Recently at the Adobe Premiere Elements Forum, a Premiere Elements 11 user wanted to know why use of the Delete and Close Gap Timeline command was deleting the selected photo but not closing the gap left by the deletion.
In that instance the Expert workspace Timeline consisted of photos side by side with transitions between the photos on Video 1 and two soundtrack clips on the Soundtrack. Each of the soundtracks had Fade In and Fade Out Audio applied to them. To complicate matters, the Delete and Close Gap command worked for the photos above the second soundtrack clip but not for those above the first soundtrack clip.
The answer was NOT
- in the formats of the media and type of media (video vs stills vs audio)
- in the transitions used, or in the Fade In or Fade Out Audio applied to the soundtrack clips
- in a specific Premiere Elements version (so far issue is found in versions 10 and 12 besides 11)
- in the specific audio track involved (the issue existed whether the soundtrack clips were on the Soundtrack, Narration Track, or Audio 1, 2... Track)
- in the fact that audio files and audio tracks were involved (audio could be taken out of the equation and the problem reproduced with 2 video clips on Video 1/the series of photos on Video 2 OR 2 video clips on Video 2/the series of photos on Video 1)
SOLUTION
The SOLUTION here will reflect the definition of the problem of when and where the Timeline Delete and Close Gap command is working or not, rather than offering any whys for the behavior observed.
Premiere Elements 11 on Windows 7 Professional SP1 64 bit
Given Video Track 1 with 28 still images (jpg) side by side and Soundtrack with 4 audio clips (mp3). The setup was such that there are 7 still images over each of the 4 audio clips.
For this mini test run, the 4th still image in each group was targeted with Delete and Close Gap.
The results were (from left to right on the Expert workspace Timeline)
1st Group, Deleted the 4 th still, but gap was not closed automatically between 3rd and 5th still.
2nd Group, Deleted the 4th still, but gap was not closed automatically between 3rd and 5th still.
3rd Group, Deleted the 4 th still, but gap was not closed automatically between 3rd and 5th still.
4th Group, Deleted the 4 th still and closed the gap between 3rd and 5th stills.
Refer to Figure 1.
When the groups were deleted one by one, from 4th to 1st group, it was always only the last group where the Delete and Close Gap worked. And, when all the groups were deleted except 1st, then 1st group's Delete and Close Gap worked.
An interesting note was the scenario where Audio 2, 3, and 4 were deleted from the Soundtrack and all 28 jpg were lined up side by side on Video 1. In that case, Delete and Close Gap worked for any of the 28 stills on Video 1, be it the first 7 directly above Audio Clip 1 or the remaining 21 which were over the empty Soundtrack space vacated by the deletion of Audio Clips 2, 3, and 4.
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| Figure 1. Delete and Close Gap Command Behavior. |
Referring to Figure 1, this behavior was the same
- if stills (or videos) were on Video Track 1 and these those audio clips shown were on Narration Track or Audio Track 1, 2,.. or Soundtrack.
- if stills (or videos) were on Video Track 1 and, instead of those audio clips each with 35 seconds duration on the Soundtrack, there were 4 stills (or videos) each with 35 seconds duration on Video Track 2 or above.
- if stills (or videos) were on Video Track 2 or higher and, instead of those audio clips each with 35 seconds duration on the Soundtrack, there were 4 stills or videos each with 35 seconds duration on Video Track 1.
HOW TO FIX
No permanent fix was found for these types of of Delete and Close Gap failures.
Attempts to get the Delete and Close Gap command to work by disabling one or more of the Audio Clips shown in Figure 1 were unsuccessful. Disabling was done by right clicking the audio file and removing the check mark next to Enable.
Filling the gap left by the Close Gap failure after file deletion falls to manual movement of the neighboring clips as a block (if necessary). The mouse cursor can be used to draw a rectangle around a group of clips to select them altogether, and then the block can be moved to fill the gap.
COMMENTARY
Although it is tempting to refer to the Delete and Close Gap behavior reported here as a program glitch or bug, it is not clear what the situation is since whatever this is exists at least in Premiere Elements 10, 11, and 12. So more work needs to be done to differentiate between a not understood fundamental video editing principle and the glitch/bug explanation.
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ATR
