Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcuts work while the timeline or a clip is active. While the cursor is in a text field, the same keys are treated as typing.

1. 1Click a clip in the timeline, then press the shortcut.
2. 2Shortcuts do not work while you are typing in the input field at the bottom or in a settings field on the right.
3. 3Ctrl+S has just been pressed: the lower right shows that the project was saved.

↘Red arrows and white labels are guide annotations ＋ Enlarge with callouts

1. 1
   Action Click a clip in the timeline, then press the shortcut.
2. 2
   Check Shortcuts do not work while you are typing in the input field at the bottom or in a settings field on the right.
3. 3
   Check Ctrl+S has just been pressed: the lower right shows that the project was saved.

Space

Starts playback. Press again to stop at that position.

Home

Moves the playhead to the beginning (0 seconds).

End

With a clip selected, moves the playhead to the end of that clip; with nothing selected, to the end of the whole timeline.

Esc

Clears the clip selection. It also closes an open menu.

Ctrl+S

Saves the project.

Check For example, pressing Ctrl+A in the Start time field on the right only selected the number in the field, not the clips. If a shortcut seems not to work, click a clip in the timeline once.

Right-clicking a clip lists what you can do with it. The dimmed text on the right is the shortcut. Here the heading's text clip has been right-clicked.

1. 1Copy (Ctrl+C), Cut (Ctrl+X), Paste (Ctrl+V), Duplicate (Ctrl+D) and Delete (Delete) are listed.
2. 2Split at the playhead is Ctrl+K. In this figure the clip would be split in two at 6.83 seconds.
3. 3Extend the end to the playhead is E.

↘Red arrows and white labels are guide annotations ＋ Enlarge with callouts

1. 1
   Check Copy (Ctrl+C), Cut (Ctrl+X), Paste (Ctrl+V), Duplicate (Ctrl+D) and Delete (Delete) are listed.
2. 2
   Check Split at the playhead is Ctrl+K. In this figure the clip would be split in two at 6.83 seconds.
3. 3
   Check Extend the end to the playhead is E.

Ctrl+C

Copies the selected clip.

Ctrl+V

Pastes the copied clip at the playhead on the same track.

Ctrl+X

Cuts the selected clip, removing it from the timeline. Pasting a cut clip elsewhere was not checked in this demonstration.

Ctrl+D

Duplicates the selected clip. In this demonstration the copy was placed right after the original.

Delete

Deletes the selected clip.

Ctrl+K

Splits the selected clip in two at the playhead.

E

Extends the end of the selected clip to the playhead.

Shift+E

Extends the end of the selected clip to the start of the next clip on the same track.

Check For each of them, click the clip first to select it. If you make a mistake, undo it with Ctrl+Z from the next section.

The Edit menu at the top also shows shortcuts. Here Edit is open and the pointer is over Select.

1. 1Click Edit at the top.
2. 2Undo is Ctrl+Z and Redo is Ctrl+Y.
3. 3Under Select you find Paste (Ctrl+V) and the select-all shortcuts described in the next section.

↘Red arrows and white labels are guide annotations ＋ Enlarge with callouts

1. 1
   Action Click Edit at the top.
2. 2
   Check Undo is Ctrl+Z and Redo is Ctrl+Y.
3. 3
   Check Under Select you find Paste (Ctrl+V) and the select-all shortcuts described in the next section.

Ctrl+Z

Undoes the last operation.

Ctrl+Y

Redoes the operation you undid.

Ctrl+Shift+E

Saves the picture at the playhead as a PNG image.

Check In this demonstration, Ctrl+Z right after a paste removed the pasted clip, and Ctrl+Y brought it back. Take a screenshot at the current position (Ctrl+Shift+E), lower in the menu, is covered in the screenshot guide; that one shortcut was pressed and checked in the project of that guide.

These shortcuts select several clips at once and nudge the on-screen position of a selected clip. The figure shows the result of Ctrl+Shift+A.

1. 1After Ctrl+Shift+A, all six clips on every track are selected and their frames are highlighted.
2. 2With only the heading clip selected, the arrow keys move the heading in the preview in that direction.

↘Red arrows and white labels are guide annotations ＋ Enlarge with callouts

1. 1
   Check After Ctrl+Shift+A, all six clips on every track are selected and their frames are highlighted.
2. 2
   Check With only the heading clip selected, the arrow keys move the heading in the preview in that direction.

Ctrl+A

Selects every clip on the same track as the selected clip.

Ctrl+Shift+A

Selects every clip on all tracks.

Shift+→

Selects every clip that starts after the playhead. Clips that span the playhead are not included.

← → ↑ ↓

Moves the on-screen position of the selected clip by 1 px.

Ctrl+← → ↑ ↓

Moves the on-screen position of the selected clip by 10 px.

Check We confirmed the arrow-key movement in the Position X / Y fields on the right: one press of → changed X from -290 to -289, and Ctrl+→ changed it by 10. One press of ↓ changed Y from -90 to -89, and Ctrl+↑ reduced it by 10. These four cases are the ones we read from the numbers; ← alone and ↑ alone were not recorded in this demonstration.

Finally, the keys for adding speech and text. The figure shows a two-line sentence being typed in the input field at the bottom.

1. 1Type in the input field and press Shift+Enter where you want a line break. Here the break comes after the first phrase.

↘Red arrows and white labels are guide annotations ＋ Enlarge with callouts

1. 1
   Enter Type in the input field and press Shift+Enter where you want a line break. Here the break comes after the first phrase.

Enter

(In the input field at the bottom) Adds the typed sentence as a speech clip.

Shift+Enter

(In the input field at the bottom) Inserts a line break without adding.

T

(With the timeline active) Adds a text clip starting at the playhead.

Check When you finish typing and press Enter, the sentence is added to the timeline as a speech clip. In this demonstration the playhead then moved to the end of that sentence.