Today, we posted an update for the U.S. English version of Premiere Pro CS4 web Help. This update will appear in the other Premiere Help languages shortly. This update fixes a number of bugs that appeared in the previous build of Help. For example, it fixes a number of links, both to internal Adobe resources, and to external third-party resources, that had been broken. See: Using Adobe Premiere Pro CS4.
In the month of March, Premiere Pro users searching for either of these terms, "rendering," or "preview," in the community search engine, did not find the key relevant Help topics on the first page of their search results. Let's see if we can make those relevant topics easier to find. There is one key topic that should satisfy both these terms:
The 4.1 update for Premiere Pro CS4, announced at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference in April, has been released. Aside from bug fixes and performance improvements, the 4.1 release gives Premiere Pro greater support for projects authored in Avid Media Composer, and files in the MXF-wrapped IMX format. With the 4.1 update, Premiere Pro can import files in the VOB format used in DVD publishing. Also, the 4.1 release gives greater support to the REDCODE plugin, used for importing files from RED cameras into Premiere Pro.
Check for new updates for Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. (Choose Help > Updates.)
Let Dave Helmly walk you through the new compatibilities for Premiere Pro and After Effects in his video tutorial New Premiere Pro 4.1 and After Effects 9.02 Update
To give an overview of the compatibilities that this dot release adds to Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, Adobe Marketing released Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 4.1.
The following topics in Premiere Pro web Help have been added or revised because of, or coincidental with, changes made to Premiere Pro with the 4.1 update:
Create a sequence for RED camera footage (with RED plugin only)
Regarding the RED plugin, see also the readme file that is downloaded with the plugin, titled "Premiere Pro and After Effects workflow using the Red plugin," and the RED Adobe Workflow Guide.
File formats supported for import
Find assets in the Project panel
Monitor volume level from Timeline, or Program Monitor
About capturing and digitizing
Import files with the Media Browser
Import files with the Import command
Importing assets from tapeless formats
Modifying clip properties with Interpret Footage
Formats exported directly from Adobe Premiere Pro
Place a bar behind text in a title
Optimizing your operating system
Updates have been released also for After Effects and Adobe Media Encoder. Be sure to stop by Todd Kopriva's After Effects Region of Interest for more about the AE update in general, and about the RED plugin specifically.
During NAB, Adobe announced an upcoming update, 4.1, to Premiere Pro CS4. Karle Soule gives some of the details in Premiere Pro 4.1! Online Help will be updated with information about the new compatibilities on the day the update is distributed.
QE Manager, Aurobinda Datta gives this handy method of testing alpha channel support for Adobe Media Encoder:
If you select to export at 32 bit color depth, QT and WMV (with the codecs selected below) AME will write out an alpha channel by default (There is no user input needed here).
How to verify that it works:
1. In Premiere Pro create a DV sequence
2. Create a New Item> Bars and Tones with settings same as the DV sequence and then drag it to sequence.
3. Select clip and then from effect controls, scale it down (You would get black border all around which is Alpha)
4. Export to AVI (say alpha.avi) with bit depth 32 bit (codec = none)
5. Create a new dv sequence (say test) and then create a new item> Universal Counting Leader (UCL), and drag it to this sequence to video track1.
6. Import the alpha.avi file in Premiere and then drag it to sequence test and drag it to video track 2
7. Now you should see the UCL in the background and in the foreground you should see the bars and tones.
8. If you repeat step 4 with bit depth of 24 bit (no alpha), in step 7, you will not be able to see the UCL in the background (you would get black border)
32 bit color depth means 8 bits per channel multiplied by four channels.
Also a new Help topic, Exporting video files with alpha channels, is in the works, and will go live with the next update of English Help.
On Sunday, we updated the English version of Premiere Pro CS4 web Help. It contains dozens of small corrections. See if you can find them: Using Adobe Premiere Pro CS4
A shout-out to engaged user Kurt Potschka, who, in recent days, wrote at least half-a-dozen improvements to Help topics in his comments on the Help pages. His corrections have been remarkable, not only in their accuracy and thoroughness, but in their adherence to Adobe's writing style! (Something certainly not required of a comment.) Kurt's revisions have now been incorporated into the Help documentation itself. Thank you Kurt! May many other users follow your example in helping us improve Premiere Pro Help.
