Give feedback on the new timeline
provide feedback
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Marketing Team
We've launched the new timeline after making a bunch of updates based on early community feedback. Now that it's live, we realize you probably have even more feedback to give.
You can easily provide additional feedback by sharing a recording of your experience with us using this tool: https://greatquestion.co/descript/ryRQgf2d
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Landon Ward
Maybe I'm a unique user, but I LOVE the new UI. The option to have scene thumbnails in a sidebar isn't bad for those who've gotten used to it, but I have so many things I love after just a few minutes using the new UI. (I'm in Dark Mode)
- The texture when expanding the timeline. At first I didn't like that I had to expand it more to see the waveforms, but the texture above the video track feels so rewarding for some reason. It feels tactile. I love it
- The scene thumbnails in the timeline don't bother me too much. They're small but I use Descript on my monitor that's 1080p so it's larger than normal, so I might be a fringe case here.
- I'm used to editing in Premiere and using the timeline heavily, and when I tell you that I audibly kept repeating "OH MY GOD" when I could just click silence between spoken words in the timeline... It's so f***ing intuitive. I didn't have to watch a tutorial. I literally said, "wait can i....NO WAY". Don't get me wrong, the blade tool isn't bad at all and I got used to it. But this felt like MAGIC for some reason.
- The "split" option will take a minute to get used to but makes sense for a blade replacement. Just have to get used to the shortcut.
- THANK YOU for resetting Underlord when you click into another menu item. This was an annoyance before.
- I love the View menu. I feel like we have so many options to tweak very quickly and easily to find the layout that works best for a given project. I'm intrigued by Storyboard view.
Small things for feedback
- In dark mode the resize timeline indicator isn't super obvious. (great animation on the _ to ^ though)
- I'd still like to see Markers in Dark mode be more pronounced. It would help me locate where I am in the script better.
- Please add luts. Pleeeease. I need to ditch Premiere from this workflow entirely. I know it's extremely technical and y'all have really high quality standards. But this would be amazing.
- It would be nice to have the ability to export to Drive to a specific folder and not just in the root folder.
- I don't really like having a thumbnail over the waveforms. If I have scene thumbnails in the timeline, I feel like those could be removed.
Overall, I get that some people don't like all the changes. I've been using Descript for around 4 years. I'm used to the changes and adapting quickly. IMO there's a lot of good here. Please continue to be obsessive about quality and usability. Y'all are on the right track.
M
Marketing Team
Landon Ward: Glad you're finding many aspects of the new timeline helpful! What's the challenge you're running into with the thumbnail in the waveform area? We recently made an update so that the thumbnail no longer impacts the height of the waveform, which was a common complaint we were seeing.
Your additional points of feedback have been passed along to the product development team.
Update: Just got word from our design team that updates making it easier to see in dark mode are coming soon.
BigChadP
The new timeline is still too slow and the visual bar at the top for scenes is unusuable when I need to copy/paste layouts through the composition. Please reconsider keeping the scene bar on the left as an option even with the new timeline. If forced to use only the timeline it would greatly increase my time spent editing - not decrease.
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Marketing Team
BigChadP: Could you share more about what makes the visual bar at the top for scenes unusable for copying/pasting layouts? Is it functionally not working and not allowing you to copy/paste layouts or is it something else you're finding challenging about it?
Feel free to show us what you're experiencing using this tool: https://greatquestion.co/descript/ryRQgf2d
BigChadP
Marketing Team Thanks for the reply! I'll try and do the screen recording soon.
The issue is that when I jump around between scene types. In the old bar I could easily scroll up 3 or 4 scenes to find the right format, copy/paste and be done.
The vertical scroll is now time based - so I need to scroll back maybe 6-12 minutes. Which means zooming out of the timeline, scroll left through the very tiny images, wait for the new visual timeline to load (which is still very slow) and then copy, scroll back to where I was, and paste.
So while it technically works, it now takes a lot more time. Same if I try to scroll in transcript. Yes you made the thumbnails in line, but they are so small it's now more difficult to see what the visual layout of that scene actually is.
