Selecting all tracks in Premiere

[dmehalik]

Hi!  I've been an Avid editor for 15 years and am just learning Premiere.  So far, I'm loving it, but there's one thing I'm really struggling with.  A huge part of my workflow in Avid used to be to be hitting Command+A to toggle selecting (or deselecting) all tracks.  This included all audio and video tracks and worked the same for source or timeline, depending on which you have activated.  I've tried programming the keyboard, but Premiere distinguishes between audio and video tracks... and more than that between source and timeline tracks... which would require remembering/using 4 different keyboard shortcuts as opposed to the one I'm used to.  (When you hit command+a, it simply selects the entire timeline, and that's not really helpful for me).

Any tips for either a solution to make command+a work like I'm used to, or how I should map my keyboard settings to make selecting all tracks faster would be much appreciated.  Thanks!

(I'm working in Premiere Pro CC 2017.1.2 / 11.1.2)

[Meg The Dog]

Here are the shortcuts for Mac, for WIndows replace the Command Key with the Control Key:

MtD

[dmehalik]

Hi, Meg---

Thanks for your time.  Yes, I saw those.  But what those mean is using 4 different commands... Meaning, if I want to select all my video and audio tracks on the source side, and all my video and audio tracks in the timeline, I'd have to hit all 4 of those commands.  I feel like I must be missing something, or that I'm possibly trying to apply Avid editing logic into Premiere... but since I'll likely be switching back and forth between platforms a lot as a freelancer, I'm hoping to minimize the differences in my keyboard commands.

[Meg The Dog]

OK, I realized that I don't understand what you mean when you say:

I want to select all my video and audio tracks on the source side, and all my video and audio tracks in the timeline

for what purpose? Can you give an example of what your are doing/hope to accomplish when you want to do this? There may be a Premiere equivalent.

Also, here is my two cents worth of unsolicited advice, feel free to ignore: As someone who has gone from film editing on a flatbed to CMX linear tape editing to Avid to Final Cut to Premiere, Resolve and FCP-X - you'll have the best editing experience when you embrace the differences in each software as opposed to trying to make them operate in the same way.

MtD

[dmehalik]

Hi, Meg.  Thanks again for taking time... and I hear you when advise to "embrace the differences..."  I do plan to, to a certain degree.  There are just a few things that are so ingrained in my muscle memory, that I'm hoping to hang on to a few cross-over keystrokes.

As far as an example goes, I'm going to make up a scenario:

I have a clip of a snowboarder in my source monitor.  I have a sequence ending with a clip of mountains in my record monitor.  Both sides have audio.

In Avid, I would do this:

1) Select an In-point at the end of the mountain sequence

2) Hit [command+A] to select all video and audio tracks in the sequence

3) Select an In-point in the source/snowboarder window, Again, hit [command +A] to select all the tracks associated with the file (video and audio).

4) Insert/overwrite an edit

(so, I activate what I want command+A to mean by clicking on either the source or record/timeline monitor... and it doesn't distinguish between audio and video or source/record--- so long as I have the correct window activated)

In Premiere, I would either select the tracks I want to be active with my mouse on each side or I'd have to do this?:

1) Select an In-point at the end of the mountain sequence

2) Hit [command+9] to select all audio tracks in timeline

3) Hit [command + 0] to select all video tracks in timeline

4) Hit [command+shift+9] to select all audio from the source

5) Hit [command+shift+0] to select all the video from the source

6) Insert/overwrite an edit

Am I missing something, maybe?  How do you select the tracks you want active?  By clicking them or with shortcuts?

Thanks again!

[Meg The Dog]

OK, I think I see what you are saying. I think our styles of editing are different, so what I do may not be applicable to you.

If you put a clip in the source monitor and mark an in point, if you use the Insert button (or shortcut key) or the Overwrite Button (or shortcut key) the video and audio are toggled and routed the way the Track Targeting and Source Routing buttons are set.

But if you either click down  on the Drag Video button (to drag video only) , or the Drag Audio Button (to Drag Audio Only) or click down in the source  monitor itself (to Drag both Audio and Video) you can drag the material you've marked and place it on the timeline regardless of what the status of the Track Targeting and Source Routing buttons are. In the last case, this will drag all the audio channels and the video while doing so.

This will overwrite the source material over whatever you place it on in the timeline. If you want to insert it instead, hold down the Command (Control) key while dragging to the timeline.

MtD

[dmehalik]

Yes, I think maybe I just need to keep playing around and practicing with what my editing style will be in Premiere... I'm getting the impression that it will involve more dragging clips than I've been used to in Avid... but we'll see.  Thanks so much!

[dmehalik]

Ya, I suspect you're right.  Selecting target tracks just seems so awkward to me at the moment, but I'm just going to keep playing and have a nice sit-down with the manual and Lynda.com.  Thanks for your time.

