Knowing how to use the timeline view in iMovie will enhance your projects

What You'll Need:

>> iMovie ‘11 version 9.0.4
>> 20 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

The reason iMovie caused furor back in 2007 (which in computing times is considered ancient history), was because it dared to challenge the basic concept of editing video. Prior to this metamorphosis, every video editing application looked pretty much the same: a section, usually at the bottom, showing all your chosen clips added together in a sequence, the first one appearing on the left, and all the others added to its right.

This section is known as the timeline and it stretched to the right for ever – or at least until you ran out of clips you wanted to use.

Get to grips with the timeline to make the most of your video.

Apple’s engineers considered that this method confused novice users as they had to keep scrolling left and right to see all their clips. Instead, they decided on another approach: why not edit like you write? This way, the first clip would appear top-left of the section, then the others would be placed to its right, until they reached the edge and then they would move down a line. This allowed novice editors to see more of their project in one go and they’d have to scroll up or down to see more of their work – something they do all the time in web browsers or word processing documents.

It’s a good idea, but four years on, there are still some people who aren’t happy with the change. Considering the fact that Final Cut Pro X borrowed heavily from iMovie’s interface yet sports the usual timeline concept, it shouldn’t surprise many that the release of iMovie ‘11 brought about the possibility of bringing back the ‘classic’ video editing workflow.

iMovie has in fact turned into a very flexible editing environment and we’ll show you how to customise its interface with a few clicks so you can completely transform the way you see your project.

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How to Use iMovie's Timeline Effectively

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  The Timeline Button

  Changing how the project section displays your film, from a top-down vertical display to a left-right horizontal one, is actually extremely easy. All you have to do is click on the rectangular timeline button, top-right of the Project Section.

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  To the Right

  Instead of your project spanning multiple rows, all you see is a single one going off to the right, with a lot of grey around. You can scroll to the right to see more of your project, but obviously, you can’t see as much at the same time as iMovie’s traditional display.

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  Swapping

  It’s possible to make better use of your screen space even if you’re not using Lion’s fullscreen mode. In order to make sure the timeline spans the width of your screen, swap the project and event sections. Click on the button with two curved arrows, left of the toolbar.

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  Larger Preview

  While the timeline is now longer, this hasn’t got rid of the redundant space around your clips. This area is designed to display additional audio, titles and in some cases a second layer of video, but you could make better use of it: go to Window > Viewer > Large.

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  Zooming

  By default, iMovie displays a thumbnail for your clips every five seconds – the longer the clip, the more thumbnails are displayed of it in the timeline. You can show more or fewer, letting you zoom into or out of your project, by using the slider, lower right of the timeline.

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  Scrolling

  You can navigate your timeline by dragging its scroll bar, but if you have a multitouch trackpad, swipe with two fingers instead. You can also use your keyboard’s arrow keys: for instance, the right and left ones move the playhead one frame forward or backward.

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  Shortcuts

  Other shortcuts are available to navigate quickly through your edit. Jump to the next or previous clip in the sequence by using the command+up or command+down keys. On a laptop, to get to the start or end of your project, hold down the function key and hit either the left or right arrow keys.

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  Timestamp

  Finding your way around the timeline can get confusing with a long project. You’ll see the length of your project at the bottom of the interface. But if you need to know where you’re working in relation to it, check the bottom of the timeline – your position time is shown.

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  Quick Tip

  Adding or removing thumbnails isn’t your only customisation option: you can also make your clips bigger or thinner by using the slider, top-left of the timeline section (this also works in iMovie’s traditional multiple-rows view).

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