Summary: Adobe Premiere Elements 7  (9/2008)
    Enhancements and Visual Tour

    by Douglas Dixon

New Features Summary
Visual Tour - Interface and Functions
Organize Tab: Acquire, organize media
Edit Tab: Assemble, edit, enhance media
Disc Menus Tab: Create interactive menus for DVD / Blu-ray discs
Share Tab: Export  /  Upload

A summary of the new Adobe Premiere Elements 7 -- 
    Key new features and enhancements, with a visual tour of the interface and functions.

New Features

• Import and edit high-def AVCHD video
• Automatically create polished movies in minutes with InstantMovie
• Automatically analyze clips and apply Smart Tags
• Organize and preview clips with the new clip Tagging window
• Composite green-screen video overlays with Videomerge
• Add SmartSound soundtracks adjusted to movie and music tempo
• Online viewing, sharing, backup, updates through Photoshop.com

Photoshop.com - Stay connected with your favorite people and memories

• Share interactive photo albums and videos online
• Access photos and movies online from any web-enabled computer using online Organizer
• Automatic backup to online storage: Basic 5 2 GB, Plus 20 GB  (storage numbers updated by Adobe 9/2)
• Regular inspiration updates (Plus): Download new creative project elements on regular basis
      Tutorials, themes, templates, seasonal artwork, photo frames, fonts, sound effects, music, overlays
• Photoshop.com Mobile: Upload, view, and share photos on the go
      View online photos on mobile phone. Upload directly to online Organizer, 
      then automatically sync to desktop Organizer. Runs on Windows Mobile smartphones
          http://mobile.photoshop.com
• www.adobe.com/products/psprelements/membership

See earlier article on Adobe Premiere Elements 4 & Photoshop Elements 6
Find related Adobe articles in the Manifest Tech Blog

    Find Adobe Premiere Elements 4 on Amazon.com
Find the Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 & Premiere Elements 4 bundle on Amazon

New Features Summary

Make Great-Looking Movies in Minutes

• Create polished movies in minutes with InstantMovie: Automatically assembled from a collection of video clips, using creative techniques from Hollywood directors. Selects and trims clips using Smart Tags and user ratings, adds music, titles, effects, and transitions based on themes including birthday, wedding, music video, extreme sports. Advanced users then can further edit the result, if desired.
• Enhance cinematic slide show created in Adobe Photoshop Elements with Pan and Zoom slideshow theme in InstantMovie
• Import and edit high-def AVCHD video: From the latest AVCHD camcorders

Quickly Find Best Clips

• Automatically analyze clips and apply Smart Tags: Split scenes and identify the most interesting, highest-quality clips, with features including Audio, Blur, Brightness, Contrast, Faces, Motion, Static, Shake, Quality.
• Organize and preview clips with the new clip preview and tagging window: Apply tags and star ratings. Use Organizer (similar to Photoshop Elements) to browse and preview, tag and categorize, organize into albums. Create Smart Albums that automatically collect media based on defined criteria.
• See more metadata for video files: Including duration, video format, resolution, frame rate

Powerful Effects and Sound

• Composite video overlays with Videomerge: Cleanly extract moving subject from solid color (green-screen) backgrounds and overlay into a new background setting
• Add SmartSound soundtracks: Automatically adjust to match the length of movie; Automatically detects music tempo and syncs the beginning and end of each scene to beats

Minimum System Requirements include

• 1.8GHz processor with SSE2 support; 3GHz processor required for HDV or Blu-ray; dual-core processor required for AVCHD
• Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2, Windows Media Center, or Windows Vista
• For Windows XP: 512MB of RAM (2GB required for HDV, AVCHD, or Blu-ray)
• For Windows Vista: 1GB of RAM (2GB required for HDV, AVCHD, or Blu-ray)
• 4.5GB of available hard-disk space
• Color monitor with 16-bit color video card
• 1,024x768 monitor resolution at 96dpi or less
• Microsoft DirectX 9 or 10 compatible sound and display driver
• DVD-ROM drive (compatible DVD burner required to burn DVDs; compatible Blu-ray burner required to burn Blu-ray Discs)
• DV/i.LINK/FireWire/IEEE 1394 interface to connect a Digital 8 DV or HDV camcorder, or USB2 interface to connect a DVvia-USB compatible DV camcorder (other video devices supported via Media Downloader)
• QuickTime 7 software

