iMovie 3 for Mac OS X (Visual QuickStart Guide)

Thousands of still images flicker by as we're watching video sometimes too quickly. Perhaps you'd like to linger on a sunset or highlight the one short moment when everyone in your family was looking at the camera. You can create a still clip from a single frame of video.

To create a still clip:

  1. Position the Playhead at the frame you wish to use.

  2. Choose Create Still Frame from the Edit menu, or press Command-Shift-S. A new 5-second clip appears on the Shelf, named "Still 03" or similar iMovie sets the number in the title (Figure 9.6).

    Figure 9.6. A new 5-second clip appears on the Shelf when you choose Create Still Frame.

How to Set a Default Still Clip Duration in iMovie 3

iMovie 3 removed the capability to specify a default duration for still clips that you create using Create Still Frame but is it really gone? Time to hack iMovie's preference file!

First, quit iMovie. Then, using a text editor such as Apple's TextEdit or Bare Bones Software's BBEdit, open the file named com.apple.iMovie3.plist in your [User]/Library/Preferences folder. (It's a good idea to make a copy of this file before editing it.) Scroll down until you see this:

<key>DefaultStillDuration: %4.2f </key> <real>5.000000e+00</real>

The last decimal number represents the default duration of 5 seconds. To make all new still clips 3 seconds, for example, change it to <real>3.000000e+00</real>. If you prefer 03:15 (three seconds and 15 frames, or three and a half seconds), use <real>3.500000e+00</real>.

Save the file, launch iMovie, and use Create Still Frame to view your handiwork.

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