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Group vs. Single Workflow

Feedback needed!

The Problem

There are several actions that apply to the whole group/selection, but should apply only to the main selected clip in some situations (but not in all) or the other way around. At the moment the behavior is inconsistent and does not satisfy all workflows. We need a general strategy how the workflow should be in these situations. Note: This issue is mostly present in mouse based workflows, but not only.

Solution discussed during our Zurich Sprint

  • Timeline: allow selecting one item in a group with a modifier (ALT+Click). A special color shows this highlighted clip
  • Unless such special selection is made, all actions (adding/pasting an effect) will apply to all selected clips
  • When such a clip is selected, the action only applies to this specific item

Related bugs

  • Dragging an effect to multiple clips BUG: 437417
  • Disable Paste Effects of Multiple Clips BUG: 421667
  • "Disable Clip" affects all clips in a group, even when user selected just one BUG: 387655
  • Speed up multiple clips at once [request] #1045

Not really related, but worth to keep in mind:

  • No way to assign an effect to a group of clips and control the effect parameters once for the whole group BUG: 442722
  • Effects should be applied to all the clips in a group #861 (closed)

Potentially affected actions

  • Copy (especially in conjunction with "Paste Effects")
  • Paste Effects
  • Delete Effects
  • Disable Clip
  • Insert an effect… [context menu entry]
  • [Drag effect to timeline clip]
  • Extract Clip / Delete (???)
  • Change clip speed

Possible Solutions

Solution 1

Add button to the status bar (and a shortcut) to toggle the behavior:

image

If the button is active the actions will apply to all clips in group/selection, otherwise they apply only to the current ("main selected") clip.

Solution 2

Duplicate every action to have one that applies to all clips in group/selection and one that applies to current ("main selected") clip only.

Like:

  • Copy
  • Copy selection
  • Paste Effects
  • Paste Effects to selection
  • …

How would that work for dragging an effect to item(s)?

-> In this specific case we can use a mouse modifier like:

  1. Dragging an effect to a clip an a group only adds the effect to the clip where the effect is dropped
  2. Dragging an effect while pressing eg. the Shift key adds the effect to all clips that are currently selected

Solution 3

Are there other possible solutions for this? I am open to your suggestions!

Edited by Jean-Baptiste Mardelle