Timeline
Understand the lanes, trim visuals, and use drop previews to place the right item at the right time.
On this page
#Read the timeline
Time runs from left to right. The playhead marks the moment shown in the preview. Zooming in reveals more clip names, caption text, and media thumbnails.
| Lane | What it contains |
|---|---|
| Captions | Clickable groups of narration words. This lane is hidden when captions are off. |
| Graphics | Designed graphics and uploaded overlays. Uploaded overlays cannot overlap another item in this lane. |
| Media | The video and image scenes that form the main visual sequence. |
| VO | The narration waveform, when narration is present. |
| Music | The background-score waveform, when music is present. Click it to open Audio. |
#Trim a visual
Trimming a visual does not move neighboring clips or retime the narration and captions. Shortening a clip leaves an uncovered gap. You can extend a neighbor into that gap or add a standalone graphic there.
Clips cannot overlap. To extend one, shorten the neighboring clip first. Regular visual clips keep a minimum length of 0.3 seconds.
Select the clip
Click the block you want to change. If its edges are hard to grab, zoom in first.
Drag an edge
Move the left edge to change its start, or the right edge to change its end. Release to save the new timing.
Play across the edit
Start just before the change and check the picture against the narration.
#Use snapping for alignment
The magnet button turns snapping on or off. With snapping on, trims align near adjoining boundaries. Uploaded overlays also snap to scene boundaries and other available timing edges.
Turning snapping off allows finer placement inside the available space. It does not allow clips or uploaded overlays to overlap blocked ranges.
#Understand the drop preview
An asset thumbnail follows your pointer before it reaches the timeline. On the timeline, the placement preview takes over. A blocked drop explains why the item cannot be placed there; dropping it does not force the edit.
| Item you drag | What the timeline shows |
|---|---|
| Image or video | A solid preview of the existing media clip that will be replaced. Drop onto a media clip. |
| Uploaded overlay | A translucent block on the Graphics lane, normally three seconds long. Drop into an unoccupied range. |
| Graphic | A preview on the Graphics lane for the scene or open gap it will use. |
| Transition | A marker at a cut between scenes. It is applied to that cut rather than added as a clip. |