The February Search stats are in, and the February Search stats show that there were a few Help topics that Premiere Pro users had a hard time finding. They had a hard time finding instructions for cutting clips with the Razor tool, as well as instructions for importing and exporting various types of files. I've made some revisions to Premiere Pro Help that should make these topics easier to find henceforth. Following are direct links to these once-buried topics:
How to cut a clip in a sequence with the Razor tool
Split a single clip or multiple clips with the Razor tool
There seems to be some confusion over what Help calls "capturing," what Help calls "transferring," and what Help calls "importing." Hopefully, the next three topics can dispel the clouds.
About capturing and digitizing
About transferring files
About importing files
About importing various types of files
Import CMX3600 EDL projects The simple instructions for importing EDL projects into Premiere Pro.
Importing assets from tapeless formats
Importing still images
Importing XML project files from Final Cut Pro
Some had a hard time finding instruction on how to import OMF files, and for good reason: Premiere Pro does not import OMF files, though it does export OMF files. This is now noted here.
Exporting OMF files for Pro Tools
Speaking of "exporting," users searching for this word apparently were unhappy with the search results. Perhaps they were looking for one of the following.
Types of exporting
Workflow for exporting files
Export a still image
Exporting editable movie or audio files
During the month of January, Premiere Pro users searching for the term "export" did not have a great deal of luck finding relevant Help topics. When they qualified the term for a specific type of export, as in "export OMF," or "export DVD," they had good success, but not when they searched for the unqualified "export."
Assuming that someone searching for unqualified "export" is looking for general information, or overviews, about exporting files from Adobe Premiere Pro, I'm doing a few things to make those topics easier to find. This post is one of them. Here are the topics in Help which provide overviews of exporting from Adobe Premiere Pro:
After checking This Help System Only and running a search, you would get a page showing your search results. That much you expected. What you didn't expect was that if you ran a second search from the search results page, you would not get results only from "this Help system." Rather, you would get results from a broad search of community content.
At least this was the case until a few minutes ago. Because most of you, most of the time, wanted to stick with "this Help system" unless you intentionally chose community search, sticking has become the new default after you check This Help System Only . Now, after checking the box and running a search, your next searches, from the search results page, will filter out all results not from "this Help system," i.e. not from Using Adobe Premiere Pro CS4.
What if you want to switch to searching all of Adobe.com content, or all of community Help? You have those options too, depending on whether you uncheck the box Show Only Content From Adobe, or leave it checked.
Clear your browser cache, and check it out: Using Adobe Premiere Pro CS4.
Our friend, Todd Kopriva, over at the After Effects region of interest, made a post so pertinent to visitors to Premiere Pro Training that I'm stealing it and re-posting it here, thinly disguised as a post from me to Premiere Pro aficionados. Thanks, Todd!
As you (I hope) already know, anyone can add comments to Premiere Pro CS4 Help on the Web.
What you might not know is that you can subscribe to a feed for these comments.
Here's the URL. Add it to your RSS reader:
http://community.adobe.com/help/rss/comments.html?label=premierepro_product_adobelr&language=en_US
While we're commenting about commenting, let me renew my invitation: please comment. Don't be shy. We want you to use the comments to show off, to advertise your materials, to promote yourself... as long as your doing so helps the Premiere Pro user. If you wrote a tutorial about Premiere Pro, point to it. If you watched someone else's video tutorial about Premiere Pro and thought that it was good, point to it. If you think that you can explain something better than we (I) can or did, then add a comment and show the world how knowledgeable you are.
And don't think that you can only point to brand new information created for Premiere Pro CS4. As we all know, most of the fundamental features of an application don't change from one version to the next. So most of the tutorials and examples that were made for Premiere Pro CS3 are still good for Premiere Pro CS4. So go ahead and point to older material if it's still valid and good.
And to keep abreast of resources posted by others, subscribe to Premiere Pro Help comments.
I pushed a new build of Premiere Pro Help to the live server last night. It contains several revised topics. These revisions were based on user feedback. Revised topics include:
Choosing formats for use in other applications In particular, note the third bullet telling which export formats support alpha channels.
