Working with objects

Select and zoom into objects in the preview monitor

You can click directly on an object in the preview monitor to select it. A bounding box also lets you precisely control and work with your animations.

Zooming

Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + mouse wheel to zoom into the preview monitor and edit your videos and photos even more precisely.

This function lets you customize any effect right down to the fine detail.

To reset zoom levels, simply double-click while holding down the Ctrl key (Ctrl + double-click).

Select and group objects

To edit or delete objects using the menus, you must first select them. Click on the object. Objects will change color to show that they have been selected.

Press the Shift key to select multiple objects. An even faster way of working is to click in an empty range and drag out a rectangle while holding down the mouse button. This selects all objects within the rectangle.

Any object can be combined with others to form a group. Grouping avoids the objects being accidentally moved out of sequence and lets the user edit them together. Once they are combined, clicking on one object of a group will select the entire group. To group or ungroup objects, use the buttons in the tool bar or the corresponding commands in the "Edit" menu.

NOTE You can modify the color of a selected object in its context menu in order to mark it and make it easier to locate. Right-click on an object to open the context menu, then select a color for the object.

Duplicate objects

Objects can be duplicated easily. Click on the object you want to copy while holding down the Ctrl key. This generates a copy that you can immediately drag to the desired position or cut separately.

Move objects

Hold down the mouse button to move selected objects to any tracks and positions per drag and drop. It is recommended to place objects that belong together on neighboring tracks and create separate tracks for audio and video objects. Videos that you want to overlay should usually be placed on the same track.

If the Shift key is pressed, objects can be moved from one track to another, without the time position being changed.

Object Handles

All objects can be resized using their bottom "object handles”. Move the mouse over one of the lower corners of the object until the mouse pointer becomes a double arrow. You can now shorten the object until it is the length you want.

• An object can be faded in or out with the handles to the left and right upper corners of the object. Cross-fades between different objects can be created by overlapped positioning of objects that are fading in and out. The length of the cross-fade can be adjusted with the handles.

• The transparency handle located centrally at the top of the object can be used to adjust the transparency of video and bitmap objects or the volume of audio objects.

Object handles for combined objects

Combined objects have an additional sixth handle.

• The four outer handles have the same functions as with normal objects.

• The lower middle handle controls the volume for the object's audio track.

• The upper middle handle controls the transparency of the object's video track.

Object borders

When you place the mouse pointer on a vertical object border, it will turn into a double line.

If the object doesn't border any other objects, the functionality doesn't differ from bottom handles, which means that you can stretch or compress the object. With a hard cut or a crossfade, the object transition will be moved, meaning that the object start and end of both neighboring objects will remain coupled to each other.