Playback Scrolling

Premiere Pro 2.0 offers a new preference for the playback scroll mode for the track content area of your timeline. To access the preference go to Edit > Preferences > General and click on the drop-down menu for Timeline Playback Auto-Scrolling (Figures 5.30).

Figure 5.30. The new Timeline Playback Auto-Scrolling preference gives you three new choices for how you want your timeline to update as you play it back

The three available methods of scrolling are

• No Scroll. When the CTI/playback head plays beyond the current viewed area of your timeline and it stops, the view of the timeline will not update to show its current position; instead the viewing area remains.

• Page Scroll. When the CTI/playback head plays beyond the current viewed area of your timeline, the timeline view updates to show the next area being played through. When the CTI/Playback head reaches the end of that viewed area, it updates to the next one.

• Smooth Scroll. In this mode, the CTI/playback head is positioned in the center of your timeline viewing area and the timeline smoothly scrolls past it until playback stops or is stopped.

I use Page Scroll and Smooth Scroll most. Smooth scroll always keeps your playback head in the center of the sequence, but it can be dizzying to watch it move past, especially if you are zoomed in to a high magnitude.