Make the 'Auto Spread' function work better

[goddi]

Igor…

I don’t understand why the ‘Auto spread slides along music’ functions the way it does. Let me explain and let me know if my suggestion makes sense:

The way it works now, when you select ‘Auto spread slides along music’, the ‘Timeline’ and the ‘Waveform’ are greyed out and the slides are NOT spread along the music in the Timeline graphic. They are spread only according to what the default Time Interval was set to. However, you can still manually make adjustments to the slides along the Timeline in this greyed out mode. If you want to visually see the results of the Auto Spread function in the Timeline (while in the Auto Spread mode) you have to click on the ‘Arrange All Points’.

It seems to me that if you can make adjustments to the slides in the Timeline even though the Timeline and Waveform is greyed out, the Arrange All Points should be automatically triggered when the Auto Spread function is selected. This would automatically give you the proper visual representation of how the slides were spread along the music in the Timeline graphic.

If you want to go back to undo any adjustments to the slides you might have made under these conditions, all you have to do is re-select the Arrange All points and all the slides are reset. Another benefit of making the Arrange All Point automatically triggered when the Auto Spread function is selected is that, when it is played in the Mini-Screen and looking at the Timeline/Waveform (still greyed out), the transitions are visually where they are expected to be, and it plays correctly in the Mini-Screen.

I am looking at this from more of the viewpoint of someone who would not be using the Timeline function. It makes sense to me to trigger the Arrange All Points automatically when the Auto Spread function is selected because it will give you a visual result in the Timeline that matches what you are expecting. I don’t think most beginners would understand that Arrange All Points would be needed to be selected to actually see the slides correctly spread along the music in the Timeline graphic, even though it is greyed out.

I would suspect those who go straight to using the Timeline might not see the benefit of this suggestion. But the way it works now has always been a wonder to me since I am a heavy user of the Auto Spread function. Since it doesn’t affect the Timeline users, why not make it easier for the Auto Spread users?

Gary

P.S. I had forgotten but I now see that I brought up this suggestion back in April but it just died on the vine with no response from Igor. Well, let’s see what happens.

Thanks... Gary