Use thumbnail controls in the Project panel

Last updated on Jun 23, 2025

Allow Premiere Pro touch or mouse thumbnail controls to play, scrub, and mark clips quickly.

This task streamlines editing in Premiere Pro by letting you scrub, play, and mark clips directly using thumbnail controls in Icon View without using menu navigation. It works seamlessly for touch gestures and mouse users and reduces repetitive steps. The visual interface speeds up rough cuts and assembly workflows, balancing efficiency with intuitive control.

Open Adobe Premiere Pro and load your project.

Select the Project panel (Shift+1).

Select Icon View .

Select a clip to display thumbnail controls.

Select buttons or drag to scrub, play, or mark clips directly on the thumbnail.
Thumbnail controls automatically appear when using touch gestures.

Select Thumbnail controls for all pointing devices in the Project panel’s Settings menu if you are a mouse device user.