Editing the video timeline

The timeline uses one absolute frame ruler for the whole video. Quick shows an unnumbered Picture lane and Audio lane; Edit shows the declared numbered video and audio lanes, effects and transitions. Switching workspaces changes presentation without rewriting the document or its lane assignments.

Drag a bar to move it in time and onto a compatible lane. Drag its edges to trim. Snapping uses nearby bar edges, the playhead, scene boundaries, markers, in/out marks and frame zero. Hold Ctrl (Cmd on macOS) to bypass snapping. Click selects a bar, Shift-click extends a range, Ctrl/Cmd-click toggles membership, and dragging empty space selects a rectangle across lanes.

The Clip and Sequence menus, command palette and keyboard all use the same command registry. Set in/out with I/O, razor the selection at the playhead with B, and use Ripple delete, Lift or Extract for the selected material. The shortcut reference lists the current bindings.

A ripple closes gaps within each scene and preserves scene duration. A shared chain is edited across all its memberships in one undo step. Razor divides it into independent left and right chains; a marked range can cut across several members. Geometry stays local to each member. Locked lanes refuse edits. Clips that overlap a deleted gap remain in place and the editor reports this.

Roll changes the cut between adjacent clips. Slip changes source in/out while holding the bar’s window. Slide moves a bar and adjusts its neighbours. These operations refuse trigger-driven timing or source ranges they cannot determine; the reason appears above the timeline. Slip also works across a shared chain: each member retains its own source range, rate, timing and geometry, and a source start clamps the whole gesture. Roll and Slide require a single scene’s neighbour pair; a logical chain spanning several scene clocks is refused with guidance to use its timing handles. They do not guess a neighbour in another scene. Audio with an explicit placement can be moved, while trigger-based placement is preserved. Music with a known source trim supports Razor, Lift, Extract and ripple edits. Those cuts retain volume automation and fades across the split. Looped, anchored or trigger-placed audio explains why it cannot be cut without changing its authored timing.

Declared lane labels offer lock, mute and preview-only solo. Drag a label to reorder lanes; video lane reorder also rewrites element order so the canvas, layers list and hit testing agree. Empty declared lanes remain available as drop targets. Cached waveforms and filmstrips appear as media becomes available; visible spans drive thumbnail requests and off-screen rows are virtualized.

A ruler hairline is a scene boundary. Dragging it retimes the preceding scene; its Length field edits the same value. A bar edge is a clip cut. See continuity and transitions and speed for the distinction and the available rate-stretch and blend tools.