Hi there,

I'm new to Avid (this is my first post) and have a stupid question.

the bulk of my editing is simply dropping in powerpoint slide jpegs over lectures.

The slides that I drop in need to be on screen for 2-3 minutes at a time but when I link to AMA I only get 30 seconds of slide. I could really speed up my workflow if I could get more than 30 seconds at a time.

Another thing that slows down my work flow is having to change the in point from the start in order to get handles for the transitions. Is there some way to get the handles I need but leave the in point at the default position at the start of the slide. These two little things would make my editing a lot faster.

Is there a something that I'm missing that will allow me to do either of these things?

thanks

You don't need to AMA pics, just "import". I believe in the import settings or preferences there is a way to change from the :30 default to whatever you want. (May want to resize to correct aspect ratio before importing to save time, but you can use "Resize" or "Pan and Scan" to re-size do moves of the image. (Im not in front of avid but look for handes length on import or preference settings, may be there. If you have a 3 min clip and use 2 min, or upto 2:59:15 you can then set your disolve to "start at cut".  (You can click ALT on that setting of disolve and make a copy that is in the disolve icon library so you can get to it fast with the fade starts at cut setting, so you don't have to make the custom setting each time.) You can also drag all pics into a sequence and working from the end of the show backwards do lifts to get to prpoer length. Not sure if you know this but... you can drag an effect into a bin to easily retrieve and apply same effect to other images. (Avid FX or Boris Red is also handy for doing more complicated moves, fast and easy and also save key frames for reuse. 

trekky2:

Another thing that slows down my work flow is having to change the in point from the start in order to get handles for the transitions

Here's a way to set an in or out point for all your clips at oine time:

Open the Bin in Script View

Select the Clips you want to affect {Ctrl A selects all clips in bin}

Press G to clear any existing in/out points

Press T (sets Mark In /Out Points at beginning and end of clips)

Press Q (takes you to beginning of clips)

Use the 2 key (moves 10 frames forward) or 4 key (moves 1 frame forward) for as many frames as you want, and Mark In point

Again use the 2 key to set your desired duration and Mark Out point