Section 32.6. Problems Editing

32.6. Problems Editing

All right: Your video is now in iMovie, and you're ready to get to work.

32.6.1. Direct Trimming Doesn't Work

One of iMovie's most delicious features is edge dragging or direct trimming , which means that you can drag the right or left end of a clip to change its length.

If direct trimming stops workingthe cursor never changes to offer direct trimmingyou have Show Clip Volume Levels turned on in the View menu. You can't drag edges when the little horizontal volume lines are displayed on your audio clips.

32.6.2. Effects Change a Clip's Color

How's this for weird? You apply an effect to one clip, and the background of the clip suddenly changes color to match the hue of the last title you created!

The workaround: delete the effect (select the clip and press the Delete key), save the project, close the project, and reopen it. Now the effects work correctly.

32.6.3. Split Clip Disappears from Clips Pane

Two clips should never occupy the same slot in the Clips pane, of course. But in iMovie HD, it's possible.

The problem can occur when you use the Scrubber bar to select the middle frames of a clip, and then you delete those frames . iMovie splits the clip, leaving behind the clips' ends. (If the original clip is named Clip 01, the new second clip is named Clip 01/1.)

The trouble is, sometimes the new clip gets hidden underneath some other clip in the Clips paneespecially when all the top slots in the Clips pane are full.

The workaround, if you call it one: look under the other clips in the Clips pane (by dragging them to other "cubbyholes").