How to Edit Clips on the PowerDirector Timeline

Once your clips are on the timeline, most of your editing comes down to a handful of moves: shifting clips around, splitting and trimming them, and cleaning up the gaps. Here are the core timeline edits in PowerDirector, with the shortcuts that make them faster.

To reposition a clip, click and hold it, then drag it to where you want it on the track.

Move the playhead to the point where you want to cut, then click Split in the toolbar or press Ctrl + T. The clip becomes two separate segments.

Made a mistake? Press Ctrl + Z to undo and Ctrl + Y to redo. You can also use the left and right arrows in the toolbar.

Select the clip, then click the trash icon in the timeline toolbar or press Delete on your keyboard.

Right-click a clip and choose Copy (or Ctrl + C). Move to where you want it, then Paste (or Ctrl + V) to drop in a duplicate.

To change a clip's length, move your mouse to its edge until the cursor changes, then drag to extend or shorten it. A menu offers three ways to trim: Trim Only leaves a gap where you trimmed, Trim and Move Clips pulls the rest of that track forward to close the gap, and Trim and Move All Clips pulls everything after it on the timeline forward. Pick the one that fits what you need.

Auto Ripple Editing handles those gaps for you. With it on, trimming or deleting a clip automatically closes the gap and keeps clips on lower tracks aligned, so you don't have to pick a trim option every time. The button sits at the top-left of the timeline and turns blue when it's on, white when it's off.

Don't see the button? Go to Preferences > Editing and tick Enable auto ripple editing for remove/trim. If it still doesn't show, update PowerDirector to the latest version.

When you add a video clip, its sound sits on the matching audio track. To edit them separately, right-click the clip and choose Link/Unlink Video and Audio. Now you can trim or delete the audio on its own.

To move several clips as one, select them all, right-click, and choose Group Clips. They now move together as a single unit. To split them back apart, right-click and choose Ungroup Clips.

Hold Ctrl and move your mouse to the clip's edge. When the cursor becomes a clock, drag forward to speed the clip up or backward to slow it down, handy for matching the rhythm of your music.

Each clip has a thin white line across it. On a video or image, drag that line up or down to change opacity. On an audio clip, the same drag adjusts volume.