Clips and trimming

For the parts of the timeline itself, such as lanes, the playhead and snapping, see The timeline.

Add clips

First bring your files in. Click Import media in the Library, choose File > Import media…, or press ⌘ I on Mac or Ctrl I on Windows and Linux. Your files appear in the Library under Media.

Then put them on the timeline:

• Drag an item from the Library to where you want it on the timeline. A shaded outline shows where it will land.
• Or click the round + on an item (or double-click a media item) to add it at the playhead.

Video and pictures go on the Main lane unless you drop them on another lane. Sound goes on a sound lane. Video and sound come in at their full length; a still picture comes in at 4 seconds.

On the Main lane a new clip goes in at the nearest cut, and the clips after it move along to make room. On the other lanes it goes exactly where you drop it.

Move clips

With the Select tool (A), drag a clip to a new time. The clip follows the pointer, and a faint outline stays where it was until you let go. Drag up or down to move it to another lane of the right kind.

• On the Main lane, with Magnetic main lane on, dragging a clip changes the order: the clips close up around it.
• On other lanes, the clip goes exactly where you drop it.
• Drag several selected clips to move them together.

To nudge the selection by a frame, press Alt ← or Alt → (⌥ on Mac). Add Shift to nudge by a second.

Linked picture and sound

A video clip and its sound move together. To move them apart, click the Linked selection button in the timeline toolbar to turn it off. Clips then move without their linked partner. Turn it back on when you are done.

Trim a clip

1. Pick the Select tool.
2. Move the pointer to the start or end of a clip. A handle lights up at the edge.
3. Drag the edge in or out.

You can't trim past the start or end of the footage, and a clip can't be shorter than a tenth of a second. On the Main lane, with Magnetic main lane on, the clips after it move to close the gap or make room.

Trim modes

For trims that move other clips, turn on a trim mode in the timeline toolbar or with the keyboard:

Press T a third time, or U again, to turn the mode off. While you trim, the player shows the frames on both sides of the cut side by side.

After you drag an edge, that edit point stays selected, so you can fine-tune it from the keyboard:

In ripple or roll mode you can also trim by playing: with an edit point selected, play with J or L to where the cut belongs, then press K. The edit point moves by the distance the playhead travelled.

Trim to the playhead

These keys trim the clip under the playhead (or the selected clip) without dragging:

Split a clip

• Move the playhead to the frame and press S, or click Split at playhead in the toolbar. If clips are selected, only those are split; otherwise every clip under the playhead is.
• Or pick the Blade tool (B) and click a clip where you want to cut it. With snapping on, the blade snaps to the playhead, markers and other edges.

Slip a clip

Slipping keeps a clip's place and length on the timeline but changes which part of the footage it shows.

1. Pick the Slip tool (Y).
2. Drag the clip left or right.

While you slip, the player shows the clip's first and last frames.

Delete clips

Select the clips and press Backspace or Delete (⌫ on Mac), or click Delete selection in the toolbar.

• Clips on the Main lane are removed and the clips after them close up.
• Clips on other lanes are removed and leave a gap.

To delete a transition, click its bow-tie shape and press Backspace or Delete.

Lift and extract a range

To take out a stretch of the sequence across several lanes, mark it with I and O, then:

• Press ; to lift it: the range is removed and leaves a gap.
• Press ' to extract it: the range is removed and everything after it moves up.

Both work on targeted lanes. Click the circle button in a lane's header to target or untarget it.

Cut in from the source monitor

Film editors often mark a moment in the footage first and then cut it into the sequence. Zornov has a source monitor for this.

1. Pick a clip in the Library's Media section.
2. Press Shift 2, or click the source monitor button in the timeline toolbar. The player shows the footage with its own playhead.
3. Play it and mark the part you want with I and O.
4. Put the playhead in the sequence where it should go, or mark a range there.
5. Press , to Insert (later clips move along) or . to Overwrite (it records over what is there).

The source monitor's bar also has Replace and Fit to fill. Fit to fill changes the speed so your source range fills the marked range in the sequence exactly. Press Shift 4 or Esc to go back to the program.

To find where the frame under the playhead came from, press Shift F (match frame). The source monitor opens on that frame.

Change speed

1. Select a video or sound clip.
2. In the Inspector, open the Speed tab.
3. Type a speed in the Speed field (0.1× to 100×), or click 0.5×, 1×, 2× or 4×.

Changing the speed changes the clip's length. On the Main lane, the clips after it move to fit. Turn on Reverse to play the clip backwards.

Slowed footage repeats frames, which can look jerky. On a slowed clip, the Slow motion section in the same tab can make new in-between frames: Optical flow is sharper, Cross-fade is instant. Remove takes it back off.

The clip menu

Right-click a clip, on the timeline or in the player, to open its menu. If the clip isn't selected, it becomes the selection first. Items that don't apply to what you selected are greyed out.

Undo a mistake

Every edit on this page is one step to undo: press ⌘ Z on Mac or Ctrl Z on Windows and Linux. Press Esc during a drag to cancel it.