Encore...things I'd like to see tweaked

Question

Why do we like Encore? Primarily:
Does Bu-ray
It’s an Adobe product (which we trust and usually intuitively understand)
It works well with other Adobe products
It’s menus are cleaner and far easier to alter & customize than DVDsp.
But..
It disobeys several of the Adobe expected/intuitive operating principles found in other Adobe software:
doesn’t properly sort assets alphabetically ---and the way it sorts assets in the Project window is different from the Menu window
doesn’t automatically sort menu assets..you have to refresh the sort by clicking, for example, the name column twice
doesn’t allow to you to alter the name of an item by clicking, double-clicking or striking the return key while it’s selected  in a list — it must be altered in the Properties palette onl —which isn’t intuitive or flexible
doesn’t allow you to create a menu by right clicking on an asset and choosing "new menu"--- which it should then create using that asset
I could be wrong but asking it to replace or locate an asset doesn’t usually work for me if it’s missing the asset..you have to “revert to original” before replacing or locating it...not intuitive
duplicating a menu asset creates a new menu which it throws in a different part and illogical part of the list
closing timlines leaves behind multiple empty timeline tabs rather than closing the tab itself in favour of another “full” tab; Command-W does not close them—rather you have to click the tiny “x” to close each one.Annoying.
it’s progress bars aren’t indicative of what is going on...for example: it may be copying media from one folder to a new one while saving a copy of of project but to you it looks like it has hung up
it doesn’t process/transcode items in a logical order ..making it harder to determine when the transcoding will be done
it’s not intuitive to “revert to original” a clip before re-transcoding it..you should be able to transcode it again if you wish at any time
When custo,izing a transcode setting and saving it...it should make that new setting the selected one of choice when you exit the window...you can easily assume, incorrectly, it has done so for you.
it’s not intuitive to forbid you to transcode something before using it as an asset —you should be able to at least override that after a warning or by un-checking a preference selection
it doesn’t automatically re-adjust a duration of a menu item if you replace it’s assets with one of a different duration (or at least warn you that the duration has changed) -- the only way to have the menu item readjust its duration is to pick-whip a totally different item and then pick-whip the correct one...take loads of extra time and could create a lot of mistakes
it should allow you to group items into folders & subfolders in the menus palette
doesn’t permit you to have motion menus larger than 1 gig...we use DVDs for show reels which allow us to use quicktime movies to act as a kind of fully-customizable Powerpoint or Keynote format (clicking enter advances to the next menu/movie --works pretty well!) and the 1-Gig-max rule is a huge drawback
doesn’t offer an infinite hold at the end of a menu or timeline item
And the error you receive when you open a project and it tells you it’s can’t open it because it has  been created in a Windows program WHEN IT WASN’T is rather unforgiveable. That should have been corrected long ago and it keeps happening for no logical reason or without any apparent avoidable process
Disclaimer: if I'm wrong about anything & everything here..I'm thrilled to find out why and how to fix it.
All the above said..Adobe is my favourite company in the world.. they created "the standard" for good program design which is why I get frustrated when I see weird things in one app that don't exist at all in any of their others

Answer 1

Quite a list. Where to begin? I'll take a crack at it from the beginning...
adobefishman wrote:
doesn’t properly sort assets alphabetically ---and the way it sorts assets in the Project window is different from the Menu window
doesn’t automatically sort menu assets..you have to refresh the sort by clicking, for example, the name column twice
The Project panel contains all the assets in the project: menus, timelines, slideshows, playlists, video/audio/still assets, etc.. You can sort by Name (alphabetically) and also by other properties of the assets such as Type, Duration, DVD Transcode Status, etc. by clicking the column headers to sort by the selected property. The Menus panel contains only menus, but you can also sort by Name, End Action, Aspect Ratio, etc.
Default behavior in the Project panel is to sort new objects in alphabetical order- if Name is the chosen sort method.
adobefishman wrote:
doesn’t allow to you to alter the name of an item by clicking, double-clicking or striking the return key while it’s selected  in a list — it must be altered in the Properties palette onl —which isn’t intuitive or flexible
Not the only way. You can also right-click an asset and choose Rename, or choose Edit > Rename. But as you noted, Encore doesn't have inline editing for asset names.
adobefishman wrote:
doesn’t allow you to create a menu by right clicking on an asset and choosing "new menu"--- which it should then create using that asset
That might be a nice enhancement request, but there are limitations: a motion menu can have only a single video and audio track. What happens if multiples of each is selected and you choose "New Menu"? The current method (opt-drag video into the menu, or drag audio in the menu) replaces any previously selected assets. Encore also has default menus and buttons in the Library, which are user-settable that are used when you choose "New Menu" or "New Button". Would those be ignored when you choose "New Menu/Button" with an asset selected?
There are solutions to all of those problem, but they don't add much value to the user once the user understands how to create motion menus in Encore. And the current implementation hasn't prevented very many from creating motion menus.
Personally, I don't see a tremendous amount of value in adding this functionality, but I'm just a fellow user.
adobefishman wrote:
duplicating a menu asset creates a new menu which it throws in a different part and illogical part of the list
You must mean in the Flowchart, right? There are two parts to the flowchart - the hierarchy of the disc (from First Play, to menus to buttons linked to timelines, etc.) and the orphanage, where unlinked assets go. If you duplicate a linked menu, where would you expect it to go? Since it's a new menu that's not linked to the disc hierarchy, it should go in the orphanage, yes? And then it can be linked.
adobefishman wrote:
closing timlines leaves behind multiple empty timeline tabs rather than closing the tab itself in favour of another “full” tab; Command-W does not close them—rather you have to click the tiny “x” to close each one.Annoying.
Cmd-W works for me, as long as the timeline in the Timeline editor has focus. But it only closes the timeline, not the panel. There's a reason for this, though - if your settings are right, a single panel can hold multiple timelines, just as a single Menu editor panel can hold multiple menus. These are configurable in preferences. If you set your Timeline editor to a single panel containing multiple timelines, then Cmd-W closes the timelines without leaving the empty panel.
adobefishman wrote:
it’s progress bars aren’t indicative of what is going on...for example: it may be copying media from one folder to a new one while saving a copy of of project but to you it looks like it has hung up
This blanket statement isn't universally true of all progress bars in Encore. Most times, progress bars are indicative of exactly what's going on.
adobefishman wrote:
it doesn’t process/transcode items in a logical order ..making it harder to determine when the transcoding will be done
Have you looked at the Progress panel? You can see the order there. Personally, I don't do any transcoding at build time, so I don't care what order it's in but if you do, that's the place to check it. You can stop transcoding here as well.
I'm going to stop here for now, but I'll probably take up the rest later tonight or tomorrow.