See video sample included in link. As it is, there is very little free space to the left of each track in the timeline to select/highlight the desired track of choice: the track title, "lock track", "disable audio" and "disable video" buttons occupy most of the area. There's more space in the audio tracks, because they don't have the "disable video" button. POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS: 1) Instead of having the track title text field expand the full length of the track details section, consider shortening the width to the width of the text itself, and no further. That'd at least open up some room a little, instead of forcing the user to move the mouse around to find the tiny bit of space. 2) integrate some kind of button to the right of the track to select or highlight the track itself. Flowblade has something like this in their timeline editor: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LoWzi-q83q0/T9DbUmy9alI/AAAAAAAAJGE/7kHeVn4bn8o/s1600/flowblade-video-editor.png. Seems to do the trick. Reproducible: Always Running Kdenlive 15.08 on Kubuntu 15.04 x64, KDE Plasma 5.3.2 via backports ppa. Kdenlive 15.08 packages download from kubuntu-ci/stable ppa (specifically, kdenlive-data and kdenlive packages only).
Not a real solution but the Up/Down keys from the keyboard allow to change the track when timeline is active. I just fixed a bug in this behavior so that now the effect stack correctly displays the selected track effects..
Definitely helpful, though. Thanks JB. Seems to run into an issue with the dark theme: the track colors of the audio tracks are different from the video, and when the selected track moves up or down, it's hard to tell which track it's on. Should I submit a separate bug with video samples for this issue? Cool to hear that the effect stack can now be track specific, too! Very helpful. :)
Created attachment 94688 [details] Kdenlive tracks as they are in 15.09.0
Created attachment 94689 [details] Kdenlive 15.09.0 with mock-up of color changes in breeze dark theme
If you take a look at the color mock-ups I drafted for the tracks in the timeline, I'd encourage changing the colors to something similar for two reasons: (1) Using the up/down arrows to change selected track in timeline will be more visually noticeable with the dark theme. (2) Similar colors would simplify the timeline layout, with less unnecessary differentiation to distract or confuse the user (I don't mean "unnecessary" in any derogative way. I just feel that the "Audio 1" and "Audio 2" track titles suffice to express their different intended function from the other tracks :) ).
Also, if the mouse middle-click has no function in the timeline, maybe make the middle mouse click select the timeline track it's over? At least it'd be pretty easy that way.
Testing 15.11.80. The colors in the default Breeze them (light theme) make showing the currently selected track very noticeable. It's still difficult in the dark theme. If you feel the track color difference between the audio and video is significant, might I suggest making the selected track color more contrasting? Perhaps a pastel shade of blue or pastel shade of darker red?
Git commit 6704725af4902eee7f02173eafa9602d6ed8f9f8 by Jean-Baptiste Mardelle. Committed on 23/01/2016 at 15:05. Pushed by mardelle into branch 'master'. Better color for selected track M +9 -0 src/bin/projectclip.cpp M +3 -2 src/bin/projectclip.h M +7 -1 src/timeline/customtrackview.cpp M +1 -0 src/timeline/customtrackview.h M +5 -0 src/timeline/headertrack.cpp http://commits.kde.org/kdenlive/6704725af4902eee7f02173eafa9602d6ed8f9f8
Tested changes in both the light and dark breeze themes. It's now MUCH easier to see the selected track. I also think that will bring attention to more users using the program for the first time that the selected track matters when doing certain tasks. I like it!! Marking this suggestion bug as fixed. Thanks JB!
Track highlight using Breeze dark theme over here works quite beautifully. Clearly visible, yet not distracting. Formerly, I never really noticed which track was (still) selected. Only now I start to understand how "Insert Zone into Timeline" really works. :D Thank you very much for this fine UI fix!
(In reply to Jesse from comment #9) > I also think that will bring attention to > more users using the program for the first time that the selected track > matters when doing certain tasks. Add me in. And I'm working for five years now with Kdenlive...