Create presets

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As you make adjustments to your files, you may be creating a complex and precise set of encoding and display options that would be time-consuming to duplicate in future projects. To avoid duplicating these settings, Microsoft Expression Encoder enables you to save any combination of these adjustments as a preset. You can apply multiple presets to each job. Saving these settings as a preset lets you quickly apply your ideal settings to any video that you import later, thereby saving time.

Presets differ from job files in that presets are composed of all the settings that you apply in the Encode, Enhance, Metadata, and Output panels. In contrast, profiles are only composed of the Profile settings that you specify in the Encode panel.

To save your current settings as a preset

  1. In the Media Content panel, right-click the file whose settings you want to save as a preset and, in the shortcut menu, click Save current settings as preset.

  2. Type a name for the preset and the file path of the storage location. Click Browse to browse to a location.

  3. In the settings list, click the box next to the setting that you want to save. If you want to save all the settings, click All. To clear the selections, click None.

  4. Click the arrow corresponding to a preset to expand the preset options.

  5. In the menu corresponding to your setting, select an option to specify how Expression Encoder will apply the saved presets to subsequent media files.

    • Click Absolute to apply the preset using the exact specifications in the setting. Click Relative to adjust the preset setting to account for a media file that has different attributes than the current media file.

    • Click Merge (this option is available only for Metadata, Markers, and Scripts) to combine the saved metadata with any other metadata that may be in subsequent files that you apply the preset to. Click Replace to delete any existing metadata and replace it with the saved metadata.

    • Click Link to link a profile. Click Embed to embed a profile.

  6. Click OK.

To set a preset directory

  1. In the Media Content panel, right-click any file and, in the shortcut menu, point to Apply Preset, and then click Change default preset directory.

  2. Browse to or create a location where you want to save presets, and then click OK. Once you establish a default folder, Expression Encoder displays the contents of this folder every time that you try to apply a preset.

To apply saved presets

  1. In the Media Content panel, right-click the destination file.

  2. In the shortcut menu, point to Apply Preset, and then do one of the following:

    • If you have chosen a default preset directory (see the previous procedure for information about how to set a default directory), click the name of the saved preset that you want to use.

    • If you have not chosen a default preset folder, click Browse to browse to the location of the saved preset, and then click Open.