Timeline editing

Where Video editor › AI mode: Off

The timeline appears when AI mode is off. It works like Adobe Premiere Pro’s: video tracks are stacked with the topmost drawn over the others, audio tracks sit below, and most Premiere keys do the same thing here. A new edit starts with three tracks: V1 for pictures, A1 for sound, and V2 for titles over the picture.

Tools

Tool	Key	What it does
Selection	`V`	Drag a clip to move it (onto another track of the same kind, too). Drag an edge to trim. `⇧`-click or `⌘`-click adds to the selection.
Track select forward	`A`	Select everything from the click to the end. `⇧`-click selects on one track only.
Ripple edit	`B`	Trim an edge and close or open the gap behind it.
Rolling edit	`N`	Move the cut between two touching clips.
Rate stretch	`R`	Drag an edge to change the clip’s speed so it fits the new length.
Razor	`C`	Click a clip to cut it there. `⇧C` cuts across all tracks.
Slip	`Y`	Change which part of the recording plays, without moving the clip.
Slide	`U`	Move the clip while its neighbours adjust around it.

Also in the toolbar: Snapping (S), Linked selection, + Video track, + Audio track, the playhead’s timecode, and zoom (-, =, and \ to fit the whole edit).

Cut and trim

Split at the playhead: ⌘K cuts the targeted tracks (or every unlocked track if none is targeted). ⇧⌘K cuts all tracks. The Clip tab also has Split at playhead.
Trim to the playhead: Q ripple-trims the clip’s start to the playhead; W trims its end.
Trim by frames: with a clip edge selected, ←/→ trims one frame and ⇧←/→ one second.
Nudge a clip: ⌥←/→ moves it one frame, with ⇧ five frames.
Delete: Delete leaves a gap; ⇧Delete ripple-deletes and closes it.

Tracks

Each track’s header has a target button (V1, A1…), its name (double-click to rename), and buttons to hide (video), Mute, Solo and Lock it. Targeted tracks are the ones that receive pastes, splits, inserts, lifts and extracts.

The ⋯ menu on a track moves it up or down, adds tracks, records a voiceover onto an audio track, or deletes the track and its clips. Drag the grip to change a track’s height; ⌘= and ⌘- change all tracks.

Markers

M adds a marker at the playhead.
⇧M goes to the next marker, ⇧⌘M to the previous.
Click a marker to give it a Name, a Length, a Colour and a Note, or to remove it.

In and out points

Mark a range with I (in) and O (out), or X to mark the chosen clip. ⌥X clears them; ⇧I and ⇧O jump to them.

; lifts the range, leaving a gap.
’ extracts the range, closing the gap.

You can also export just the in-to-out range. See Exporting.

Right-click a clip for:

Cut, Copy, Paste attributes… (copy motion, opacity, crop, volume, colour, speed or effects from one clip to others), Duplicate
Apply default transitions, Turn off / Turn on
Link / Unlink, and Unlink: separate its sound to put a video’s sound on its own audio track
Group and Ungroup
Speed and duration…, Audio gain…
Add frame hold, Reverse speed, Warp Stabilizer
Nest, Create multi-camera source sequence…
Scene edit detection…, Auto reframe sequence…
Ask AI about this frame
Ripple delete and Delete

Speed

Speed and duration… (⌘R) sets a clip’s speed from 10% to 1600%, with an option to move what follows with it. Reverse speed plays the clip backwards.

For speed that changes over time, use Time Remapping in Effect Controls: add keyframes to the speed line, choose a ramp (sudden, linear, ease in, ease out, ease in and out), and add frame holds or reverse segments. A remapped clip’s sound plays only where it runs at 100%.

Warp Stabilizer (in Effect Controls) smooths shaky footage; set its Smoothness and press Stabilise.

Reverse speed and Warp Stabilizer are free.

Nests and multicam

Nest turns the chosen clips into one clip that holds a small edit. Double-click it (or Open nest) to edit inside; Un-nest puts the clips back.

Multicam lets you cut between several cameras of the same moment:

Choose 2 to 9 video clips (and any separate audio recordings), right-click, and choose Create multi-camera source sequence…
Order the cameras and choose how to sync them: Audio (line up what the cameras heard) or In points (each clip’s first frame is the same moment).
Play the edit and press 1–9 to cut to that camera. ⇧0 or Multi-camera shows every camera at once.

Captions, audio cleanup, voiceover, music and brand kits work on the whole edit, so close a nest to use them.

Scene edit detection

Right-click a video clip and choose Scene edit detection… to find where the shot changes. Tick Apply a cut at each detected cut point, Generate clip markers at each cut point, or both, then press Analyze. It finds up to 24 scene changes per clip, and it’s free.

Auto reframe

Auto reframe sequence… changes your edit’s format, for example from 16:9 to 9:16, and keeps each clip’s subject in frame with position keyframes you can adjust afterwards.

Right-click a clip and choose Auto reframe sequence…
Choose the new Format, what to Follow (“the speaker”, “the red car”), the Motion (slower, default, faster) and which Clips.
Check the price, then press Reframe.

It handles up to 10 clips and about 3 minutes of footage at a time, and follows one point per clip. It costs 10 credits for every 30 seconds started of each clip it follows; a clip it can’t read isn’t charged.

History and versions

Undo and Redo (⌘Z and ⇧⌘Z) go back and forward up to 100 steps. Dragging a value is one step, and a whole AI answer is one step.
History (left tab) lists every change since you opened the edit. Choose a step to go back to it.
Changes (left tab) lists the changes made by the AI and the audio tools, each with its own Undo.
Versions (header) keeps the 50 most recent saved versions. Restore one, or Download backup. Restoring makes a new version, so nothing is lost.

Troubleshooting

You see	What to do
Choose a clip first.	Select a clip on the timeline.
Put the playhead over a clip first.	Move the playhead onto the clip you want to change.
Mark an in point (I) and an out point (O) first.	Set a range before lifting or extracting.
Choose media in the Media panel first.	Click a file in Media before using `,` or `.`.
Sound goes on an audio track. / Pictures go on a video track.	Drop the clip on a track of the right kind.
A change is refused	The track may be locked. Unlock it in the track header.