Opening and Closing Liquid Edition

Version 6 introduces a new type of interfacethe Drop-Down Menu interfacewhile retaining the old, so-called Classic Start-Button interface. These two menu systems require two different methods to open and close them.

To start Liquid Edition with the Drop-Down Menu interface

Do one of the following:

• Double-click on the desktop shortcut (Figure 1.7).
  
  

  Figure 1.7. This icon on the left should appear on your desktop by default. Double-click it to launch Liquid Edition with the Drop-Down interface or, if you prefer, use this shortcut to launch the Classic interface.

  

  
  
• Go to the Windows Start menu and select All Programs > Pinnacle Liquid 6.00 > Liquid 6not Liquid 6 (classic).
  
  

To start Liquid Edition with the Classic interface

• Go to the Windows Start menu (since the desktop icon created during installation opens the Drop-Down Menu interface) and select All Programs > Pinnacle Liquid 6.00 > Liquid 6 (classic) (Figure 1.7, right).
  
  

Tips

• Depending on how many plug-ins you have installed and the speed of your processor, loading Liquid Edition can take as much as a minute, possibly longer.

• The first time you launch Liquid Edition 6 you will be asked to activate the program (Figure 1.8). To do this, click on the top button and follow the on-screen instructions. An Internet connection is required to complete this part of the installation.

  Figure 1.8. The activation screen appears when you launch Liquid Edition for the first time.

  

  
  

To exit Liquid Edition in the Drop-Down interface

Do one of the following:

• Click the window's X in the top right corner of the screen.
  
  
• Press Alt+4 on the keyboard.
  
  
• Go to the File menu and select Exit Pinnacle Liquid 6.
  
  

To exit Liquid Edition in the Classic interface

• Click the Liquid Edition Start button and select Exit.
  
  In both cases, a small Exiting Application window will appear while Liquid Edition clears unwanted temporary files from your hard drive. This process may take more than a minute and should not be interrupted. Once this window has disappeared, you may turn off your computer.
  
  

Start a New Sequence

Liquid Edition 6 opens with a demo sequence on the Timeline. So that the screenshots in this book match your computer display, you will need to start a new sequence by clicking on the New Sequence button at the top-right corner of the Liquid Edition interface. See Chapter 5 for more details.

Why Are There Two Interfaces?

In version 6, the decision was made to provide an interface that fell a little more into line with the Microsoft Windows ethos. Regardless of what you might feel about Microsoft, the Drop-Down menu approach is pretty much a worldwide standard, understood by millions (possibly billions) of users. Version 6 attempts to capitalize on this by giving new users an immediately recognizable interface to work with; something the original Classic interface did not always do.

But, there is also a hard-core user group whose members have been editing with Liquid Edition since the dawn of time. These people like their solid, somewhat confusing, and often impenetrable interface. For them, the Classic option is the only option. To avoid alienating the hard-core group, but with an eye toward wooing the new user, Pinnacle has produced the best of both worlds; they are allowing users to decide which interface they really want to use.

This book uses the new Drop-Down interface, partly because it is easier for beginners to understand, but mainly because it is the default interface displayed once the desktop shortcut is double-clicked.

For users of the Classic interface, you'll find a number of sidebars throughout this book that explain how to access the same option in the task-based descriptions.