Timeline

Add media

Drop video, photos or audio from Finder or from the Sources sidebar onto the timeline. Or use Import… (⌘I) for video, photos and sound, at the foot of the Sources sidebar and in the File menu. A file from outside the video and its libraries is copied into the video.

Where a drop lands:

• On a row of the right kind, at the time under the pointer. Video and photos go to video tracks, audio to audio tracks.
• On a row of the other kind, or a locked one, the nearest unlocked row of the right kind.
• Below the last track, a new track.
• One file dropped on a placeholder replaces it. See Placeholders.

Consecutive files follow each other. Import… places at the playhead on the active track of the file's kind. Photos become 3-second clips that you can stretch to 60 seconds.

Play and scrub

Space plays and pauses. Click or drag in the ruler or in empty track space to scrub. ← and → step a frame, ⇧← and ⇧→ a second, Home and End jump to the start and end. The viewer shows the frame under the playhead.

Select

Click a clip to select it. Its sidebar opens on the right. Esc or X deselects. Esc pressed again closes the track panel.

Trim

Drag either edge of a clip. While you drag, the viewer shows the exact frame at that edge. On a magnetic track the clips after it move to close or open the gap.

Edit Range… (sidebar, right-click menu) slides which part of the file plays without moving the clip. See Placeholders.

Split and delete

S or ⌘B splits at the playhead: the selected clip when the playhead is inside it, else the active track's clip at the playhead, else the video clip under the playhead. ⌫ deletes the selection. On a magnetic track the clips after it close the gap.

Rearrange

Drag a clip along its track. On a magnetic track the neighbours slide out of the way and the clip snaps into its new order. On a free track it lands at the nearest spot that fits. Drag a clip up or down to move it to another track of the same kind.

The right-click menu on a clip has Split at Playhead, Duplicate, Edit Range…, Replace with File… and Delete Clip. Empty track space offers Add Placeholder Here or Add Text Here, and Zoom to Fit.

Snap

N toggles snapping (View › Snapping). With it on, drags and trims snap to the start of the piece, the playhead and every other clip's edges.

Nudge

On a free track, ⌥← and ⌥→ move the selected clip by one frame, ⌥⇧← and ⌥⇧→ by a second. Clips on a magnetic track are ordered rather than positioned, so they do not nudge.

Copy, paste, duplicate

⌘C copies the selected clip. ⌘V pastes it at the playhead on the active track of the same kind. ⌘D puts a copy right after the original and selects it. Duplicate works for clips, placeholders, texts and subtitle bars.

Levels

Hover a clip with sound and a level line appears across it. Drag the line up or down. It runs from 0% to 150%, snaps at 100%, and turns yellow when it is not at 100%. A clip not at 100% wears a speaker badge with its percentage. The same value is the Clip volume slider in the sidebar.

Detach Audio (⇧⌘D) copies a video clip's sound onto a new audio track and silences the video clip, so picture and sound cut separately. See Voiceover and music.

Zoom and pan

Pinch or ⌘-scroll to zoom the timeline, or use ⌘= and ⌘-. ⇧Z fits the whole piece. Two-finger scroll pans. Drag the bar above the tracks to change the height of the tracks area; it scrolls when tracks overflow.

Undo

⌘Z undoes and ⇧⌘Z redoes. Every edit is an undo step, including edits made from the command line.