How to Get Help Faster on This Forum

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You are a newbie to Shotcut.

Not long ago I was a newbie.
(In many ways, I still am.)

You ask a question, and all you get is questions in return.

HUH, WHAT?!!

When we are new, we have no clue just what is needed to solve the problem.

Now as a newbie here, you won’t be able to share as many screenshots as I am about to post here…

…and admittedly, this is a bit of “overkill”…

…but I just want to give some understanding of how much data is there, in which the clue to the solution to your problem may be lurking. So please don’t be offended when the staff or the regulars ask you for more information.

Most important: The version.

Even (slightly) more important than the specs of your machine and operating system.

You find the version by clicking here:

Screenshot_20210317_173542

It looks like this:

Screenshot_20210317_173704
Screenshot_20210317_173704596×741 54.3 KB

It’s those three two-digit numbers.

So, here is a project I am working on, and a “problem” as an example.

Here is the Playlist…
Screenshot_20210317_173937

…and the complete properties of one of the Playlist files I am using.

Screenshot_20210317_173445
Screenshot_20210317_173445579×650 47.6 KB

Finally, the “big picture”, with my Timeline and my Filters.

Screenshot_20210317_174527
Screenshot_20210317_1745271917×987 272 KB

The answer to my question might be found anywhere in the vast amount of data displayed above.

(But any of the Regulars here could quickly tell me “Why after several minutes of waiting, Export is doing nothing and it still shows only 0%?” by looking at the above.)

So, Newbie, as we are patient with you, please be patient with us as we try to help you, and do your best to answer all the questions.

The questions aren’t meant to “make you look stupid”, the questions really are an honest attempt to find your difficulty and solve it for you.

The quicker you answer the questions, the quicker your problem will be solved and you can get back to making videos.

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I am still a novice. :smile:
There are so many things to learn and there are so many possibilities that I think I will always feel like a novice in some way.

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Yes, there are.

The “problem example” above turned out to be a real problem. The horrendously slow export using three of the most CPU-intensive filters took four hours for each of three twenty-minute videos, so they ran all night, and this morning I have three black-screen videos.

It seems I pushed my GPU too far with my Quality parameter, and rather than hand the job over to the CPU, as is sometimes the case, it just gave me a black screen.

More to learn.

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Good post !
I hope it gets pined so all the newcomers can see it :slight_smile:

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Thank you.

It was my hope, as I wrote it, that it would become a resource for the Regulars who so often help newbies, as something to link to when asking for more information, so that the information request would not seem so personally directed at that particular newbie with that particular help request.

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Added to my bookmarks

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I also added it to my bookmarks to link to when there is a query with little (or no) information.

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  • It would also help if you write a headline that is descriptive of the problem, rather than "I Need Help" or "This Sucks"
  • Do a search first in the forum & YouTube. Not just ONE search, multiple searches with different key words. Odds are, newbie questions have already been answered.
  • Before you even start typing your question, go to this page: https://shotcut.org/download/ Is that your current version? If not, get it
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If you can write fluently in English, you will get help more quickly, as more people will immediately understand your problem.

However, if you have great difficulty expressing yourself in English, write in your native language, copy-and-paste it to https://translate.google.com/, then copy-and-paste your request BOTH in your native language and in English here, as I have done.

మీరు ఆంగ్లంలో సరళంగా వ్రాయగలిగితే, మీకు మరింత త్వరగా సహాయం లభిస్తుంది, ఎందుకంటే మీ సమస్యను ఎక్కువ మంది వెంటనే అర్థం చేసుకుంటారు.

అయినప్పటికీ, మీరే ఆంగ్లంలో వ్యక్తీకరించడానికి మీకు చాలా ఇబ్బంది ఉంటే, మీ మాతృభాషలో వ్రాసి, దాన్ని https://translate.google.com/ కు కాపీ చేసి పేస్ట్ చేయండి, ఆపై మీ అభ్యర్థనను మీ స్థానిక భాషలో కాపీ చేసి పేస్ట్ చేయండి మరియు నేను చేసినట్లు ఇక్కడ ఆంగ్లంలో.

