External editing of media files

You can also use external programs for editing or viewing the media files in your project. For this purpose, Wings Vioso RX can be linked with external editors or players, e.g. Photoshop for editing of pictures or the Windows MediaPlayer for watching videos, etc. In a context menu, the files can then be opened with the corresponding program and, if necessary, Wings Vioso RX will update the file properties and the display data for presentation after editing.

Linking programs

First of all, you need to link up the corresponding programs with the media files.

1. Click on Options in the function bar below the main menu or in the main menu on Extras and Options in the main menu. On the left, under Global Options mark Media Editors. If this entry is not visible, click on the plus sign next to Global Options.

2. On the right, you can specify two external programs each for editing audio, picture and video files. To do so, click on Select program and enter the corresponding software.

3. If a program is not capable of editing, but only of playing back or showing files, you can remove the checkmark next to Editor.

In the context menu, the Editors are displayed with the appendix Edit with...  If the checkmark in front of the Editor is removed, the context menu will display Open with...  In this case, Wings Vioso RX will not check whether files were edited.

Opening media files with external programs

If you want to playback or edit media files, i.e. sound, picture and video files, using external programs, proceed as follows:

• In the Media Pool, right-click the corresponding media file and select the program, i.e. Edit with ... or Open with ...

• Alternatively, you can right-click the object in the timeline and select Edit Pool Object. If the media file is used in several objects a warning message appears saying that the modifications to the file will affect all the objects linked up with it.

Audio and video files should not be modified externally in their length (not shortened, in particular) if they are already being used as objects in the timeline. This might result in incalculable faults when playing these objects.

• You can also cause the media file of an object to be displayed by right-clicking the object and selecting Display pool object. Column Used in the Media Pool will tell you how often this file is used for other objects. Any modifications of this file affect all objects that use this file.

• To create a picture variant, it may be useful to create a duplicate in the Media Pool first and then edit it. See Duplicating picture files.

• If restricted memory capacity is no major issue, you should use TIF format for the pictures, Advantages of the TIF format.

  All in all, TIF format offers the best properties: A color depth of up to 16 bits per channel offers extra capacity for editing of tonal values. Lossless LZW or ZIP compression; ZIP compression is more effective. Embedded color profiles can be read and considered by Wings Vioso RX. Storage of layers maintains full editability of pictures created in editing programs, e.g. Photoshop (text, layer effects, etc.). These layers continue to be editable in Photoshop but not in Wings Vioso RX. Alpha channels or transparent backgrounds can be saved and allow extracting of objects, for example. Note: TIF format is a container that may also contain RAW data. Such files are not supported by Wings Vioso RX.

• After modifying one or several files outside Wings Vioso RX without using the functions explained above (e.g. for batch editing of a number of files) you should update the File Properties next time you call up the project in Wings Vioso RX and have new display data created. See Updating Media File Properties and Creating display data for media files.

• As soon as the external program has a checkmark in front of Editor in Global Options – Media Editors, a dialog will appear which, after editing and saving the media files, can be  confirmed with OK. Following this, Wings Vioso RX will update the display data of the modified files.

• Should no external programs be selectable in the context menu, you first of all need to link up external programs with media files.

• If you have altered media files using external programs, the project needs to be saved even if nothing else was changed. If this is not done, Wings Vioso RX will regard the display data as missing when calling up the project the next time.

See also

Viewing and listening to media files

Visual effects