Enable cursor keys in Shot Manager

[stevefal]

It would be helpful if keyboard cursor keys (right/left) would step forward and backward through shots in the shot manager. This would allow easy viewing and navigation of shots without having to mouse target buttons in the GUI.

Also it would be helpful if when navigating shots either by next/previous GUI button or cursor keys, the shot list would scroll such that the currently selected shot was always visible and highlighted. This would ease quick loading of the shot for editing. Currently, one has to scroll the list in search of the currently viewed frame.

[jamesw]

It would be helpful if keyboard cursor keys (right/left) would step forward and backward through shots in the shot manager. This would allow easy viewing and navigation of shots without having to mouse target buttons in the GUI.

I can see that might be nice. But for what it's worth, you can use up/down arrow keys to scroll through shots in the hierarchy list in the upper left, assuming that area has the keyboard focus.

Also it would be helpful if when navigating shots either by next/previous GUI button or cursor keys, the shot list would scroll such that the currently selected shot was always visible and highlighted. This would ease quick loading of the shot for editing. Currently, one has to scroll the list in search of the currently viewed frame.

I'm not sure I follow your comment about "ease quick loading of the shot for editing". If a shot is showing in the big central image, then you can load it by double-clicking the image or clicking the Edit on Set button.

By the way, if you've been scrolling through images using the buttons below the big image, then clicking the little "Synch" button will scroll the images at the top to show the current shot.

[stevefal]

Thanks, these tips help. The UI is strange though..

you can use up/down arrow keys

It's weird that the "Sequences to Display" list retains keyboard focus after I click on a shot thumbnail. The thumbnails are a list with selection state, so I think a user would expect it to receive keyboard focus and respond to keys. The UI appears to load with keyboard events going nowhere.

I'm not sure I follow your comment

Now that you mention it, I have double-clicked the SM viewer to load a shot before. I suppose that did not occur to me due to the interaction I was focusing on. When navigating thumbnails, the focus of my interaction is the list. My intuitive impulse is to interact with the thing I selected in order to load it. My mental model is that the thumbnail is the loadable object, and the viewer is a big view of it. I realize that is a subjective model, so consider my view a data point.

then clicking the little "Synch" button

Thanks, though I wish a discreet action wasn't required.

Overall I wish the UI could be more straightforward, I would prefer if the sequence list, thumbnail list and viewer were always synchronized, and assuming keyboard focus in either list, that both responded to Right/Down for next, Left/Up for previous, and ENTER for load. This would be consistent with most list UIs, and would eliminate the need to learn the current idiosyncrasies, assuming there is no compelling need for them.

Thanks again.

[jamesw]

In the next Mac update, the left and right arrow keys can be used to change the selection in the shot sequencer, with scrolling to keep the latest selected shot visible.

I'm not sure about the Enter key. If you select an item in the outline area in the upper left, the Enter key makes the name of the shot editable. That's pretty much a Mac standard behavior, as in the Finder.

[stevefal]

Thanks! Ah yes, Finder. I never understood that choice by Apple. To be Finder-compatible would imply that Command + O would open a shot.

Finder notwithstanding, even Apple uses the common model in the Photos app for Mac. Left/right rifles through thumbnails with scroll sync, and Enter opens them, even though their parent folders are renamable.

That said, naming shots is important. But I suppose I would prefer more explicit shortcuts for name and notes, and to reserve Enter for entering a shot rather than its name.

Anyway, thanks again.

[timothyferriss]

There might be a feature in Shot Manager's scroll ovo game settings that allows you to activate automatic scrolling to the presently chosen shot.