Export Settings Format options
Specify the default audio device In particular, note the Note added to step 3 about setting up USB microphones, on Windows systems, for recording audio in Premiere Pro.
Set up a USB microphone (Mac OS)
Fade in or fade out clip audio
There are other revisions as well. See if you can find them.
We’re doing something quite a bit different this cycle with documentation. The changes can be summarized as community, community, and community:
- inclusion of links to external websites (like yours!) in Help
- inclusion of external websites in search results, through the Google Custom Search Engine (CSE) service
- inclusion of non-Adobe personnel in the group of folks with the ability to moderate LiveDocs comments and make recommendations to the CSE
The moderation tasks primarily consist of clicking Accept or Reject for incoming comments and suggesting good resources for the database of web addresses that can be searched using the Custom Search Engine. These tasks shouldn’t take more than an hour per month for an Adobe Premiere Pro moderator. Why, then, are we asking for help if the job is so small? We think that you are likely to know about resources that we internal Adobe folks don’t. Also, by extending the power to recommend content to non-Adobe folks, we think that we prove that we’re willing to put non-Adobe resources on equal footing with our own---at least with regard to search.
So, who’d like to be a moderator? We’d especially like to get English-reading moderators at this point.
If you're interested, write me at muratore@adobe.com.
Users cried; Adobe listened.
If you are using Premiere Pro CS4, you've no doubt noticed that when you press F1, or select Help > Adobe Premiere Pro Help, you do not go to the Help home page. Instead, you go to the Community Help And Support page. Adobe made this change in order to quickly bring you to the full benefits of the new community search engine and links to all the relevant sources on the web. However, a good number of users still feel they want to go straight to the Help reference, and maybe explore community help separately.
Today, we posted a new build of web Help that gives users the ability to change this default. Clear your browser cache, and go to the updated home page. You may need to refresh your browser a few times. Toward the bottom of the page, under Changing the Help command/F1 default page choose one of the following:
Community Help (all adobe.com Help and support plus selected community expert content)
Help on the Web (product Help system only)
What if you change the default to Help On The Web, then decide you'd like to change it back to Community Help? Fear not, you can.
The 4.0.1 update becomes available today through the updater. The web Help for all the supported languages has been updated to include documentation for the new features deployed in this update. An early review of the update appears here: http://www.studiodaily.com/blog/?p=744.
Maximum Render Quality options
Sequence Presets options revised for Maximum Render Quality option
Tab menu settings revised for Maximum Render Quality option
You can improve rendering of motion, improve deinterlacing, and improve scaling of video. Select Maximum Render Quality in your sequence settings or Use Maximum Render Quality in your export settings.
Edit In Adobe Audition
You can export the audio tracks from a sequence directly from Adobe Premiere Pro into Adobe Audition, for full-featured sound editing and sweetening.
16-channel audio support
Pan or balance a 16-channel track
Map sequence audio channels to audio device hardware channels revised for 16-channel support
You can map audio channels to 16 channels of audio, when a 16-channel device is installed.
Exporting OMF files for Pro Tools
Export audio from any sequence to an OMF file for sweetening in DigiDesign Pro Tools.
Importing XML project files from Final Cut Pro
You can import Final Cut Pro projects into Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, as a shortcut to the full range of features in Production Studio CS4.
English
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/PremierePro/4.0/
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/PremierePro/4.0/premierepro_4.0_help.pdf
French
http://help.adobe.com/fr_FR/PremierePro/4.0/
http://help.adobe.com/fr_FR/PremierePro/4.0/premierepro_4.0_help.pdf
German
http://help.adobe.com/de_DE/PremierePro/4.0/
http://help.adobe.com/de_DE/PremierePro/4.0/premierepro_4.0_help.pdf
Japanese
http://help.adobe.com/ja_JP/PremierePro/4.0/
http://help.adobe.com/ja_JP/PremierePro/4.0/premierepro_4.0_help.pdf
Italian
http://help.adobe.com/it_IT/PremierePro/4.0/
http://help.adobe.com/it_IT/PremierePro/4.0/premierepro_4.0_help.pdf
Spanish
http://help.adobe.com/es_ES/PremierePro/4.0/
http://help.adobe.com/es_ES/PremierePro/4.0/premierepro_4.0_help.pdf
Korean
http://help.adobe.com/ko_KR/PremierePro/4.0/
http://help.adobe.com/ko_KR/PremierePro/4.0/premierepro_4.0_help.pdf
Web-based Help for Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 in French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish, have gone live. See:
Utilisation d’Adobe Premiere Pro CS4
Verwenden von Adobe Premiere Pro CS4
Utilizzo di Adobe Premiere Pro CS4
If you have a website of your own, feel free to link from it to relevant pages of Help, as appropriate, in these languages. Links to Help drive up its rank in search engines, such as Google.
