How to Set an Area of an Adobe Premiere Pro Project for Preview

When you want to play back a sequence of edited clips in Adobe Premiere Pro, the program "renders" the sequence for play back on the program monitor. Sequences of cuts that are fairly basic (single tracks) will render quickly, and more complex effects and layers take more time to process. You can adjust your settings to render at a reduced frame rate to cut the time of more complicated sequences. The areas that can’t be played at the project’s full frame rate will be indicated by a red line over them in the Timeline. You can choose to render these areas individually in a preview file that will be played at the full frame rate. Read on to learn how to set an area of an Adobe Premiere Pro project for preview.

Instructions

1. To set the area to be previewed, drag the “work area bar” over the section of clips that you want to preview. Make sure that you drag the work area bar from its center or its edges otherwise you cue the current-time indicator instead.

2. You can also position the Timeline’s “current-time indicator” at the beginning of the area to render, and then press the “Alt” key and the “[“--this will set the beginning of the work area.

3. Then position the “current-time indicator” to the end of the sequence, and press “Alt” and “]”--this will set the end of the work area.

4. If you double-click on the work area bar, it will be resized the width of the time ruler, or the length of the entire sequence, whichever one is shorter.

5. When your area is chosen, you can render the sequence. Go to the "Sequence Menu" at the top of your work area, and click on “Render Work Area.” Your clip will automatically start when the render is complete.