Shotcut’s design has streamlined a lot of the functions so there is actually less to be added to the menus compared to other programs. For example, in and out points for export and markers are two different things in every single video editing program except for Shotcut which combines them into one. So in Resolve, setting and clearing in and out points add up to about 11 different shortcut keys which results in 11 different items that are listed in their menus for each of them. For markers there’s around 5. That’s 16 items in the menus. By Shotcut combining both those functions into one feature (i.e. markers) that results in only about 5 actions for the equivalent functions. That’s a lot less items to worry about putting on a menu list. Shotcut has a long way to go before it gets to the point where the menus are being cluttered.
Personally I’m with @drm on this. Maybe it could be placed in the “more” sub-menu (of the clip) at least? There are seven entries in the clip right-click menu and six in the “more” submenu. So I think seven in the sub-menu wouldn’t be a clutter.
Just an idea… Why not add a button in the Markers panel?
I forgot to include it in my image below, but the yellow info box could also mention what the keyboard shortcut is.
Good idea. The only thing is that there will be more functions with markers added in the future like clip markers so I wonder if there will be any concerns about clutter there also.
Instead of giving this its own icon in the Markers panel maybe put this action in the hamburger menu along with Remove All Markers and move the menu for adding or removing Columns to its own button. I think that would make sense.
Great discussion. I modified the feature. Instead of putting a marker around the first selected clip, it now puts the marker around the entire selection of clips. If you want to mark only one clip, then only select one clip.
I added the option to the markers hamburger menu so that people can discover it
I thought about that. Menu actions should start with a verb. “Mark” can be a verb. But we don’t use that word anywhere else to indicate the creation of a range marker. So I think the shorter suggestion improves brevity, but reduces clarity. I tend to prioritize clarity over brevity. I might have to sleep on it.
I had thought that “Range” would be the name of a marker with more than one frame and that the regular ones with one frame would be a “Marker” but the way that Dan has laid it out is that they are both “Markers”. When you go to export a range it lists it as a “Marker”. So with Dan’s logic, you are “marking a range” or in this context “marking the range of a clip or the clips that have been selected”. Hence, “Mark Selected Clips” or “Mark Clip Selection”.
Hmmm, I usually agree 100% with @drm on most things - on this occasion though, I like “Add marker” rather than “Mark”. How about “Add marker to selected clips” instead of “Add marker around selected clips”?
At the end of the day though, I wouldn’t lose sleep over any of these suggestions…
Thanks @brian for adding this feature and for the extra menu choice!
Just my opinion here, but I’m not a big fan of the “no clutter” policy. When a new feature is added to something, in my opinion we shouldn’t have to find it “by mistake”, hidden in a menu that is rarely used.
In your car for example. If it comes equipped with A/C, the A/C button is not under the hood or in the glove compartment. It’s in plain view, on the dashboard along with the heating and ventilation controls.
I would not call it a policy. But I think it is part of a thought process for user interface design. User Interface (UI) Design focuses on anticipating what users might need to do and ensuring that the interface has elements that are easy to access, understand, and use to facilitate those actions. Making things a “hidden secret” does not fulfill that goal. But neither does presenting endless hierarchies of obscure menu options. So we try to strike a happy medium. I appreciate the thoughtful tradeoff conversations people are having on this thread.
It’s brilliant that we users are able to communicate with caring developers of this great software who really care and put a great deal of thought into things and listen and act to what folks say on this forum! Thanks @brian and @shotcut. Appreciated!
Hello Shotcut people, been lurking on this forum since I discovered Shotcut a year ago or so - so guess it’s time write my first post, and hopefully contribute a bit!
I love the new markers feature, and it helps me a lot to organize stuff in my current project - recording and prepping DJ mix sessions, for upload or streaming to various video/music platforms.
For a start I have a few suggestions, for your consideration:
When exporting with File->Markers as chapters, it would be great if the timestamps could include the hours field, even if the timestamp is before 01:00:00. I like to “inject” the chapters directly into the videofile, so they also work outside youtube, and for players with chapter support. For the moment I use mp4box to inject the chapters, but it seems to ignore chapters without the hours field. Not a big problem to add them manually - but even better if they’re already there
I also use the Export from Marker range quite a bit - mostly to extract nice clips to be used in trailer/promo clips, created in other projects. And I wonder if it would be possible/useful to let the suggested filename for those clips, be something like “projectname-marker name”, rather than the projectname only. Especially when you export many clips that way, it could save a lot of typing, and prevent typing errors as well.
And last but not least - maybe also a “export from all markers” menu option - or some way to select multiple markers for export - or something similar.
Well that’s it for now - and thanks for all the other good suggestions and conversation you have here
The only thing is that there will be more functions with markers added in the future like clip markers so I wonder if there will be any concerns about clutter there also. 
- on this occasion though, I like “Add marker” rather than “Mark”. How about “Add marker to selected clips” instead of “Add marker around selected clips”?
