Great at the fancy bits, lacking in basic features

  • As a new VideoScribe user on the Mac, I'm very happy with the program's capabilities, but also puzzled by some very basic omissions, which I'll list here.


    1. Can't have multiple scribes open at the same time


    Right now, to switch from one scribe to the other, you have to fully load the scribe from scratch each time you switch. The Mac has a "Window" menu -- why not use it? Allow multiple scribes to be open so you can rapidly switch between them.


    2. Can't jump to the beginning/end of the timeline, or scroll the timeline quickly


    I'd really appreciate the ability to scroll the timeline left and right more quickly & easily. Right now, all I can do is click & hold the left/right arrow buttons on either side of the timeline, which is very, very tedious for long scribes. Dragging a single icon very far in the timeline is even more tedious, especially on a laptop with a trackpad instead of a mouse. I suggest you add operations to move focus to the beginning & end of the timeline, and allow the Page Up and Page Down keys to scroll the timeline one "page" at a time (that is, if 10 icons are visible in the timeline, scroll 10 at a time).


    3. Undo rarely works.


    I can't figure out the rules of your Undo function. Sometimes it has an effect, sometimes not. I'm guess that only certain changes are undoable... which is really bad because I never feel safe attempting a big change. If it goes wrong, it might not be undoable, unless I happened to save the scribe immediately before attempting the change. Worse, if "Autosave" happens to run after the change, I can't even undo my change by quitting & reloading.  Please, please, please create a working Undo feature.


    4. Small images are unmovable.


    If you have a small image on the canvas and try to select & move it, you can't, because the controls for resizing and rotation are in the way. You wind up resizing or rotating the image instead of moving it. Combine this with the lack of Undo, and it's really maddening!


    5. Closing a scribe quits the program


    Closing a scribe should leave the VideoScribe application open. Every other Mac program on the planet behaves this way, but VideoScribe shuts down the whole application. Then I have to log in again and sit through the tedious introductory animation, wasting time. I suggest that closing a scribe should return you to the Project screen.


    I hope these issues can be addressed in a future release. Thank you.




    1 person likes this idea
  • Hi,

    1) I like this idea. It would be useful, especially when copying parts of one scribe to another scribe. Unfortunately this probably won't be considered soon because many people make scribes that max out the memory capabilities of videoscribe. In many cases two open scribes would not be a viable option. Maybe in the future when a specific leased component has a higher memory limit or when the whole program becomes more memory efficient. 


    2) I agree. A "jump to beginning" and "jump to end" icon seem like great features to add to the timeline. Also maybe a "jump to next set of 10 thumbnails". Basically the rough equivalent of these icons in a video player:       |<     <<    <     >    >>    >|


    3) Undo is limited.  It only undoes certain operations on the currently selected element. Possibly only movement, I don't really remember. I never use it. I agree that a "true" undo function that could at least undo ANY individual (or multiple) most recent change to the project would be a big help.


    4) Couple of tips for that:

    option 1) select the image by clicking it on the canvas or in the timeline and then use the keyboard arrow keys to move it.

    option 2) use magnifying glass icon to  zoom in and easily click-drag it.

    A possible way they could change it would be to remove the rotate and scale handles from the bounding box of all elements, and add new rotate and scale icons somewhere in the user interface to trigger the appearance of the rotate and scale handles separately. Some people may prefer that, but others will likely complain about having to perform an extra step to activate those options.


    5) Double check which icon you are clicking. If you closed the program then you clicked the X icon in the upper right corner to close the program.  Clicking the "return to projects icon near the upper left corner will close the current scribe project and return you to the projects screen.


    -Mike (videoscribe user)

     

  • Thanks Mike! A couple of responses to your responses.


    (4) Yep, these work. Another possibility is what old X window managers used to do: have an explicit "Move" mode. Choose "Move" from a context menu of some sort, and then any clicking on the object will grab it for moving.


    (5) I know about the "return to projects" icon, thanks. My comment is just saying that every other Mac program in the universe uses the window-close icon to mean "close this window but leave the application running." VideoScribe is unique on the Mac (in my experience) for closing the entire app when you close a window.

  • I have passed these onto our developers and they will be considered for inclusion in a future release of VideoScribe.

  • I can subscribe to everything said above.

    I hope that there soon will be an upgrade that supplies these basic features.

    Thanx

  • Any progress on the above issues? The scrolling to the end of the timeline issue is really important. Plus it would be great to select and move multiple images in the timeline. 

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