[Stefan Gruenwedel]

dmehalik​: Please check out these recently posted Adobe tutorials about editing in the timeline:

Streamline editing with timeline-based techniques

Customize timeline track controls

Select, delete, or ripple-delete clips

Finally, a few years ago we posted this video series to help Avid editors become familiar with Premiere Pro. It covers creating workspaces, migrating user settings, file management, audio routing, media export, and more:

Switch from Avid Media Composer to Premiere Pro

[martineh79785043]

As an Avid editor of 20 years the select all tracks/ deselect all tracks is one absolutely one of the most used keyboard shortcuts I use...if you can get this in any new versions that would be much appreciated Stefan.

[Krummbum]

And this is what drives me nuts about Premiere in general -- there are way too many steps to do one simple thing. And it's great the Adobe offers feature requests but it just feels like they throw it all in there with little consideration to process.

[Nomis_L]

Hello Stefan,
I've looked at the helpful tutorials you posted and read these comments. I agree with martineh79785043 in that it would be very helpful to have a keyboard shortcut that allows one to toggle on/off all tracks or even allow the current shortcut Command+Shift+A apply to toggle off. It is very often used in Avid, as the other posters noted.
I appreciate Meg the Dog's philosophy of embracing different programs. However in this particular case, it's a matter of keyboard vs mouse, rather than Avid vs Premiere.
The ideal world would allow new Premiere users to embrace the program while also avoiding what could be considered a less efficient tool aka the mouse and dragging.

[Stefan Gruenwedel]

Please post this idea here: Premiere Pro: Hot (1868 ideas) – Adobe video & audio apps

The link is filtered for "tracks" already so you can see what else people have suggested. If this is not already there, add your own.

[beths243870]

I would love to have keyboard short cuts for selecting specific audio and video tracks.  As it is now, Premiere is very mouse heavy and involves many clicks to do one action.

[roma61183]

If this is of any help to anyone, but Premiere has Move All Audio Up/Down shortcuts (obviously same for Video), this way I never have to worry about track targets and just move the source up and down. This way you can keep it all on keyboard. Yes, if you want to avoid using specific sources, you'll have to click those off, but Premiere remembers choices, so you only have to do that once per clip. Also, if I want just the audio or just the video, I do All Audio/Video shortcut and just drop that down. Helps with L-cut adjustments tremendously.

[Jim_Simon]

I think you're making it more complicated than it needs to be.

Put playhead at position, mark clip In/Out in Source Monitor, Insert.

[robertr88475868]

When all the video or audio tracks are selected go to the highest track and shift click.  So, if you have 5 video tracks selected and you want them all deselected just shift click on V5. Unfortunately, you will need to repeat for Audio. Go to the highest Audio track and Shift click. Hope that helps!

[beths243870]

Alas I am looking for a real keyboard short cut and not using my mouse, thus saving my poor mouse hand.

[gerikp]

Whenever I hit a roadblock with shortcuts I always try and look at what I can do with something like keyboard maestro (I'm on a Mac) or I think the other for Windows is Auto Hot Key. Since I'm on a Mac I use Keyboard Maestro and have several triggers that do multiple steps in Premiere Pro to save me time. Such as toggling all the audio and video tracks on or off. So I hit one shortcut that activates the trigger in Keyboard Maestro and it enters the Command+0 and Command+9 to toggle all the tracks. It's simple and only saves me one set. But it's just an example.

[beths243870]

Never heard of keyboard maestro. Will try! Thanks.

[R Neil Haugen]

I work routinely with a number of colorists who are mostly based in Resolve. And they've got from the $1,000 panel to the $30,000 panel, so they're pretty well kitted out. And yet, even with the full Resolve panels, they've all got at LEAST one large Streamdeck box alongside their panels.

A couple of the guys have become noted for 3D printing 'stands' for multiple Streamdeck button boxes so they sit right alongside and even with the tilted surface of their control panels. One of those has two Streamdecks on either side of his main control panel, a 'big' one "up top" and a smaller one down lower.

I've looked at those and they're cool because you can tell them what to call each button, and the name appears on the button itself to remind you what it is as you're getting the muscle memory down.

But I've been getting by with a Tangent Elements panel and a Razer Orbweaver Chroma alongside is as my 'button box', for especially the times I need mutiple keyboard shortcuts in a row to get something done. A macro, essentially.

Like "switch to program monitor and toggle Global Fx Mute, switch back to Lumetri panel". Hit the button once, clean un-changed image. Hit again, I'm back to working. It was $75 off of Ebay.

Neil

[gerikp]

I love my Streamdecks. They are continuously handy to have and I keep adding them to different workstations.

[Michael Grenadier]

gotta say back in the day when I had my first avid, I used to obsess about keyboard shortcuts and I had a macro program for the mac (quickkeys?) but there was always the danger that if the macro was too complicated and things weren't setup exactly the way they needed to be, things could go seriously south.  Nowadays I've realized that the creative process is slower than my keyboard shorcuts so I embrace the rhythm and don't worry about it too much.  

I am aware of things that I do repeatedly and will sometimes dig in to keyboard shortcuts to find if there's a better way.  There are some great keyboard shortcuts that are toggles so that whatever the command is for show all timeline, if you hit it again, will zoom back to the previous view.  very nice.  And there's a command to go full screen on the program monitor rather than whatever window is active... and that toggles also.  again very nice.  This is one of the reasons I check out this forum most days to see what questions and solutions are here.