 6
The Prem60.prf file is used by Premiere to hold preference settings and certain instruction code with regards to settings used, plugina and real-time etc. Sometimes this file can become corrupt and will manifest in the strangest ways (slowdowns, faulty transitions / filters, sync or poor playback, etc.). If you have any features/ transitions / plug-ins that suddenly stop working or are no longer available, this fix works 9 out of 10 times!! Here is what you need to do:
Close Premiere and all other applications. Go into the Adobe Premiere folder under Windows Explorer. Find and delete the Premiere "pref" file. If you have Adobe Premiere 6.5.0 this file is identified as Prem60 and for 5.1 it is Prem50. The Icon has a key. When Premiere is started (initialized) it will make a new file. You will know if this fix worked almost right away. The missing features should be back and Premiere should no longer be acting funny.
For Premeire 6.5 (With the new Premiere 6.5, it's a little bit more effort to delete the preferences file)
- Using the Windows Search Utility on the menu, enter the name “Premiere 6.5 Prefs” (be sure to includethe quotation marks) and look in the C:\ drive.
- When the file appears in the search window, click once on its name and then press the key and send the file to the Recycle Bin.
- Premiere will automatically create a new Premiere 6.5 Prefs file using the original "factory" settings when you start the program.
- With this done, Premiere should become more stable and back to normal functionality.
- Premiere 6.5 LOVES RAM!!
Don't even think of running Premiere with less then 128 megs of RAM. For Win2K or XP, make sure you have at least 256. If you plan on doing complex transitions, titles and or animated FX go with at least 512 megs. Memory is cheap, so give Premiere all it craves. You'll find your system is faster and more stable because you did!
- Create and use your own customized workspace
You can customize the way the Premeire interface will work for you by creating your own Workspace. You can select whichever windows you want and re-size them as needed. Put the features you use most right at your fingertips!
Here is how to Save Your Workspace
- From the Window menu select Workspace and choose Save
- Workspace... from the drop-down list.
- In the Save Workspace dialog box, enter a descriptive name for your workspace.
- I use "Videoguy Dual" for my workspace when I use dual monitors
- Now just select your new workspace whenever you start a new project and have Premeire your way!!
- For best performance you may want to throttle back your graphics card
Many of todays cards come preset to 24 or 32 bit color. This is not neccessary for video editing and it may cause stability problems with Premiere. We recommend a screen resolution of 1024x768 and a color depth of 16 bit high color. If you have a large monitor and you want to go with a bigger screen resolution this should be OK, just keep the color depth at 16 bit. Using the higher color depth settings may interfere with proper overlay. Even worse, it could result in the graphics card stealing resources from your CPU, resulting in dropped frames.
- If you are still on Premiere 6 and you want to use it with XP, make sure you download and install the Adobe Premiere 6.01 update
- This update is certified and required for Windows XP
- The Premiere 6.01 update provides fixes to known issues in Premiere 6.5.
- The latest drivers for our Real-Time Capture cards will work much better is you install this update
- Make sure you install the 6.01 update before you install your capture cards drivers
- If you install this update over your existing NLE system, you will probably need to then re-install your video capture card drivers.
- Click here to Download 6.01 patch
- DVD Tech tip: Exporting to MPEG2 for DVD Authoring in Premiere 6.5
- If you want to increase the power of your NLE system, check out our NLE Plug-Ins
Plug-In technology is one of the features that makes Adobe Premiere such an amazing product. Plug-Ins let you add additional features such as better titling, 3D transitions, special effects and more. The Plug-In software works from within Premiere and integrates almost seemlessly with it. One note: If you plan on using lots of plug-ins, get yourself some extra RAM. It will help your system run smooth and stable.
For a look at our favorites, check out our latest NLE Plug-In round up article.
The following Premiere 6.5 tips are provided FREE as a service to our customers. If you purchased your equipment from someone else, you are welcome to use these tips. The Electronic Mailbox offers the best customer service and tech support in the industry. We hope you will remember this the next time you need to purchase Desk Top Video products.
