


Holding down Alt and moving the mouse scroll wheel performs this task but it's hopelessly unwieldy, and the on-screen zoom control is a little fiddly too. Timeline navigation is now extremely responsive, but we'd like a better system for zooming in and out. Some of the effects can be fiddly to use, with parameters arranged as a long list of sliders and useful values bunched in the middle of the range. The Project Assets window can be pinned so it stays open, but it needlessly obscures the preview window when the Adjustments panel is open too. Effect settings appear in a panel to the right of the preview, and an extended set of colour-correction filters are permanently plumbed in and ready to use. Cryptic icons and tabbed panels are out in favour of direct access to key functions such as effects and transitions. The interface has had a thorough redesign and looks much cleaner and more inviting than before. There's no more frame-rate mishandling or sluggish controls, and preview performance is superb, with smooth playback of 10 AVCHD streams in our tests. Version 11 addresses these concerns head on. As Adobe catered the editor increasingly towards casual users, it seemed to be losing sight of what this editor does best. However, Premiere Elements has been held back by a clunky, unresponsive interface and poor attention to detail, including dropped and repeated frames in previews and exports. Sophisticated multi-layered animations are what this editor does best