So just in general it is much more time consuming to apply custom layouts. We are seeing a lot of the same feedback in the unofficial Facebook group if someone wants to pop in there and take a look.
Andre Villeneuve
I'm glad the play button has returned to the center! I agree with osalas1@jhu.edu that you should not remove the larger scene thumbnails on the left of the script. At least provide an option to toggle them on or off. The tiny thumbnails within the script are fine but it's much harder to copy, paste, or move a scene up and down without the larger scene thumbnails. And please talk to whoever is obsessed with changing the user interface all the time, and ask them to calm down. :)
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Marketing Team
Andre Villeneuve: The new Storyboard view in the timeline was designed to replace the scene thumbnails to the left of the script -- have you gotten to try it out yet? Would be curious to hear how you feel the experience compares.
Overview of the new timeline: https://help.descript.com/hc/en-us/articles/10249275208717-Timeline-overview
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osalas1@jhu.edu
The only good thing about the new timeline are the thumbnails (Tb). Why does the entire UI have to change to provide that functionality? I miss the easy scene access on the left hand-side. The embedded scene Tbs are so much harder to find and access within the text. It's much easier to select the larger version - that are separated out in its own panel, when doing full scene image replacements. Also, where did the "right-click freeze-frame" insert option go? (I use this all the time). I found the new timeline changes so frustrating I reverted back to the OG version within minutes of a project.
Ditto to the comments about the repositioning of all of the buttons.
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Marketing Team
osalas1@jhu.edu: On the note about larger thumbnails in their own panel, have you gotten to check out the new Storyboard view yet, where you can see/interact with a grid of all your scenes? Once the new timeline is turned on, you can access it either from the view menu or using the toggle on the top right side of the timeline.
"Add Freeze Frame" is still available, you'll just need to expand the timeline and right click on the script track to see that option.
Andre Villeneuve
Is there any awareness at Descript of how MADDENING it is that you keep changing the interface again and again and again? I've been using it for just one year, and I think you are already on your fourth recorder version. The record button has moved from the top to the right to the bottom. The last recorder worked fine, but this newest one is a disaster. What happened to the screen sharing preview? It has now disappeared? Now instead of the screen preview we must select 'Screen 1', 'Screen 2', 'Screen 3' which is totally unhelpful, making it necessary to do several trial recordings to figure out which is screen 1, 2, and 3. In addition, the popup recorder window often gets "stuck" behind the main Descript window.
I have come to dread starting a new Descript project because it almost inevitably means dealing with whatever new random changes and learning curve you will throw at us. Whoever is making these constant decisions to change everything all the time seriously lacks judgment. Someone needs to sit down with them and let them know that this approach of constant changes is infuriating. I have never seen a piece of software that changes so much all the time.
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Marketing Team
Andre Villeneuve: Thanks for this note as well. Passing along this feedback to the product development team.
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AJ B
Been working with the new timeline for the past several days
Couple suggestions
1/ Moving the Play button over to the left is really annoying. I have a super wide screen, so now I'm constantly moving my mouse to the extreme ends of my monitor
2/ Removing the next / previous scene buttons means I'm now constantly zooming in and out of my timeline to try and jump scenes
3/ hiding the tool selector underneath another menu is yet another click I have to make, though I do tend to use hotkeys instead
Andre Villeneuve
AJ B Agreed. Moving the play button in particular is extremely annoying - one of many examples of Descript's obsession with constantly changing everything.
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Marketing Team
AJ B: Thanks for this feedback. We added back in the next/previous scene buttons, alongside the dropdown to quickly jump between markers. Let us know if you still find yourself needing to constantly zoom in/out of the timeline to navigate around your project.
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Ketan Seth
Done! Definitely seems better but I also got quite confused with a lot of the things there, mention it all in the recording. Not sure if there is no "marker" button on timeline, but that would be such a convenient tool. M is used for marking on timeline in Sony Vegas. And R for range, and they're both very helpful!
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Marketing Team
Ketan Seth: Thanks for submitting a recording. Also, thanks for the feedback about being able to add a marker when navigating the timeline. We'll see what we can do about that.
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Michael Walker
done �
M
Marketing Team
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