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Tools and Selection

How to pick an editing tool, select clips on the timeline, and undo your changes.

Find the tools strip​

The tools strip is the narrow column on the far left of the timeline, next to the track headers. It has three groups of buttons. A button highlights when its toggle or tool is active, and your tool choice is remembered when you switch projects.

The top group holds two toggles that change how most edits behave:

The middle group holds the editing tools. Only one is active at a time:

  • Selection (V) is the default tool. Click to select, drag a clip's body to move it, and drag a clip's edges to trim it.
  • Razor (C) cuts a clip where you click. See Cut and Delete.
  • Slip (Y) changes which part of the source footage a clip shows, without moving the clip. See Move, Trim, and Slip Clips.

The bottom group has one button, Add Marker (M). Markers are covered in Markers.

Select clips​

Click a clip to select it. Selected clips draw a white border. Clicking a different clip replaces the selection.

To select more than one clip:

  1. Click the first clip.
  2. Shift+click each clip you want to add.

Shift+click works as a toggle. Shift+clicking a clip that's already selected removes it from the selection.

Clicking a clip that's already part of a multi-clip selection does not collapse the selection. The whole group stays selected, so you can drag all of the clips at once.

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Clips on a locked track can't be selected or dragged. Unlock the track first.

Drag a selection box​

To select every clip in an area:

  1. Press on empty timeline space, such as an empty stretch of a track.
  2. Drag across the clips you want. A rectangle appears, and every clip it touches becomes selected.
  3. Release the mouse button.

A selection box replaces whatever was selected before. A box that touches no clips deselects everything, and so does a plain click on empty space. Press Escape while dragging to cancel the box.

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A selection box started inside a transcript row selects the words in that row, not 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. To select just one half, turn Linked Selection off in the tools strip. There is no modifier key for this, the toggle is the way.

Select all and deselect​

Press Ctrl+A, or choose Edit → Select All, to select every clip on the timeline.

To deselect everything, press Escape or click empty timeline space.

Undo and redo​

Press Ctrl+Z to undo and Ctrl+Shift+Z to redo. Both also live in the Edit menu as Undo and Redo.

Undo remembers your last 100 edits. Making a new edit clears the redo history. A batch operation, like splitting several clips at once or dragging a group of clips, counts as a single undo step.