User interface

Preferences

Change preferences

You can customize the look and behavior of Premiere Pro, from determining the default length of transitions to setting the brightness of the user interface. Most of these preferences remain in effect until you change them. The preferences you set for scratch disks, however, are saved with your projects. Whenever you open a project, it automatically defaults to the scratch disks you selected for it when you set up that project.

•To open the Preferences dialog box, choose Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Premiere Pro > Preferences (Mac OS), and select the category of preferences you wish to change.

•To restore default preference settings, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) while the application is starting. You can release the Alt key or Option key when the splash screen appears.

•To restore default preference settings and plug-in cache at the same time, hold down Shift-Alt (Windows) or ShiftOption (Mac OS) while the application is starting. Release the Shift-Alt keys or Shift-Option key when the splash screen appears.

Preferences are stored in the following location:

•For Windows: <drive>\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro

•For Mac OS: <drive>/Users/<username>Library/Preferences/com.adobe.AdobePremierePro.plist

This excerpt from the Adobe Premiere Pro Classroom in a Book explains how to set up projects, sequences, and preferences when getting started with Premiere Pro. See Selecting Settings, Adjusting Preferences, and Managing Assets in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.

General preferences

In the General pane of the Preferences dialog box, you can customize settings for everything from playback preroll duration to bin behaviors.

•Preroll and postroll are the amount of seconds before and after an edit point when playing back footage for a number of editing functions, like using the Trim Monitor.

•You can specify whether Adobe Premiere Pro, by default, displays timeline playback by page scroll, by smooth scroll, or no scroll. In page scrolling, each new view of the timeline appears after the playhead moves offscreen. In smooth scrolling, the playhead remains in the middle of the screen, while the clips and time ruler move by.

•You can specify whether Adobe Premiere Pro, by default, shows clip keyframes, clip volume, handles, keyframes, track keyframes, track volume, or to hide keyframes for audio tracks. Select the desired option from the New Timeline Audio Tracks menu.

•You can specify whether Adobe Premiere Pro, by default, shows opacity handles, keyframes, or neither for video tracks. Select the desired option from the New Timeline Video Tracks menu.

More Help topics

“Play a sequence or clip with preroll and postroll pauses” on page 127 “Specify and apply default transitions” on page 334

“Change the default duration for still images” on page 299 “Scroll a sequence during preview” on page 207

“Set the default keyframe display of video tracks” on page 141

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User interface

“Set the default keyframe display of audio tracks” on page 141

“Render audio when rendering video” on page 206

“Scale assets” on page 294

“Change bin behaviors” on page 107

“Specify whether to render audio when rendering video” on page 47

Appearance preferences

In the Appearance pane of the Preferences dialog box, you can set the overall brightness of the user interface.

More Help topics

“Brighten or darken the interface” on page 10

Audio Preferences

Automatch Time The Automatch Time preference specifies the time, in the Audio Mixer, for any control that has been adjusted to return to its previous setting. Affected controls are Volume, Pan, Effect and Send parameter knobs in Audio, Submix and (except sends) Master track. Automatch Time preference affects properties in Touch mode, and in Read mode for effects with keyframes.

5.1 Mixdown Type Specifies how Premiere Pro mixes source channels to 5.1 audio tracks.

Mute Input During Timeline Recording Check this box to prevent monitoring of the audio inputs while recording the timeline.

Default Track Format Defines the type of track in which the clip audio channels are presented when a clip is added to a sequence—Mono, Stereo, Mono As Stereo, or 5.1.

•Mono Maps the source audio channels so that they’re placed on separate mono audio tracks. For example, when you select Mono from the Default Track Format menu, Premiere Pro maps each source channel to a separate mono track on capture or import. If you capture from a stereo source with this setting, Premiere Pro maps each of the source channels to a separate monaural track. You can apply the Mono track format to clips containing any number of audio channels. Importing a file containing 5.1 channels maps them to six audio tracks. When you add the clip to the sequence, the clips on the separate mono tracks remain linked together.

•Stereo Maps the source audio channels so that paired channels are placed on stereo audio tracks. You can apply the Stereo track format to clips containing any number of audio channels. If the clip doesn’t contain an even number of channels, a silent channel is created. The silent channel is paired with the unpaired channel when the clip is added to a sequence.

