Drag-and-Drop Editing Basics

Drag-and-drop editing is the process of dragging a clip from the Viewer directly to the Timeline. This type of editing creates the same result as any of the other approaches you used when making Overwrite or Insert edits. Drag-and-drop editing is fun and direct and opens the door to many other Timeline editing functions.

Although this editing approach is not hard, you need to be aware of some of the automatic functions and responses so that you can control the process. You have already become familiar with selecting and moving clips in the Timeline. Before you start dragging clips directly to the Timeline, let's focus on a few important aspects of this editing process.

Positioning the Pointer

As you have seen, Final Cut Express has a position-sensitive mouse pointer. When it is positioned over certain parts of a clip in the Timeline, or in the Timeline itself, the pointer automatically changes to a different tool to help you with a particular editing option or Timeline adjustment. For example, when you positioned the pointer over the end of a clip earlier in this lesson, it changed to the left-right resize pointer so that you could select the edit point and not the whole clip.

When you drag a clip to the Timeline, the position of your pointer will determine the type of edit you make, either Overwrite or Insert. Each Timeline audio and video track has a thin gray line running across the upper third of the empty track. This is the line you will focus on when making edits directly to the Timeline.

Tip

The key to dragging clips to the Timeline is to position the pointer correctly in the track.

1.	Ctrl-click the Sequences bin in the Browser and select New Sequence.
2.	Name the sequence Timeline Edits and double-click it to open the sequence in the Timeline.
3.	Pause the tip of your pointer over the thin gray line in the V1 or A1 track. Note Nothing happens now, but this is the point where edit options change when you have a clip in hand.
4.	Open the horseshoe island clip into the Viewer and use the current edit points.
5.	Click in the Viewer image area and drag the horseshoe island clip to the Timeline, but don't release the mouse.
6.	With clip in hand, drag the tip of your pointer up and down over the thin gray line in the V1 track as you did before. When the tip of the pointer is positioned below the thin gray line, the Overwrite edit pointer, which has a downward arrow, appears with a solid box behind it representing the clip's length. When you move the tip of the pointer above the thin gray line, a forward Insert arrow appears with a hollow clip box representing the clip's length.
7.	Now drag the clip back into the Viewer and release it. Tip You can always drag a clip back into the Viewer if you change your mind about working with it.

Snapping to the Playhead

When you made Overwrite and Insert edits in previous lessons, you always moved the playhead in the Timeline to where you wanted to place the new clip. This is not required in drag-and-drop editing. A new clip can be placed wherever you choose to release it, regardless of the playhead position.

However, when you drag a clip to the Timeline, it will snap to the playhead when you move past it, as long as the snapping option is active. The Snapping control is located in the upper-right corner of the Timeline in the Timeline button bar. The snapping icon appears as left and right opposing arrows, indicating the magnetic interaction of clips in the Timeline.

Note

Each main Final Cut Express window has a button bar, which acts like a well that can hold several shortcut buttons. Customizing these button bars is covered in more detail in Lesson 11.

Snapping can be toggled off or on during the editing process and even as you drag a clip or move the playhead. When snapping is active, the icon appears concave, or sunken looking, and the arrows are green. When snapping is inactive, the icon appears convex, and the arrows are gray.

In order to fully observe all the aspects of drag-and-drop editing, follow the "don't release the mouse" suggestions in the following steps.

1.	Drag the playhead to the center of the Timeline.
2.	Drag the horseshoe island clip from the Viewer to the Timeline again and position it on the track to be an Overwrite editbut don't release the mouse.
3.	Drag the clip sideways left and rightbut don't release it.
4.	Drag the clip's In point and Out point across the playhead. The In point or Out point of the clip snaps to the playhead. Brown snapping icons appear beneath the yellow playhead, and the playhead stem is darker. Note Keep an eye on the body of the clip, not the image thumbnail.
5.	Now return the clip to the Viewer.
6.	Click the Snapping control in the upper-right corner of the Timeline to turn snapping off.
7.	Now drag the horseshoe island clip from the Viewer over the playhead in the Timeline. The clip passes over the playhead without snapping to it.
8.	Drag the clip back to the Viewer and release.
9.	Make snapping active again by pressing the shortcut key N.
10.	Drag the clip to the head of the Timeline. Make sure the downward, Overwrite edit arrow is showing, and release the horseshoe island clip as the first Overwrite edit of this sequence. The playhead jumps to the end of the newly placed clip, just as it did when you made Overwrite edits in the previous lesson.