Si puede escribir con fluidez en inglés, obtendrá ayuda más rápidamente, ya que más personas comprenderán inmediatamente su problema.

Sin embargo, si tiene grandes dificultades para expresarse en inglés, escriba en su idioma nativo, cópielo y péguelo en https://translate.google.com/, luego copie y pegue su solicitud AMBOS en su idioma nativo y en inglés aquí, como lo he hecho yo.

Si vous pouvez écrire couramment en anglais, vous obtiendrez de l’aide plus rapidement, car davantage de personnes comprendront immédiatement votre problème.

Cependant, si vous rencontrez de grandes difficultés à vous exprimer en anglais, écrivez dans votre langue maternelle, copiez-collez-le sur https://translate.google.com/, puis copiez-collez votre demande À LA FOIS dans votre langue maternelle et en anglais ici, comme je l’ai fait.

영어로 유창하게 글을 쓸 수 있다면 더 많은 사람들이 문제를 즉시 이해하기 때문에 더 빨리 도움을받을 수 있습니다.

그러나 영어로 자신을 표현하는 데 큰 어려움이있는 경우 모국어로 작성하고 https://translate.google.com/에 복사하여 붙여 넣은 다음 요청을 모국어로 복사하여 붙여 넣으십시오. 제가 한 것처럼 여기에 영어로.

如果您能说流利的英语，您会得到更快的帮助，因为更多的人会立即理解您的问题。

但是，如果您很难用英语表达自己，请用您的母语书写，然后将其复制并粘贴到https://translate.google.com/，然后使用您的母语将请求复制并粘贴到 就像我在这里用英语讲的那样。

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I tried something like this a few years ago with some success. Requesting Support (2020)

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This clear concise summary by @Hudson555x is worth reposting.

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Feel free to copy/rewrite/adapt it to your view point. :slight_smile:

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A basic and simple tip but one I’ve found really useful since starting here is when creating a post looking for help, the post itself will often provide suggestions for posts with topics or words relating to yours in the “Your post is similar to…” box. This blue area to the right of the text box where you type, can lead you to questions raised (and hopefully answered) by others. Also be polite, don’t start negatively, pay it forward if you can help others.

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My experience here is help is coming rather quickly, 95+% latest at the next day, and all the experts are here to help you. The only problem with some newbees is often the lack of necessary information to solve the problem. So, please give us as much info (see topics above) that could be needed to really help. Its quite annoying, when you get questions like “Please help” and in the text “SC sopped working” or “export didn’t finish” …

And i would say, nearly everything mentioned here, was here already :slight_smile:

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If I had to throw in my two cents it’s to be a clear and as literal as possible when asking your question (it’s what I look for. If I have to guess what it is you’re looking for I might read it out of curiosity, but that’s VERY mood-dependent.

Sometimes we forget that the people who’re trying to help can’t see what you’re seeing, and if you don’t phrase the question right – “right” as in the question you want answered – then you’re either likely to not get the answer you want, or if you get an answer it won’t be what you’re looking for, which can be frustrating for everyone concerned.

And understand that the person answering your question may know more than you but perhaps not as much as the next person, so take what you can from everyone who’s trying to help you.

And perhaps the most important thing to keep is mind: Don’t be too clever. State as concisely as you can what problem you’re seeing, without seeming as if you’re being too witty about it because people are taking time to help you, and as one of those people, if someone’s too clever about it I get the feeling that they could invest some of that energy into solving the problem.

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Sometimes I find questions about “can this be done like this”, "what effect would it have if I do this or that?
And I don’t understand why those users who ask, don’t test those possibilities themselves in a simple project without repercussion or importance.
So to state it in some way it would be something like this:
You want to do something but you are not totally sure if it will work or what final effect it will have? Give it a try on another test project with small clips and save it for future testing.
This is like when you use a harsh detergent on your clothes, and it is recommended to do it on an inconspicuous part of the garment. You will then discover for yourself the answer and also the problems you faced.
So if you have tried it and you have doubts, then here we are. You will be in a position to provide feedback on the steps taken and the effects observed.
If it didn’t work for you, we will try to help and if you got it to work, you can also share it so that other users can benefit from it.

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