TIME CODE OFFSET improvement needed.

Hi Peter, after a lot of years asking for LYRIC Time Coded lyrics on screen movement improvement and time code stamping in the edit process, i just realised to why you never bothered to improve this feature, and thats because you did give us an option to improve our on screen experience by using [offset:????] .
Unfortunately all these years i never realised just how this works.
So i got use to punching in early my time codes so they would appear a bit better on screen.
Why did i miss this option in ST?
Firstly
I read the instruction manual and assumed that TIMECODE OFFSET in SONG DETAIL was this feature as its a pretty logical place to have this , but when i tried it , it did nothing so i gave up on it.
Reason is i am not a computer programmer i am a musician with good computer operation knowledge but i still am not a mind reader.
Heres the problem.
The instruction manual does not have a sub heading LYRIC TIME CODE OFFSET and then a clear explanation,
Secondly a MIDI TIME CODE OFFSET information , that belongs right next to LYRIC TIME CODE OFFSET so we can see clearly there are two offsets that work differently and they should both be under a main heading in the manual called TIME CODE OFFSET.
OK, if this was in the manual perhaps i would have realised how the both features work.
Thirdly, i totally disagree with your LYRIC TIME CODE operation , even after been told by you number of times and reading the instructions, so i thought i try this long winded method of offset,
I go to my lyrics editor and try and enter this code, i remember i need square brackets which are awkward to enter as they a buried in the keyboard somewhere hard to get to , then i remember there is a word ofset in there, hang on i am not sure how to spell OFFSET , so now i have to get back to settings and online manual to time code offset which i cant find easily so now i know the spelling and just as well i did get back to check because i forgot the damn two dots are also needed after the word and i also take careful note of how many digits i need so i can enter the correct time of offset, but i also have to consider if i need a minus in there somewhere so i get the correct offset direction. Wow im getting tired typing all the steps but you get my point,
ITS AWKWARD AND LONG WINDED designed for computer nerds.
I personally think we should not even have this so called feature, as it should be automated and just work for us in the background , we have already too many other things to worry about to get a final finish to our songs.
The idea of time stamping is already hard enough.
So my thought is when we place a lyric time stamp it means at that time we want the line on screen ready to be read , no movement , it should be there.
So can you program this time offset to move to the next line earlier so it is ready to read on the time stamp programmed , and make this movement smoother so as you sing a line, as you finish the last word, it smoothly moves to the next line to be ready and steady by the time you need it according to the original time stamp.
This would eliminate the need of entering an unknown and awkward offset command.
At worse have a simple fader in song details that tweaks the offset by a small amount to suit the song, we don't need more brackets and clutter in the lyrics editor view.
Sorry for the long winded explanation but that is also my point , we don't need to waste our time on unnecessary steps.
Cheers Damir
I wrote this without trying the offset procedure because it was harder to test than writing this information.

Hi Peter , feedback,
i have successfully tried the offset feature in both directions, it works.
BUT, as i said earlier its not user friendly for a quick adjustment, and i have found a problem with it.
It also effects my visual count ins which i don't want to show early i want them in time with my music so i can come in, in time, this is a problem.
How do you get the lyrics lines to change early yet the information lines to be in time with the music?
The way i did it all this time is the simplest , just time stamp lyrics lines on the AND before the first beat and any lines you want spot on you just hit on the beat.
I think i might remain with my method and not bother with Lyric time offset at all.
Anyways at least you can perhaps improve the instruction manual to help others who might be time stamping on the beat.
Cheers and good luck with ST4

DaveT but also I notice that when a song is speed shifted, the actual song length also doesnt change to the new time

Peter explains why very nicely, but i only speed shift in my editing process, as this works best , doing it in ST3 with average audio quality sounds bad, i only use it live when absolutely necessary, i never use it as a permanent change, and if you do it live you haven't got time to think about time stamp changes or length of song as you have just been stressed enough just changing the speed , singing, playing an instrument on stage and trying to look professional to the audience, i think some things are not really that important to worry about, but thats just me.
I rather see a faster and simpler editing process, because a lot of time is used up in that.
And as they say TIME IS $.