by Kevin Siegel, COTP, CTT+
I recently received the following email from a reader of my TechSmith Camtasia 9 (Windows): The Essentials book.
Hello Kevin,
I am really enjoying your Camtasia 9: The Essentials eBook that I purchased on Amazon recently, but I have run into a problem regarding how to extend the duration (pages 58-59) on the Timeline.
I followed steps 1 and 2 on page 58 for the logo, but when I attempted to change (by typing) the Duration from 5 seconds to 20 seconds, I got the screen message “Please enter a number between .1 and 5,” and the time can’t be extended beyond 5 seconds. I am also attaching a screen shot so you can see the actual message.
I have tried grouping the items as directed on page 59 and then trying to extend the duration in that manner, but that method doesn’t work either.
I am using Camtasia Version 9.1.2. Any suggestions you might have would be appreciated.
I was able to replicate this issue on my computer, but I found this strange because when I wrote the book, the Duration feature worked just fine (changing the Duration of a Timeline object pushed items on the same track to the right). I reached out to TechSmith support and received the following reply (and the fix).
Hi Kevin,
Sorry for the delay – I wanted to confirm some information with the Camtasia team first. This change was a deliberate change made in Camtasia 9.0.1. The reason for the change was because of feedback that we were receiving from users, which was (as Matt mentioned) that projects were getting out of sync when extending frames and durations. So, this change was implemented, and we also published this tutorial with best practices on using ripple move and extend frame (similar to duration). https://www.techsmith.com/tutorial-camtasia-ripple-move-and-extend-frame.html I am really sorry for any trouble this change has caused! Please let me know if you have any questions.
Kind Regards,
Nate
Senior Support Specialist
Whew! It's good to know that I'm not losing my mind. To get past the Duration issue, press the [shift] key on your keyboard and manually extend the playtime for the object on the Timeline (instead of using Duration feature).
You can still use the Duration feature if there is enough space to the right of the selected object. For instance, you'll need a little over 5 seconds of space if you want to increase the Duration of an object by 5 seconds. Otherwise, you'll see the same error reported by the reader above.
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