Section A.1. iMovie Menu


A.1. iMovie Menu

In Mac OS X, the first menu after the menu is named for the program you're usingin this case, iMovie.

A.1.1. About iMovie HD

This command opens the "About" box containing the requisite Apple legal information. There's really only one good reason to open the About iMovie window: It's the easiest way to find out exactly which version of iMovie you have.

A.1.2. iMovie HD Hot Tips

Each of the i-programs these days offers a Hot Tips command, which takes you online to Apple's Web page for a crash course in the latest new features. In iMovie's case, this page covers Playhead snapping, the Ken Burns effect, and so on.

A.1.3. Preferences

Opens the Preferences window (Figure A-1), which, in iMovie HD, has been split into three panels, each marked by an icon at the top. ( Keyboard shortcut: -comma.) Here's a tour.

A.1.3.1 General
  • Beep when finished importing. The idea here is that exporting (Chapter 12) can take a long time. Thanks to Mac OS X's multitasking abilities , you can switch into some other program to get some work done while iMovie chugs away. Trouble is, you won't know when the exporting process is done because you won't see the progress bar. This option solves the problem by playing a little dink! noise to alert you.

    Figure A-1. The Preferences dialog box is much less important in iMovie HD; some of the features once found here have been moved out to the menus , where they're easier to find.
    It's worth noting that you can get to this box quickly by pressing -comma, which isn't so hard to learn considering it's also the keystroke that opens the Preferences box in iPhoto, iTunes, GarageBand, and so on.


  • Automatically resize window to fit project. When you first create an iMovie project, you're asked to specify what kind of video you plan to edit: DV, high-definition, widescreen DV, or whatever. But if this option is turned on, you don't have to mess with that; iMovie automatically detects the incoming video type and adjusts its own window accordingly (so that the Monitor window is a wide rectangle for HDTV, for example).

  • Check for iMovie updates automatically. As you may have discovered already, Apple often releases small, "double decimal-point" updates to the iLife programs. Each one patches bugs and makes features work more smoothly.

    If this option is turned on, then iMovie sends out an electronic feeler each time it's open and you're online, checking to see if a new update is available. If so, you'll be invited to download and install it.

  • Only show audio locking when selected. "Audio locking" here means pushpins, of the sort illustrated in Figure A-2the tiny thumbtack icons that help you spot audio clips that you've pinned to video clips. If you find these symbols distracting, turn on this checkbox; now the pushpins show up in the Timeline Viewer only when you've actually highlighted an audio clip.

  • Extract audio when using "Paste Over at Playhead." In short, this option lets you paste video (without its audio) over existing audio tracks. See page 223 for details.

  • Snap to items in Timeline. This checkbox makes the Playhead snap magnetically against important events in the Timeline viewer: the beginnings and ends of video clips, silence in audio tracks, bookmarks, chapter markers, and effects. And if you're dragging one of these items, it snaps against the playhead when you reach it (Figure A-2, bottom).

    This feature saves you a lot of fussing with the arrow keys, because very often, the edit you're trying to perform is right at one of these junctures.


    Tip: When Timeline snapping is turned on, hold down the Shift key to turn it off temporarily. When Timeline snapping is turned off, press Shift to turn it on for the moment. In other words, Shift overrides the current Preferences setting.

    Figure A-2. When audio waveforms are turned off (top), there's a lot less visual clutter, and you get to see the names of all your audio clips. When they're turned on (bottom), you have better luck lining up specific audio and video moments (not to mention identifying spoken expletives that you want deleted).
    If you turn on "Timeline snapping," the Playhead jumps , as you drag it, to each important event in the Timelineincluding the beginnings or endings of audio silence, as shown here at bottom. New in iMovie HD: at each snap, the vertical line extending from the Playhead turns yellow.


  • Play sound effects when snapping. Turn on this checkbox to add a zesty little pop! sound each time the Playhead snaps against something.

  • New Project frame rate. This pop-up menu lets you tell iMovie whether you want the number of frames per second, in a newly created project, set to 29.97 (the North American/Japanese NTSC standard) or 25 (the European PAL standard). Apple added this option in iMovie HD in part to accommodate the new era of high-definition camcorders, some of which capture at 29.97 and some at 25 frames per second.

A.1.3.2 Import
  • Place clips in: Clips Pane/Movie Timeline. When you first install iMovie, it stashes each captured clip from the camcorder in the Clips pane.

    If the scenes on your DV camcorder are roughly in the order you'll want them to be in the finished movie, however, you can save some dragging-from-the-Clips-pane steps by choosing to have iMovie stash them directly in the Movie Track as they're imported. (This option also affects imported graphics.)