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Visual Tour -- Interface and Features

    A visual tour of Premiere Elements 4 interface elements and associated features.

Interface Design

• Intuitive interface, clean, easy-to-use workspace
      Darker appearance, Color-coded tabs, Images pop out from gray background
      Edit > Preferences > User Interface - Brightness
• Organizer for media management shared with Photoshop Elements
      Common database accessible from either application
• Visually tag video clips and photos to categorize by people, places, or events.
• View, search, sort assets in a variety of ways - file name, tag, date, time
• Supports dual-core or multiple processor systems,
      Advanced multi-threading technology, and Hyper-threading Technology
      on latest Intel Pentium processors running Microsoft Windows XP or Vista

Interface Elements

• Monitor panel
• Tasks panel - Color-coded tabs: Organize, Edit, Disc Menus, Share
• My Project panel - Sceneline / Timeline
• Floating panels, hidden by default:
• - Info panel - Information about selected item
• - History panel - Undo list
• - Events panel - Errors / messages
• - Audio Meters, Audio Mixer
• Drag and drop to move / resize / dock (hold down Ctrl)
      Use Window > Show Docking Headers to see names of panels

        Premiere Elements 7 interface - Edit - Timeline
            - Monitor panel (top left)
            - Tasks panel (top right) - Edit workspace, Project view
            - My Project panel (bottom) - Timeline with multiple tracks of video and audio

Tasks panel - Tabs

• Organize tab (blue) - Organizer
• Edit (orange) - Edit clips into movie
• Disc Menus (purple) - Create interactive DVD / Blu-ray disc menus
• Share (green) - Export / upload movie

Monitor panel - Edit and preview

• Preview and edit clips, apply effects, create titles, position overlay images and text
• Trim and split clips, drop filters and effects on a frame,
• Create picture-in-picture effects, type titles and text on screen
• Shows Text tools when editing titles
• Becomes Disc Layout panel for Disc Menus workspace

My Project panel - Sceneline / Timeline

• Sceneline (storyboard) - Arrange clips, apply titles, transitions, effects
      Drag and drop, copy and paste thumbnails of clips
• Timeline - Trim, layer, ands synchronize multiple tracks of media
      View starting and ending point of each event to synchronize multiple events
      Up to 99 audio and video tracks
• Smartsound soundtrack, Detect Beats, Mix Audio, Add Narration, Add Menu Marker

Organize Tab: Acquire, organize media

   
        Organize  tab - Organize - Sceneline
            - Monitor panel (top left)
            - Tasks panel (top right) - Organize tab showing project clips
            - My Project panel (bottom) - Sceneline with thumbnails of clips

• Get Media view - Acquire from hard disk, camcorders, Internet
      DV Camcorder, HDV Camcorder
      AVCHD or other hard drive / memory camcorder
      DVD (Camcorder or disc)
      Digital Still Cameras
      Mobile Phone and Players
      Webcam or WDM video device
      PC Files and Folders
• NEW - InstantMovie - Automatically assemble movie from a collection of video clips
      Using creative techniques from Hollywood directors
      Selects and trims clips using Smart Tags and user ratings
      Adds music, titles, effects, and transitions based on themes including birthday, wedding, music video, extreme sports
      Advanced users then can further edit the result, if desired
      Use Enhance Pan and Zoom slideshow theme for cinematic slide show imported from Adobe Photoshop Elements
• NEW - Tagging window - Tag and categorize
      Apply tags and star ratings, organize into albums
      Create Smart Albums that automatically collect media based on defined criteria.
• NEW - Smart Tagging - Split scenes and identify the most interesting, highest-quality clips
      Scene detection - automatically split footage into individual scenes
      Audio, Blur, Bright/Dark, High/Low Contrast, Shaky, Quality
          Faces (single / multiple, closeup / long), Motion (pan / tilt / zoom, direction)

    |
        Tagging window: Albums, Keyword Tags, Smart Tags, Star Ratings

Import / Export Formats include:

