iLife '04: The Missing Manual

Three Ways to Trim a Clip

Trimming out the deadwood from your clips, so that you’re left with only the very best shots from the very best scenes, is the heart of iMovie—and video editing.

POWER USERS’ CLINICBeyond Undo: The Restore Clip Command

As programs go, iMovie is a forgiving one. Not only does it have an Undo command—it’s a ten-step Undo command, meaning that you can undo the last ten editing steps you took. (You can even unimport a clip from your camcorder.)

Still, a ten-level Undo isn’t always ideal. If you made a mistake eight steps ago, you can undo that step, but only by undoing the seven successful editing steps you took thereafter.

The Advanced → Restore Clip command can be perfect in such situations. Remember that every time you cut or crop a clip, iMovie doesn’t actually disturb the clip itself—the file on your hard drive. Instead, it simply shifts around its own internal pointers to the portion of the clip that you want to use. As a result, it’s a piece of cake for iMovie to say, “Oh, you want me to throw away those pointers and give you back the original clip as it came from the camcorder? No problem.”

In short, the Restore Clip command gives you a convenient safety net, a chance to start with a clean slate on a clip-byclip basis.

When you use the command, iMovie displays a dialog box that lets you know what’s about to happen, as shown here. If you click Restore, iMovie returns the clip to its original, precut, precrop condition, even if you’ve already placed it into ...