Through the good old days of CS3, Adobe had several portals through which one could find Adobe Premiere Pro documentation and training materials: online Help, the Support page (Knowledgebase technical support documentation), the Design Center, the Developer Center, and the user fora ("forums" for those who didn't suffer Latin classes). As a Premiere Pro user myself, I found this array confusing, and didn't even know some of these resources existed until I came to work at Adobe Mecca.
All of that has changed with the CS4 release. No, the variety of resources has not disappeared. Instead, all the Adobe resources are funneled through a single web page for each product. We Premiere Pro users need bookmark only one URL to get access to all the Adobe resources related to Premiere Pro: The Premiere Pro Help and Support page.
But wait, there's more. This very same Help and Support page features links to the best non-Adobe websites and tutorials aimed at Premiere Pro users. And it's all topped off with a Premiere Pro-customized community search engine. Type in search terms, and search both Adobe and non-Adobe sources simultaneously.
As a user, I like this, and hope you like it too.
Before you ask: no, the Premiere Pro Help and Support page does not quite render this blog obsolete. I'll continue to post news about Premiere Pro training resources here, in a casual, non-scheduled way, but will change the contents of the Premiere Pro Help and Support page more systematically. Also, the loose blog format here allows me to point out interesting details that have no place in the Help and Support page.
We're watching you, well, not you specifically, but you in the aggregate. We track the terms for which people search when they are looking for instruction in Adobe Premiere Pro. Better yet, we know when they don't find what they are looking for. This is better because we can do something about it, like tell you where to find the topics.
The stats we have for September show, of course, the topics sought for Premiere Pro CS3. However, if a topic was hard to find for CS3, it might still be hard to find for CS4. So, I offer the following list of topics that have been hard to find, along with links to the topics themselves in CS4 Help:
24p
24p sequences
anchor points
Adjust or animate clip anchor points
Adjust object anchor points and curves
blue screen
Blue Screen Key effect (Windows only)
connect camera
Setting up your system
"Ken Burns" effect
Zoom and pan a still image
Multi-camera sequences
Multi-camera sequences
Out of over 100 new features in Ppro CS4, the marketing folks thought you should know about these right away. They are listed with links to Help topics explaining how to use each of them:
New tapeless camera support
Take advantage of the efficiency of tapeless cameras. Edit files from the latest tapeless formats natively, including AVCHD, P2, and XDCAM EX, without transcoding or rewrapping. With the integrated Media Browser, you can browse your hard disks from inside Adobe Premiere Pro, find footage, and then import the content directly into your Adobe Premiere Pro project.
File-based workflows
File formats supported for import
About transferring files
About importing files
Import files from the Media Browser
Importing assets from tapeless formats
Map P2 audio for export to P2
Batch encoding
Save time by automating the process of creating multiple encoded versions of your content using the new batch encoder. Use any combination of sequences and clips as sources, and encode to a wide variety of video formats, including FLV and F4V, Windows Media, MPEG-2, H.264, QuickTime, and more. Maximize your productivity by continuing to work while files encode in the background.
Adobe Media Encoder
Improved integration
Tighter-than-ever integration among Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe OnLocation, Encore, and Soundbooth™ ensure end-to-end workflows that are smooth and efficient. The innovative Adobe Dynamic Link allows you to move seamlessly among Adobe Premiere Pro and Encore eliminating intermediate rendering so you can work quickly and stay focused. Save rendering time by natively importing Photoshop® PSD files with video and blend modes, sharing more effects with After Effects®, and importing video sequences in Encore without having to encode them. With new Adobe Premiere Pro integration in Adobe OnLocation, you can send entire shot lists directly to Adobe Premiere Pro, complete with all the metadata that was logged during the shoot. Export interactive DVD elements created with Encore as SWF files for online viewing.
