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Tools and Selection

Use the tools strip to choose how clicks and drags affect clips. It sits on the left edge of the timeline, beside the track headers.

Choose a tool​

  • Snap (S) turns snapping on and off. See Move, Trim, and Slip Clips for the snap points used while editing.
  • Linked Selection makes linked audio and video clips act as one. It has no keyboard shortcut. See Tracks and Linked Clips.
  • Selection (V) selects clips. Drag a clip's body to move it, or drag an edge to trim it.
  • Track select forward (A) selects clips from a clicked point onward across unlocked tracks. Hold Shift when you click to select backward instead.
  • Razor (C) cuts a clip where you click. See Cut and Delete.
  • Slip (Y) changes which part of the source footage a clip uses without moving the clip. See Move, Trim, and Slip Clips.
  • Add Marker (M) adds a marker at the playhead. See Markers.

Select clips​

With the Selection tool active, click a clip to start a new selection. Clicking another clip replaces it.

Hold Shift or Ctrl while clicking to add a clip. Both keys work as a toggle, so clicking a selected clip with either key removes it. If several clips are selected, clicking one of them without a key keeps the group intact. You can drag from any unlocked selected clip to move the group.

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With the Selection tool, a clip on a locked track can't be the target of a click or drag. It can still enter the selection through Select All, a selection box, or a linked partner. Unlock the track before editing it.

Select everything before or after a point​

  1. Press A to activate Track select forward.
  2. Click in the track area at the time you want to select from. Hold Shift while clicking to select backward.

This replaces your selection across all unlocked tracks. Clips crossing the clicked point are included. With Linked Selection on, their unlocked linked partners join the selection too.

Click and drag from a clip to move the selected group in one gesture. After a backward selection, release Shift to move horizontally. Holding it keeps the clips at their original times. Moving clips can overwrite clips at the destination. See Move, Trim, and Slip Clips.

Press V to return to ordinary selection, trimming, and selection boxes.

Drag a selection box​

To select clips in an area:

  1. With the Selection tool active, press and hold the mouse button on empty timeline space, such as an empty stretch of a track.
  2. Drag across the clips you want.
  3. Release to select every clip the box touches.

A selection box normally replaces the current selection. Hold Shift or Ctrl when you release to add its clips instead. The key you hold at release controls the result, even if you pressed or released it during the drag.

An empty box clears the selection. An empty box released with Shift or Ctrl held leaves the selection alone. Press Escape during the drag to cancel the box and clear the selection.

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Starting a selection box inside a transcript row selects words in that row instead of clips.

Select linked audio and video together​

With Linked Selection on, clicking one half of a linked audio and video pair selects the other half too. Shift+click and Ctrl+click add or remove the pair together.

Turn Linked Selection off to select one half on its own. There is no modifier key that temporarily overrides the toggle.

Select all and deselect​

With the timeline active, press Ctrl+A, or open Edit and choose Select All, to select every clip on the timeline, including clips on locked tracks.

To deselect everything, press Escape or click empty timeline space with the Selection tool.

Change clip corners​

  1. Open Edit > Preferences….
  2. Choose Timeline.
  3. Turn on Sharp clip corners.
  4. Click Apply.

Clips use square corners immediately. Turn the setting off to return to rounded corners.

Undo and redo​

Press Ctrl+Z to undo and Ctrl+Shift+Z to redo. You can also choose Undo or Redo from the Edit menu.

Solar Sailer keeps the last 100 edits in its undo history. If you undo and then make a new edit, you can't redo the edits you backed out of. Splitting several clips at once or dragging a group counts as one undo step.