This catches me out at least 10 times a day. In OS X you can scroll up and down wherever the pointer is hovering in different application windows, even if the app or window is not active. For example I'm writing this in my web browser but if I move the pointer over to my mail application I can scroll down through my messages without ever deactivating the web browser window. I'm not sure if this is the same on Windows but on Macs it's been like this for as long as I can remember and is now deeply ingrained muscle memory. 

However...in Avid you still have to manually click a window to activate it before you can scroll in it. I find it so counter-intuitive to move your mouse pointer to a bin and start to scroll, only to have the (last selected) bin on the other side of the screen start scrolling up and down.

(Sorry, it's also not clear to me how to search only within this feature request forum - I would like to bump to an existing thread if one exists rather than start a new one every time, sure you would prefer that too!)

Thanks.

elbows.. ( like your name BTW)

Let me flip this to randy the MC deisgner and see what his take is on this?

Marianna 

Thanks for the promt response. (And cheers - the username Elliot was already taken :)

LOL I like Elbows better anyway - catchy on the forums.

Engineering responded as they have heard this request.  The rub here is that PC applications don’t work this way, so if we changed it for MC Mac, this would be a difference between the two platforms. and we can't do that.

Marianna

Marianna:

Engineering responded as they have heard this request.  The rub here is that PC applications don’t work this way, so if we changed it for MC Mac, this would be a difference between the two platforms. and we can't do that.

What about Interplay Access?  I haven't been on it in a while, but I seem to recall it works this way on a PC.  I thought it was great, and was hoping they'd someday make MC do the same.

Mariana,

As a Windows user, I agree that windows OS does not work this way. But many applications under windows do. Including Microsoft Outlook, Firefox, among others.

I see no reason why a feature like this that makes sense, and customers of both platforms are asking for should not be implemented to work on both platforms the same.

Avid has no standing on saying that they keep things consistent with the platform, since for years now the select individual items and the select a range modifiers have been inconsistent for each platform.

On Windows SHIFT select, should select a range, yet on the timeline it behaves like a MAC and selects individual items. But then on the project window, SHIFT select, correctly selects a range and CTRL select, selects individual items. Consistency is not respected on many parts of the application.

That's a very interesting point and it would be interesting to hear a reply from engineering to JCBond's comment. 

On the one hand it may feel like a trifling thing to be looking to implement compared to stuff like 4K delivery etc, and while I'm sure old hands who have used Avid since the early days don't even notice...it's these little kind of details that can make the whole UI seem outdated and clunky - especially to new users who might just download the trial version and have a play. Several companies that I work for on FCP are right now in the process of deciding whether to go down the Avid or Premiere route - annoyingly it's niggly things like this that get noticed over the real strengths of the Avid platform, which only become clear after you have used it for a while

This old hand who has used the Avid since the early days does indeed notice. And I agree that this is one prominent thing (of many) that makes MC seem outdated and alien for Mac users -- and turns off newbies.

For what it's worth, Adobe seems to have dealt with this somehow. The apps work on both platforms, but on OSX, you can scroll a window without selecting it.

JCBond:

Mariana,

As a Windows user, I agree that windows OS does not work this way. But many applications under windows do. Including Microsoft Outlook, Firefox, among others.

I see no reason why a feature like this that makes sense, and customers of both platforms are asking for should not be implemented to work on both platforms the same.

Avid has no standing on saying that they keep things consistent with the platform, since for years now the select individual items and the select a range modifiers have been inconsistent for each platform.

On Windows SHIFT select, should select a range, yet on the timeline it behaves like a MAC and selects individual items. But then on the project window, SHIFT select, correctly selects a range and CTRL select, selects individual items. Consistency is not respected on many parts of the application.

JC 

I stand corrected as they apparently have this in the plan.  Let see see what Tina says - she is the engineer on this and see when it might be a reality.

Marianna

Back again 

I connected with engineering this morning and this is what I undertand....   

There are some applications that do this behavior on Windows as JC indicates, but not all applications do.  Many of the Microsoft developer applications do not work this way.  Also for example..... our Avid bug database application does not.  Adobe Acrobat Reader, Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer do not work this way.  And so (unlike Mac users) PC users do not automatically assume an application will work like that.

We all know MC is not perfect, and we want to ensure that it has  similar workings on Mac and PC.  In a perfect world engineering would certainly make changes to the application as well as fix lots of things you folks ask us too.  However, the key thing here is that the engineering department has to pick and choose where to spend our development resources, and they are focused on fixing and adding new features. 

If you all feel strongly about such a UI feature, AND feel that such a UI feature are more important to MC’s future than the other features people complain are missing, then I would like you all to communicate that to me directly via email so I can get that feedback to Dave, Rob and Kate in product management.

Thanks all....

Marianna

. 

It is always a difficult task to choose where resources should be spent on. Obviously mouse wheel scroll is not as important as other features.

To me it is more important to get existing half backed features working correctly, than fixing cosmetic items.

I am sure that everyone of us could come up with our very own list of priorities.

This one to me falls in the category of “would be nice” but is not essential.

The problem is that these things add up, and they turn off newbies. If Avid feels unintuitive and unpolished to them, they have a good alternative in Adobe CC, and they arguably get more bang for the buck. Apple gave Avid a big gift by moving from 7 to X. Adobe isn't going to do that. Yes, there are many features that are unfinished (RTAS automation would be high on my list, for example). But fixing the dozen or so things that make MC seem unintuitive needs to get done. For a while, Avid was taking on a few small "featurettes" with each new point release. Maybe that's the way to tackle these things. But they need to be done.