Editing clips and tracks on the timeline

Before you start

Open a project with an existing editor timeline from Projects. If your project is still at the script stage, finish the voiceover workflow first; see Generating Your Video.

Identify the video, narration, and caption tracks before changing timing. The example below has captions at the top, title and solid clips in the middle, video beneath them, and green narration clips at the bottom. Your project may have a different arrangement.

Autosave is on unless you have turned it off, and saves pending changes about every 15 seconds. Check the switch and the save status in the top toolbar; with Autosave off, use Save to preserve an edit you want to keep. Wait for Saved before leaving the editor.

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Track controls sit to the left of the clips. Playback controls and the timeline zoom slider sit immediately above the timeline.

Find the moment you want to edit

1. Click the time ruler above the clips to position the green playhead. The current-time display updates to the chosen position.
2. Use Play to preview from that point. Use Go to Start or Go to End to navigate to the ends of the project.
3. Use the Zoom slider at the right of the playback bar to spread out the timeline for a closer view. Zoom out again to see the surrounding clips. Use the horizontal scrollbar to reach another part of an enlarged timeline.
4. Use Loop when you want repeated playback while reviewing. Turn it off when you finish.

Timeline zoom changes the scale of the time ruler. The separate Zoom in, Zoom out, and Fit controls in the top toolbar belong to the canvas view.

Select a clip or a track's videos

Click a clip to select it. Its properties appear on the right. Select the video clip itself for video controls, the narration clip for audio controls, or the caption clip for caption controls.

To work on the videos on one track:

1. Right-click a video clip on that track.
2. Choose Select all videos on this track.
3. Check the selection count in the Video group panel before changing a property.

The group panel explicitly applies edits to all selected clips. This is useful for shared appearance settings such as rotation, opacity, and corner radius. Click an empty area outside the preview to clear the selection, or select one clip to return to individual editing.

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The selection count helps you confirm the scope of a group edit. Selecting the track's videos is not a selection of its narration or captions.

Trim, split, and move clips

Trim a clip's edge

Zoom in until you can distinguish the clip edges. Select the clip, then drag its starting or ending edge to adjust the section used on the timeline. Watch the boundary against the ruler, and preview across the new join afterward.

Use an edge when adjusting the beginning or end; use the body of the clip when moving the whole clip. Check adjacent tracks after any trim that changes the relationship between a visual action and its spoken explanation.

Split at the playhead

1. Select the clip you want to divide.
2. Click the ruler to place the playhead inside that clip.
3. Click the scissors control, Split Clip at Playhead, at the left of the playback bar.
4. Select the resulting piece you want to work on.

Splitting creates separate pieces so you can adjust one part independently. If the scissors control is disabled, select a clip and move the playhead into its interior rather than leaving it at the clip's boundary.

Move a clip

Drag the body of a clip horizontally to change when it appears. Zoom in to place it precisely, then inspect both its beginning and its end. Check for unintended gaps or overlaps before saving.

The magnet control beside the scissors toggles snapping. Its label describes the next action: Disable Snapping means snapping is currently available to help align edits. Disable it when you need placement without snapping, then re-enable it when you want alignment assistance again.

Use the clip menu

Right-click the clip you want to work on. The video-clip menu offers these commands:

For a property transfer, start with Copy properties on the source clip, then right-click the target and choose Paste properties. For overlapping visuals, use the front/back commands to change which visual covers the other; use a timeline move when you want to change when a clip appears.

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Choose the target clip before opening its menu. After Ripple delete, compare the following video, audio, and caption boundaries before keeping the edit.

Change playback rate or freeze a video clip

Select an individual video clip and expand Video in its properties. Scroll within the properties panel if needed.

• Playback Rate controls the selected video's speed. The displayed 1.00x is normal speed. Preview the result alongside the narration whenever you change it.
• Freeze Frame has Normal and Frozen states. Click the state control to switch between them. This is a clip property, rather than the playback bar's pause control.

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The playhead is inside the selected video clip, making Split Clip at Playhead available. The right panel shows the individual clip's video settings.

VideoMule can also insert holds automatically during generation when narration needs more time than the corresponding footage. Those holds let the narration continue over a still image, as explained in the AI Video Editor overview. The manual Freeze Frame control lets you choose a frozen state for a selected video clip yourself.

Review an existing hold before shortening or removing it: listen to the words spoken during that interval and watch when the next action starts. Changing a video's speed or frozen state is a reason to check narration and captions again.

Control track visibility and sound

Each track header has an eye control and a speaker control.

• Use Hide Track to hide that track's visual content.
• Use Mute Track to silence a track, or Unmute Track to enable its sound again.

Check the intended track number before clicking. For example, if you want to hear narration without the source recording's sound, inspect the video track's mute state and the narration track's mute state separately.

The playback bar also has a Mute control for preview listening. Use the track controls when you are working on the sound of a specific track. Before finishing, review any visibility or mute changes made while diagnosing the timeline.

Example: isolate a visual moment for editing

Use this small sequence when a spoken instruction spans a video clip and you want to adjust only the latter part of the picture.

1. Find the instruction and play it once, noting the visual action and the caption words that accompany it.
2. Select its video clip. Zoom into the timeline and put the playhead at the start of the portion you want to isolate.
3. Choose Split Clip at Playhead. Select the later piece.
4. Make the intended small adjustment—for example, trim its ending edge—then play from before the split through the following clip.
5. Listen for a sentence being cut short visually, a still image ending too soon, or captions appearing before or after the spoken words. Check the narration and caption boundaries against the changed video boundary.
6. Use Undo if the result breaks the timing. Keep and save the edit only after the picture, narration, and captions agree.

A split by itself is a way to isolate a piece; the following trim, move, speed change, or removal is where the timing needs particular attention. Treat the picture, narration, and captions as separate things to review. In particular, selecting all videos on a track does not select the other two for you.

Undo, redo, and finish

Use Undo in the top toolbar to reverse an unwanted edit. Use Redo to reapply an undone action when it is available. The interface displays these shortcuts:

When a shortcut is inconvenient, use the visible control. After reviewing your edit, use Save when needed and check the status. Then follow Rendering and Exporting to create the output video.

Troubleshooting

The wrong properties appear. Select the intended clip on the timeline. A caption, audio clip, and video clip open different properties. If the panel says Video group, select one clip to work on it individually.

A short clip is hard to select or trim. Increase timeline zoom with the slider above the tracks. Changing canvas zoom will not spread out the timeline.

A video appears stuck while narration continues. Inspect Freeze Frame and check whether the interval is an automatic hold before removing it.

Sound is missing or doubled. Check the playback bar's mute control, then the source-video and narration track mute states separately.

The next action no longer matches the narration. Undo the recent timing change and replay the join. Rework the edit while checking the video, narration, and captions together, especially after Ripple delete.