Move, Trim, and Slip Clips

How to rearrange clips on the timeline, trim their edges, slip their contents, and control snapping.

Move a clip

1. Select Selection (V).
2. Drag the clip to a new time or another track of the same type.

Hold Shift to change tracks without changing the clip's start time. Video clips stay on video tracks, audio clips stay on audio tracks, and no clip can move before the start of the timeline.

To move several clips together, select them first and drag any selected clip. Their timing and track spacing stay intact. The group move counts as one undo step.

With Linked Selection on, linked partners on unlocked tracks move with the clip. Turn it off to move one half on its own.

Clips on locked tracks can't move, and you can't move a clip onto a locked track. A locked clip in a selection stays put while the unlocked clips move.

Press Escape before releasing to cancel the move.

Move into occupied space

Moving a clip into occupied space overwrites the clips already there. Solar Sailer trims those clips around the moved clip or removes one entirely when nothing would remain. It does not shift later clips.

This is different from an insert or ripple edit. If the move can't be applied, the clips stay where they started. Press Ctrl+Z if you overwrite something you meant to keep.

Create tracks while moving clips

Drag a video clip above the top video track, or an audio clip below the bottom audio track, to create a track. Drag farther past the edge to create more than one. Solar Sailer names the new tracks automatically, such as Video 2 or Audio 3.

Trim a clip's edges

1. Select Selection (V).
2. Drag the clip's left edge to change where it starts, or its right edge to change where it ends.

An edge can't pass the clip's other edge, the available source media, or a neighboring clip on the same track. Trimming stops playback, and it does not move later clips. Press Escape before releasing to cancel.

With Linked Selection on, trimming one half of a linked pair trims the other by the same amount. A locked partner blocks the edit. Turn Linked Selection off if you need to trim only one half.

tip

When an audio track's transcript row is open, drag a word or sentence edge to trim the clip to that boundary.

Slip a clip

Slipping changes which part of the source media a clip uses. The clip keeps the same position and length on the timeline, so neighboring clips don't move.

Select Slip (Y) and drag the clip, or hold Alt while dragging with Selection (V). The slip stops at the start or end of the source media.

With Linked Selection on, linked partners slip by the same amount. A locked partner blocks the edit. Turn the toggle off to slip one half on its own.

Snap clips into place

With snapping on, moves and trims pull toward nearby:

• Clip edges
• Playhead position
• Markers
• Word boundaries in the clip you're trimming, when transcript timing is available

Toggle Snap (S) in the tools strip or press S. Snapping uses the same on-screen distance at every zoom level.

Undo an edit

Press Ctrl+Z to undo a move, trim, or slip. A multi-clip move is undone as one edit.