Bug 361357

It looks like in recent git master builds that the Clip Properties in the Project Bin has been made into its own widget, as opposed to a slide-in window in the Project Bin. I think that's a great idea! Much better than a slide-out window that you have to resize or wiggle around the Project Bin. Good stuff.

There are some issues that arise with this change, however. I've listed them and some possible solutions to fixing them:

(1) If the Clip Properties widget has dimensions that are smaller than the content of the widget itself, it still forces the layout to change - whether it's the selected widget or simply in the layout at all - and the layout cannot be adjusted to make the widget smaller or resize any widgets its grouped together with. I'd suggest that the Clip Properties widget can re-size without affecting the rest of the layout, like how all the other widgets behave. (I also reported this issue in Bug 356488 - https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=356488.)

(2) This new change can create some confusion with the Effect/Transition properties widget, because both have the word "Properties" in it, and now it seems to leave the purpose of the "Properties" widget ambiguous. I don't have an ideal title name for the Properties widget, but even changing it to something like "FX Properties" would be much better, at this point, than just "Properties". Conveniently, left-clicking once on clips or transitions in the Timeline open the Properties window up automatically, anyways, so maybe "FX Properties" wouldn't be such a bad idea. ("FX" Is always had a professional, flashy video editor feel, anyway. :) )

(3) There is no label as to what clip the Clip Properties widget is showing the details FOR. IT doesn't show the clip title/name anywhere, or file name, etc. This issue was made present to me when working with a clip in the timeline that was different from the clip currently displayed/selected/present in the Clip Properties widget. I would suggest putting the clip name (or file name, whichever) in the actual content window of the clip properties widget, or, in parenthesis, have the clip name in the widget header, to the right of the actual "Clip Properties" text. Or both, even, as this would be an issue if the title bars are hidden in the layout.

(4) When double-clicking a clip in the Project Bin or clicking the Pencil icon in the Project bin, the Clip Properties widget disappears, then re-appears with the clip properties data. ... ...eh, not the best behavior for editing workflow, let alone ideal for the user's custom editing layout. SUGGESTED SOLUTION: When the Clip Properties widget is currently in the layout, double-clicking a clip or clicking the "Clip Properties" button DOESN'T remove the widget from the layout, or close the widget. Instead, it brings it to the front (as it does now), showing the details of the chosen clip. So, in other words, cease any options in the Project Bin from making the Clip Properties widget disappear/close/leave the layout.

(5) Being that the "Clip Properties" button at the top of the Project Bin is an enable/disable button, rather than a one-time click button that brings the user to the clip properties widget, , I might suggest changing it to a single-click button that behaves just like double-clicking on a clip in the Project Bin -- mainly for the reasons stated above. I think that any function in the Project Bin that closes/removes the Clip Properties widget is a bad idea, personally.

Thanks for reading guys. :)

Reproducible: Always




Suggested/Bugs discovered while using Kdenlive 16.07.70 git master build via kdenlive-master ppa. Ubuntu 16.04 x64, Unity 7.4.0 desktop environment.