• ASF (import only), AVI, AVCHD, SWF (import), Blu-ray Disc (export only), DV, DVD, Dolby Digital Stereo, 
      H.264, HDV, JPEG, PNG (import only), PSD (import only), MOD and TOD (JVC Everio, import only), 
      MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MP3, WAV, QuickTime, Windows Media, WMA (import only)
• Via QuickTime: 3GP, 3GP2, MOV, MPEG-4

Edit Tab: Assemble, edit, enhance media

   
        Edit tab - Effects - Timeline
            - Monitor panel (top left)
            - Tasks panel (top right) - Edit tab showing Effects
            - My Project panel (bottom) - Multi-track Timeline with video and audio clips

• Project - Review project media
• Themes - Apply automated movie themes
      Add professional touches to clips: title, effects, transitions
      Event-based - including Wedding and Birthday
      Style-based - including Comic Book and Music Video
• Effects - Apply effects and presets
      Adjust, Blur & Sharpen, Distort, Image Enhancement, Keying, Stylize, etc.
      Video Stabilizer - Restore shaky footage
      Videomerge - Cleanly extract moving subject from solid color (green-screen) backgrounds 
          overlay into a new background setting
• Transitions - Apply transitions
      Dissolve, Wipe, Slide, etc.
• Titles - Apply preformatted titles with Adobe fonts
      Frame, scrolling credits, lower third
      Customize with shadows, glows, effects
      Animate to bounce, spin, zoom, scroll

Audio Elements

    Buttons in My Project panel, to apply in Sceneline / Timeline

• SmartSound - Add soundtrack
      Automatically adjust to match the length of movie
      Automatically detects music tempo and syncs the beginning and end of each scene to beats
• Detect Beats - Create slide shows and movies that move to the music
      Automatically detects tempo of musical soundtrack
      Syncs beginning and end of each scene with the beats
• Mix Audio - Easy audio mixing and refinement
      Audio Mixer window works like a mixing board in a recording studio
      Adjust relative volumes with sliders: dialog, background music, sound effects
• Add Narration - Record voice narration track

Disc Menus Tab: Create interactive menus for DVD / Blu-ray discs

   
        Disc Menus tab - Scene menu - Design DVD
            - Monitor panel (top left) - Main menu template, edit to customize
            - Tasks panel (top right) - Templates for main and scene menus

Share Tab: Export  /  Upload

   
        Share Menus tab - Sharing options

• QuickShare - Save preset options
• Disc - Burn DVD disc, and HD to Blu-ray disc
• Online - Direct upload to video sharing websites
      Photoshop.com, YouTube, FTP to other websites
      Presets for Adobe Flash video
• Personal Computer - Export for viewing on PCs
      Adobe Flash Video
      MPEG
      DV AVI
      Windows Media
      QuickTime
• Mobile Phones and Players - Export for mobile devices
      Apple iPod and iPhone - i.e., H.264 640x480
      Audio Podcast - H.264 / MP3
      Creative Zen - WMV 320x240
      Microsoft Zune - WMV 320x240
      Pocket PC - WMV 240x176
      Smartphone - WMV 224x128 landscape, 176x144 portrait
      Sony PSP - H.264  320x240
      Mobile Phone - 3GP - MPEG4 176x144, 320x240, 352x288 H.263
• Tape - Record to DV or HDV camcorder

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