•Mono As Stereo Maps the source audio channels so each is placed on a stereo audio track. Premiere Pro duplicates the audio from each mono source channel and places it in the left and right channels of a stereo track. You can apply the Mono As Stereo format to clips containing any number of audio channels.

•5.1 Maps the source audio channels so that one or more groups of six channels are placed into separate 5.1 surround audio tracks. If the number of source channels is not a multiple of six, Premiere Pro creates a 5.1 surround audio track with silence on one or more channels.

Linear Keyframe Thinning Creates keyframes only at points that don’t have a linear relationship to the start and end keyframes. For example, suppose you are automating a fade from 0 dB to –12 dB. With this option selected, Premiere Pro creates keyframes only at the points that represent an increase in value from the beginning (0 dB) and ending (– 12 dB) keyframes. If you don’t select this option, Premiere Pro may create several incremental keyframes of identical

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User interface

values between those two points, depending on the speed at which you change the value. This option is selected by default.

Minimum Time Interval Thinning Creates keyframes only at intervals larger than the value you specify. Enter a value between 1 and 2000 milliseconds.

More Help topics

“Set Automatch Time for Touch mode and Read mode” on page 241

“Specify automated keyframe creation” on page 242

“Downmixing to fewer channels” on page 248

“Specify whether to play audio while scrubbing” on page 234

“Mute input during recording” on page 234

“Mapping source and output audio channels” on page 221

“Specify automated keyframe creation” on page 242

Audio Hardware preferences

In the Audio Hardware pane of the Preferences dialog box, you specify the computer audio device and settings, including the ASIO settings (Windows only), or buffer size setting (Mac OS only) that Premiere Pro uses for recording audio.

More Help topics

“Preparing the audio input channel for recording” on page 232

“Specify the default audio device” on page 46

“Specify ASIO device settings (Windows only)” on page 47

Audio Output Mapping preferences

In the Audio Output Mapping pane of the Preferences dialog box, you specify the target speaker in your computer sound system for each supported audio channel.

Note: Adobe Audition users will need to use Audio Output Mapping preferences to that 5.1 clips will output Ls, Rs, C, and LFE channels in the same order as Audition.

More Help topics

“Map sequence audio channels to audio output device hardware channels” on page 223

Change the Auto Save settings

By default, Premiere Pro automatically saves your project every 20 minutes and retains the last five versions of the project file on the hard disk. You can revert to a previously saved version at any time. Archiving many iterations of a project consumes relatively little disk space because project files are much smaller than source video files. It’s best to save project files to the same drive as your application. Archived files are saved in the Premiere Pro Auto-Save folder.

1 Choose Edit > Preferences > Auto Save (Windows) or Premiere Pro > Preferences > Auto Save (Mac OS).

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User interface

Note: Premiere Pro will only execute an auto save when there are unsaved changes in the currently opened project. This also applies when the program is in the background or minimized. The potential consequence for leaving a project open with unsaved changes for a long enough period of time is that eventually all of the auto save versions will become identical, wiping out potentially useful versions to roll back to. Adjust this preference according to your workflow or close Premiere Pro when you will be working on other applications for an extended period of time.

Capture preferences

Controls how Premiere Pro transfers video and audio directly from a deck or camera. (None of the other project settings options affect capturing.) The contents of this panel depend on the editing mode. If you’re capturing DV footage, use the default DV capture settings. When DV/IEEE 1394 Capture is the selected capture format, no options are available because the options are automatically set to the IEEE 1394 standard. Additional capture formats and options appear if you install other software, such as software included with a capture card certified to be compatible with Premiere Pro.

Note: For P2 DVCPRO 50 and P2 DVCPRO HD projects, the Capture Format setting is not relevant, because the assets are captured and recorded directly to the P2 card as digital files by the camera.

More Help topics

“Set up a project for device control” on page 81

Device Control preferences

In the Device Control pane of the Preferences dialog box, you specify the settings Premiere Pro uses to control a playback/recording device, such as a VTR or camcorder.

More Help topics

“Set up a device for device control” on page 82

Label Colors preferences

In the Label Colors pane of the Preferences dialog box, you can change the default colors and color names. You can label assets with these colors and color names in the Project panels.

More Help topics

“Label assets” on page 107

Label Defaults preferences

In the Label Defaults pane of the Preferences dialog box, you can change the default colors assigned to bins, sequences, and different types of media.

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