FR: Limit Zoom Out

[fromwithin]

It's a bit mad that Waveform can effectively zoom out indefinitely, and annoys me quite a lot when I'm jumping around the project doing Zoom out->point there->Zoom back in.

Of course there's no standard length of project, but I really would like there to be an option somewhere to limit how far the view can be zoomed out, or just limit the zoom out to the same zoom level as "Fit to view".

[AGreen]

Not really sure what you mean but there are various keys you can use to zoom out such as N, F5, F7, F8. You can even create your own zoom levels with macros I believe.

[fromwithin]

I know that you can jump to specific zoom levels, but it doesn't limit the zoom when using the scroll wheel. I don't really understand why it can zoomed beyond the Fit To View level seeing as you can always scroll the view horizontally so that the last clip is off the left of the screen. It would be much quicker to be able to slam the mouse wheel down and have Waveform stop at minimum zoom, rather than it just squeezing everything to the left of the screen or me having to have my other hand hover over or jump to F5 all the time.

[AGreen]

It would be problematic. What would you do if the project was longer than the actual audio and you needed to add something further along the timeline? You wouldn't be able to zoom out using the mouse wheel.

[fromwithin]

Like I said, you can always scroll to the right to make the right-most clip go off the left side of the screen. That means that there is always space for twice the length of your track at Fit to view zoom level.

[fde101]

You could also try specifying the zoom limit as a multiple of the project length.

I don't see a need for it though. Just don't roll the mouse wheel further than you want to zoom.

[fromwithin]

I've just realised why it bothers me so much and strictly speaking it's not entirely to do with limiting the zoom level in such a naive way.

What bothers me is the zoom out focal point. If you're zoomed in, point your mouse somewhere, and then start rolling the mouse wheel down, the focal point of the zoom is wherever the mouse is pointing. But when the zoom level reaches the point where Bar 1 is visible on the left, the focal point of the zoom is just to the left of Bar 1. Zoom out again and the focal point is back where the mouse is pointing. I find it to be very disorientating, especially when my scroll wheel is in free-wheel mode. It wouldn't be so bad if the zoom was limited, but when the clips all squash up at the left-hand side of the screen and I want to zoom in to near the start, it's very awkward to get there.

The only way to resolve it would be to allow the user to view into the negative area to the left of Bar 1 so that the focal points always stays where the mouse is pointing in the project, and that would probably be even worse. I think limiting zoom to a multiple of the project length is a good compromise. Meanwhile, I'll have to try to get used to pressing F5 all the time instead of zooming out with the wheel.

To be honest, this is just a part of the swathe of problems that I have with the overall mouse scrolling/zooming behaviour. I think everything to do with the mouse should be far more customisable than it is at the moment.

[fde101]

One possibility would be to allow showing to the left of the timeline during the zoom, then after the user stops zooming, animate the area sliding back to the left to eliminate that.

[eagle-patriot]

Hmmm, yeah, I have always had a problem zooming in to the left end of bar 1. It has taught me to be very selective of when I use the wheel. It took me way longer than I should admit to quit zooming when I actually wanted to scroll up/down to see some other tracks.

It's only a half-solution, but I've just discovered using a combination of mouse wheel and my RTZ keyboard shortcut help to pin the focus to the beginning of bar 1. Thanks for reminding me I have been repressing a constant low-level anxiety over this forever.