Enable snapping

From the Options menu, choose Enable Snapping to turn snapping on or off in the main timeline and in the Trimmer window.

Snapping helps you align items along the timeline when you move events, trim events, or work with markers and regions.

As you drag items along the timeline or in the Trimmer window, an indicator is displayed to show snap points. When you snap to an event, the snap indicator is displayed in the appropriate track. If you snap to the cursor, a marker/region, time selection, or the grid, the snap indicator is displayed across the height of the timeline:

TIP

  • When you drag a group of selected events, the first and last event will snap to other snap points on the timeline. If the leftmost event has an event snap offset established, the offset will be used as the left snap point.

  • When snapping is enabled, you can hold the Shift key to temporarily override snapping.

  • When snapping is not enabled, you can hold the Shift key to temporarily enable snapping.

  • You can edit snap indicator colors on the Display tab of the Preferences dialog. For more information, see Preferences - Display Tab

  • If you drag to a snap point that does not occur on a frame boundary when Quantize to Frames is enabled, the snap indicator is displayed as a dashed line to indicate that the snap point will be quantized to the nearest frame boundary:

    For more information, see Quantize to frames

Turning snapping on or off

From the Options menu, choose Enable Snapping to turn snapping on or off. When snapping is enabled, events will snap to the following points:

  • Other events' edges

  • The cursor

  • Time selection edges

  • The first and last event edges (when dragging multiple events)

You can also choose to snap events to grid lines or to markers.

Snapping to the grid

When snapping is enabled, you can also choose to have elements in the timeline snap to the vertical grid lines in the timeline.

From the Options menu, choose Snap to Grid (or press Ctrl+F8) to toggle snapping to grid lines.

TIP To change the spacing of the grid, choose Grid Spacing from the Options menu and choose a setting from the submenu.

Snapping to markers

When snapping is enabled, you can also choose to have elements in the timeline snap to markers in the timeline.

From the Options menu, choose Snap to Markers (or press Shift+F8) to toggle snapping for all marker types:

  • Markers

  • Regions

  • CD track regions

  • CD index markers

  • Command markers

If the Event Media Markers command is selected on the View menu, you can also use media markers as snap points when you click in an event or edge-trim an event. For more information, see Using media markers and regions

NOTE If a media file's frame rate does not match your project frame rate, you will not be able to snap to media markers (or other snap points that do not occur on a frame boundary) when Quantize to Frames is selected on the Options menu. For more information, see Quantize to frames

Snapping to events on other tracks

When snapping is enabled, you can also choose to have elements in the timeline snap to the ends of events on other tracks.

From the Options menu, choose Snap to All Events (or press Ctrl+Shift+F8) to toggle snapping to event edges across tracks.

Setting an event snap offset

Each event has a snap offset flag that you can move along the event's length to fine-tune where snapping will occur.

To adjust the flag, drag the white triangle in the lower-left corner of the event. A ToolTip displays the amount of offset.