[FEATURE] Usability Issues with Timeline Navigation for Long Videos

Problem

Description

Hello developer team, thank you for your amazing work on this open-source editor.

I've encountered some usability challenges when working with long videos on the timeline. When I zoom out to view the entire project, the playhead (the current time indicator) becomes very hard to locate or disappears completely.

Additionally, the horizontal scrollbar at the bottom of the timeline also disappears when the entire timeline is in view, which removes the visual cue for horizontal positioning.

This makes navigating large projects quite difficult. I have attached a screenshot to illustrate the situation where the timeline is filled with thumbnails, but the playhead is not visible.

Solution

Suggested Solutions

To improve the user experience for large projects, I would like to suggest a few features that are common in other video editors:

1. Always-Visible Playhead: Ensure the playhead is always rendered on top of the thumbnails and has a distinct, high-contrast color so it never gets lost, regardless of the zoom level.

2. Persistent Horizontal Scrollbar: It would be helpful if the horizontal scrollbar remained visible at the bottom, even if it's disabled, to maintain a consistent UI layout.

3. "Fit to View" Shortcut: This is the most important suggestion. Please consider adding a keyboard shortcut (commonly the \ (backslash) key) that instantly zooms the timeline to fit the entire project duration within the view. This is incredibly helpful for quickly getting an overview and re-orienting oneself.

4. Center on Playhead: A command or shortcut to center the current timeline view on the playhead's position would also be a great addition.

Environment

Windows 11
Chrome 138.0.7204.158
http://localhost:3000/

Thank you for considering these suggestions. I believe they would greatly enhance the navigation workflow for all users.

Alternative

Anything else?

No response

Reproduce the timeline behavior described in the issue using the attached screenshot as a reference, with a long video zoomed to the full project duration. First determine which of the four navigation suggestions is in scope; done should mean the agreed behavior works at long-video zoom levels and can be checked in Windows 11 with Chrome.