Cross-application workflows
Adobe Dynamic Link
Editing audio in Adobe Soundbooth
Exporting to DVD, Blu-ray Disc, or CD
Improved editing efficiency
Work faster with powerful and flexible editing enhancements. Adobe Premiere Pro includes over 50 of the most requested enhancements that make the editing workflow more efficient. Apply effects to multiple selections, get timecode information faster, speed up work in the timeline with new keyboard shortcuts, and much more.
Applying, removing, and organizing effects
Clip details in the Info panel
Keyboard shortcuts
Speech Search
Quickly find the specific area of a shot by searching for keywords within the content. Adobe Premiere Pro speech recognition technology converts your audio to a transcript and synchronizes it to the video. This allows you to go directly to the place of interest, and even cut video based on the script.
Convert speech to text metadata
Find a word in any clip
Search metadata
Completely new and improved Adobe OnLocation CS4
Adobe OnLocation™ CS4, now cross-platform, is powerful direct-to-disk recording and monitoring software to help you produce superior-quality results from your video camera. Featuring a completely redesigned interface, Adobe OnLocation CS4 gives you an impressive array of production tools to help you shoot better and faster while saving you time and money. Easily manage shots and takes with the new shot list. Adobe OnLocation automatically creates metadata that speeds your workflow at every step of production.
Basic workflow
Importing clips from OnLocation
End-to-end metadata workflow
Easily track video metadata throughout your workflow. Import metadata into Adobe OnLocation while you’re shooting, log clip information directly in the project panel using a unique spreadsheet-style interface that speeds up the process and eliminates re-entering the same information for each clip in Adobe Premiere Pro. Then, pass metadata through, on export, for publishing to the web.
Managing metadata
Exporting XMP metadata
Faster, customizable SWF output
With one click, easily create SWF versions of your DVD and Blu-ray Disc projects for the web, without opening another application. Now with added flexibility, you can create content compatible with Adobe Flash® Player, complete with DVD interactivity, menus, URL links, and HTML templates. Export different video sizes for FLV streaming or progressive download, customize SWF player skins and reduce FLV encoding time by using optimized encode settings in Adobe Media Encoder. Build new revenue sources based on secure streaming or protected download delivery models.
Create a DVD, Blu-ray disc, or SWF file
Sharing markers with After Effects, Encore, and Flash
Moving content between Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Flash
Tips for creating FLV files
Exporting for Adobe Media Player
Industry-leading Blu-ray Disc output
Create high-definition Blu-ray discs with advanced pop-up menus and subtitles with Adobe Encore CS4 software, included with Adobe Premiere® Pro CS4.
Export files for DVD, Blu-ray, videoCD (Windows only), super videoCD, or CD-ROM
Thousands of visual and audio effects via Adobe Resource Central
Create or customize existing video and audio using numerous effects available via Adobe Resource Central. Get live access to fresh, new content and news. Get helpful tutorials and training materials without leaving your workflow. (Internet connection required.)
See the new Resource Central panel in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4.
Adobe Premiere Pro CS 4, like other Adobe Creative Suite4 products, has a single page for accessing all kinds of training and support materials for users of the product. The Premiere Pro Help And Support page features:
a link to Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 (and CS3) online Help,
a Google search engine that has been customized to find resources on the web with extremely high relevance to users of Adobe Premiere Pro,
links to knowledgebase articles and other customer support resources,
links to forums, blogs and other sites where Adobe Premiere Pro is discussed.
To make the Premiere Pro Help And Support page your one-stop shop for all training relevant to Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, click here: http://www.adobe.com/support/premiere/
Be mindful: the Help And Support pages are in beta until the product ships. Performance may be quirky in the meantime.
Stephen Muratore
Sr. Technical Writer
Adobe Systems
You've heard the Adobe CS4 product announcements. Care to take a closer look at the new features in
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4? Adobe has posted the Help contents on the web where you can search it. When the product ships, you will be able to post your own comments to the Help pages.
See Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 Help,
Or, go straight to the list of new features.
Stephen Muratore
Sr. Technical Writer
Adobe Systems, Inc.