Operation Manual

Adobe Premiere Elements 9 guide

Trimming clips

You can build movies in several ways, but all of them involve selecting the portions of source clips you want to

include. You rarely use an entire clip. In and Out points define the first and last frames you want to use from a clip

(Figure 6). Setting In and Out points does not actually delete frames from the hard drive but instead isolates the

portion of the clip you want included in the movie. In a manner of speaking, In and Out points open a window over

the clip, showing only the part you select. You can move the points as needed to regain any frames you might have

trimmed off.

Figure 6 In and Out points serve as a window over a clip

You always trim from either end of a clip. To trim frames from the middle of a clip, you must first split the clip

(which creates two instances of the original clip) and then trim the unwanted frames from the end of the first new

clip or the beginning of the second. You can trim a clip by clicking the Set In and Set Out buttons in the Preview

window, by dragging handles in the Monitor panel while viewing the Sceneline, or by dragging the ends of the clip

in the Timeline.

Previewing and trimming in the Preview window

You can preview any clip and set new In and Out points for it before arranging it with others in the My Project

panel. You might, for example, preview your clips to determine their quality and trim off their unusable parts before

starting to arrange them. You can preview and trim clips in the Preview window (Figure 7).

Trimming a clip in the Preview window sets its In and Out points for all subsequent instances placed in the My

Project panel. It does not change the In and Out points of instances of the clip already in the My Project panel before

the trimming.

Figure 7 Preview window

In point

Out point

Trimmed frames

Current-time

indicator

Zoom control

In point

Current time

Set Out

point

Set In point

Playback

controls

Out point

Trimmed

frames

Trimmed frames