  • Start a new clip at each scene break. iMovie, when importing footage from your camcorder, can automatically create a new clip every time it detects that the camcorder was turned off and on again during filming . In other words, every shot becomes its own clipa useful and sophisticated feature not found in even the pro editing programs. (If this option is turned off, then iMovie will import all footage in one big long clump.)

  • Filter audio from camera. iMovie is supposed to screen out the beeps that indicate bad frames of audio recorded by the camera. But in some strange circumstances, this filtering can occasionally introduce audio glitches instead of fixing them. Don't turn off this box unless you're experiencing beeps in the imported audio, in which case turning this option off and reimporting the footage may help.

A.1.3.3 Playback
  • Quality: Standard/High/Highest. Slower Macs may not be fast enough to display full-quality footage at full speed. When you view your movie in the Monitor window, therefore, you can choose between seeing slightly jerky video with a crisp picture ("High") or smooth video with a slightly blurry picture ("Standard"). On fast Macs, you probably won't see any difference at all between the two settings.

    You will, however, see the difference when you turn on "Highest." As Figure A-3 demonstrates , "Enhanced" eliminates most of the annoying, computerish "jaggies" and stairstepped diagonal lines.

  • Play DV project video through to DV camera. This is the on/off switch for iMovie's remarkable ability to show your clips on your camcorder's LCD screenor better still, a TV attached to the camcorder. (The new wording, "DV video" and "DV camera," is meant to remind you that this setup doesn't work with, for example, USB memory-card recorders .) See page 460 for details.

  • Keep Playhead centered during playback. This feature is minor but helpful: It controls how the Movie Track scrolls when you're playing your movie. When this option is on, the entire Movie Track scrolls continuously, so that the Playhead can remain motionless in the center of the screen. The benefit here is that you can always see what audio or video events are about to scroll by.

    If you turn this option off, the Movie Track remains stationary until the moving Playhead reaches the right side of the windowand then the entire screenful changes. This system scan be frustrating, because you can never see what's just around the bend. You're often caught by surprise by events that were just offscreen to the right as they suddenly jump-scroll to the left side of the window.

A.1.4. Shop for iMovie HD Products

This isn't so much a command as it is a marketing ploy. It opens your Web browser to a page on Apple's Web site that offers to sell you camcorders, plug-ins, blank DVDs, and other accessories.

A.1.5. Provide iMovie HD Feedback

This command takes you to a Web form on Apple's site where you can register complaints, make suggestions, or gush enthusiastically about iMovie.

A.1.6. Register iMovie HD

This is a link to yet another Apple Web page. Registering iMovie simply means giving Apple your contact information so you can access Apple's online support documents, receive upgrade notices, get special offers, and so on. There's no penalty for not registering, by the way. Apple just wants to know more about who you are, so that it can offer you exciting new waves of junk mail.

Figure A-3. On faster Macsmachines with the power to do the real-time processingturning on the Highest quality setting (in iMovie's Preferences) makes a big difference in playback while you're working on your movie, as these before-and-after shots illustrate .
The difference is especially obvious when text appears in your movie.


A.1.7. Check For Updates

If iMovie isn't set to check for Apple patches and bug-fix updates automatically (page 458), you can make it check manually on your command, using this option.

A.1.8. Services

This submenu lists the standard Mac OS X Services (see Mac OS X: The Missing Manual ), like Summarize and Reveal Finder. None of them work in iMovie.

A.1.9. Hide iMovie, Hide Others, Show All

These aren't iMovie's commandsthey're Mac OS X's.

In any case, they determine which of the various programs running on your Mac are visible onscreen at any given moment. The Hide Others command is probably the most popular of these three. It zaps away the windows of all other programsincluding the Finderso that the iMovie window is the only one you see.


Tip: If you know this golden Mac OS X trick, you may never need to use the Hide Others command: To switch into iMovie from another program, hold down the Option and keys when clicking the iMovie icon in the Dock. Doing so simultaneously brings iMovie to the front and hides all other programs you have running, producing an uncluttered, distraction-free view of iMovie.

A.1.10. Quit iMovie HD

This command ( keyboard shortcut: -Q) closes iMovie after offering you the chance to save any changes you've made to your project file. The next time you open iMovie by double-clicking its icon, the program will reopen whatever project document you were working on.



iMovie HD & iDVD 5. The Missing Manual
iMovie HD & iDVD 5: The Missing Manual
ISBN: 0596100337
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 209
Authors: David Pogue

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