Cut and Delete
How to split clips, delete them with or without leaving a gap, close gaps, and disable clips instead of deleting them.
Split clips at the playhead
- Park the playhead where you want the cut.
- Select the clips to split.
- Press Ctrl+B.
Every selected clip that the playhead passes through splits at that point. Selected clips the playhead doesn't touch are skipped, not blocked, so the rest of the batch still splits. Clips on locked tracks are skipped too, and a message tells you how many were left uncut. A batch split is one undo step.
Cut with the Razor tool
Select the Razor (C) tool and click a clip to cut it at that point. The cursor becomes scissors, and a preview line shows exactly where the cut will land before you click. The razor honors snapping, so the cut pulls to clip edges, the playhead, and markers just like a drag does. With snapping off, it cuts at the exact spot you click.
To cut every clip at the same moment across all unlocked tracks, hold Shift and click with the razor.
With Linked Selection on, cutting one half of a linked pair also cuts the other half. With it off, only the clip you click is cut, and both new halves stay linked to the uncut partner.
Delete clips
Select the clips and press Delete or Backspace, or choose Edit → Delete. The clips disappear and leave a gap behind. Nothing else moves.
With Linked Selection on, deleting one half of a linked pair deletes the other half too. Turn the toggle off to delete just one side.
If a delete is blocked because a clip sits on a locked track, the clips stay selected so you can see what didn't go through.
Ripple delete to close the gap
Press Shift+Delete (or Shift+Backspace) to delete the selected clips and close the gap they leave. Everything after the deleted clip on that same track slides earlier to fill the space.
A ripple delete only shifts clips on the deleted clip's own track. Other tracks stay where they are.
Close gaps across the timeline
Choose Sequence → Close Gaps to collapse the gaps on the whole timeline at once.
If a locked track holds clips, a dialog titled Close gaps anyway? appears first. It warns that clips on locked tracks stay put and can go out of sync with the rest of your edit, that markers do not move, and that gaps in front of locked content may only partly close. Click Continue anyway to proceed or Cancel to back out.
Disable clips instead of deleting them
A disabled clip stays on the timeline but is skipped during playback and export. It's a way to try a cut without committing to it.
Right-click a clip and choose Disable. The clip dims to show its state, and transcript pills over it dim with a hatched pattern. When everything you've selected is already disabled, the same menu item reads Enable and turns the clips back on. Disable and Enable apply only to the clips you selected, never to their linked partners.
The analysis tools in the Clip menu, such as Delete Silence, can also disable ranges for you instead of deleting them.
To sweep disabled clips off the timeline, choose Sequence → Delete Disabled Clips…. The dialog lists each track with a count of its disabled clips. Check the tracks you want to sweep, then click the Delete N Clips button. Locked tracks are shown with a padlock and can't be swept until you unlock them.