| The Tools panel is your visual tool box from which you can click and choose tools that perform various powerful and helpful adjustments to your timeline (Figure 6.21). If you prefer not to click and select, each tool also has a keyboard shortcut. Once you have accessed a tool, your cursor updates with the appropriate icon for the selected tool. While a tool is selected, clicking and dragging in the timeline executes the tool's functions. Figure 6.21. From the top, the Tools panel's tools are: Selection, Track Select, Ripple Edit, Rolling Edit, Rate Stretch, Razor, Slip, Slide, Pen, Hand, and Zoom The Tools panel has a number of tools for editing and rearranging media in the Timeline panel. From top to bottom they are Selection (shortcut key: V) The standard cursor for selection. Press the Ctrl key to turn the Selection tool into the Ripple Edit tool. Track Select (shortcut key: M) Used to select all the content on one specific track. Pressing Shift turns this tool into the Multi-track Selection tool, which selects all tracks. Selection extends from where you click the tip of the tool to the right end of the timeline. Ripple Edit (shortcut key: B) Allows you to adjust the In or Out point of a clip instance in the timeline while rippling the media to its left or right, thus preserving the cuts. Rolling Edit (shortcut key: N) Enables you to dynamically roll the edit point between two clips, updating the Out point of the outgoing clip and the In point of the incoming clip at the same time. Rate Stretch (shortcut key: X) Lets you extend or reduce a clip's duration in the timeline by slowing down or increasing its speed, thus preserving its assigned In and Out points. Razor (shortcut key: C) Enables you to make incisions and cuts to individual media in the timeline. Holding the Shift key will make a cut through the entire timeline at the time position that you click. Slip (shortcut key: Y) Slides the visible media beneath the visible duration of the clip instance you are selecting, so that you can select a different portion of your clip to occupy the same space in the timeline. When you add a clip to the timeline, you may not be using all of the source material. If you were using only five seconds of a ten-second clip, then there is still five unused seconds somewhere beyond your In and Out points. Once a clip is edited into a sequence with adjacent material before and after it, use the Slip tool to shift the content of that clip within its timeline boundary. Slip the visible clip material left or right to display a different five-second section of the clip, without altering its timeline boundary. Slide (shortcut key: U) Allows you to slide the visible duration and selected content of a clip over the surrounding media. If you slide to the right, the clip to the left of the sliding clip will have its Out point increased to display its content. The clip to the right would get covered by the slide (and viceversa). Pen (shortcut key: P) Enables you to select and create keyframes in the Timeline window. Using the Ctrl key allows you to add keyframes. Using the Shift key allows you to click and select discontinuous keyframes and adjust them synchronously. Hand (shortcut key: H) An additional tool to click and drag the viewing area of the timeline left or right. It grabs at an anchor point where you click, and then moves left or right with your mouse. Zoom (shortcut key: Z) Zooms in and out of the timeline. Selecting and clicking zooms in. Holding Alt and clicking zooms out.
This brief overview of the editing tools for the timeline is intended to just whet your appetite. Section V, "Advanced Editing," and Section VI, "Professional Workflows," (located on the book's DVD) will serve up a full plate of details, presenting workflows for all the tools pointed out here. |