Work on the timeline

The timeline sits under the preview. Each row is a track, and the lime line is the playhead: what the preview shows. Click the time ruler, or an empty part of a track, to move the playhead there, and drag along the ruler to scrub.

Adding clips

Open Media on the left. Drag a file onto a track at the time you want, or hover it and press + to add it at the playhead. Files that are still processing say so. To bring in something from your Library, choose Add from the Library at the bottom of the panel, then the file; it joins the project’s files in Media.

A new clip goes over whatever was already there on that track, cutting it back to make room.

Moving and trimming

• Move: drag a clip along its track, or up and down onto another track of the same kind. Sound goes on audio tracks, video and photos on video tracks, and text on text tracks (or a video track, as a card).
• Trim: drag either end of a clip. A video or sound clip can’t grow past the end of its file, and no clip trims over its neighbour.
• Ripple trim: hold Option (Alt on Windows) while you trim, and everything after the clip on its track moves along with the change instead of leaving a gap.

Splitting and deleting

• Split at the playhead (the scissors, or S) cuts the clips under the playhead in two. If you’ve picked clips, only those are split.
• Delete (the bin, or the Delete key) removes the picked clips and leaves a gap. Hold Shift as you delete to close the gap.

Click a clip to pick it, and Shift-click to pick more than one. Esc lets go.

Snapping and zoom

Snap (the magnet) is on to begin with: clips you move or trim line up with other clips’ edges and the playhead. Turn it off to place things freely.

Zoom with −, + or the slider at the right. Fit shows the whole edit again.

Tracks

Choose + Track for a Video track, Audio track or Text track. Hover a track’s name for its switches:

• Hide track / Show track on video and text tracks.
• Mute track / Unmute track on audio tracks.
• Lock track stops its clips being moved, trimmed or split.

Video tracks higher up are drawn over the ones below.

Everything here can be undone with Undo in the top bar, or ⌘Z (Ctrl+Z on Windows). If a change would put two clips on top of each other, the editor leaves it as it was and says so.