Top 10 iMovie Tips You Should Know

Shanoon Cox

Oct 09, 2024• Proven solutions

iMovie provides a wonderful platform for video editing, where a number of video clips can be joined together so easily in order to create something very interesting. It is much easier to navigate between different scenes, edit video clips and save results directly to the digital format without making any changes in the videotape.

There are lots of things that iMovie offers to beginners as well as professionals with its easy-to-use interface, and you will never face any quality loss for your end results even after adding lots of transitions, effects, and changes. Due to so many incredible features, iMovie is considered one of the best applications sold by Apple, but the sad part is that it works only for iOS and Mac devices.

• Part 1: iMovie Alternative for Windows
• Part 2: iMovie Tips You Should Know on Mac
• Part 3: iMovie Tips for Mobile Editing

Part 1: iMovie Alternative for Windows

Windows users might be definitely searching for an alternative to iMovie, as this software tool works only on Mac and iOS devices. You will be happy to know that Wondershare Filmora can serve you with all incredible features the same as iMovie, and it works perfectly in a Windows environment.

This latest software tool helps users with easy video editing tricks and the easy-to-use interface serves with quality editing to beginners as well as professionals.

Related: Best iMovie Alternatives for Mac

From the above video we can know, apart from basic video editing features, such as trimming, merging, splitting, cutting, and cropping, Filmora also provides some advanced video editing features, so you can make a green screen effect, reverse your video clip, stabilize your video footage and more. Download Filmora now and figure out more features.

Learn More: How to Use iMovie Green Screen Effect

Part 2: iMovie Tips You Should Know on Mac

If you are new to the iMovie platform, then there are lots of editing tricks and tips to learn for you in order to achieve Hollywood-style editing results. There are so many keyboard shortcuts that you can use to get faster results. A few of these are discussed below.

5 Shortcuts You Should Know When Using iMovie on Mac

• Undo can be done by simply pressing Command + Z.
• For splitting the video clips over playhead prefer to use Command + B.
• The Up-Down arrows can help you to reach the ending and starting portion of each video clip.
• L can be used to speed up any track.
• The use of Backslash will help users to play videos directly from the initial point.

Top 10 Useful Tips for iMovie on Mac

1. Fade In

First of all, select the audio clip and then press A for opening an audio inspector, choose fade in manual and then drag your slider to the desired fade in location, hit Done.

Learn More: How to Fade Music and Audio in iMovie

2. Zoom In

Select the re-timed video clip and then use the crop icon to crop the selected portion. Finally, drag this cropped window on the image and press Done.

Learn More: How to Zoom in/out Videos in iMovie

3. Slow Down

Simply go to the desired time frame and then right-click over it, from the drop-down menu choose Split Clip. On the second portion of the split clip, you need to press I and an inspector will open. Now set your desired speed.

Learn More: How to Speed Up and Slow Down Video Clips in iMovie

4. Import Assets

Just create a new project using the widescreen type aspect ratio; then go to file from the top left corner, import your image from any folder.

5. Fill the Sound Gap

In case if you observe any sound gap in your project then select your purple audio clip, go to edit and copy, use edit and paste to fill the gap.

6. Integrate with Facebook

It is possible to export videos directly to social media platforms; just go to iPhoto, then Accounts, and finally login to your Facebook account. You will now be able to select your collection, and it also helps to sync images with the iLife Photo Browser.

7. Analyze Video

If you want to analyze your recently created video project then go to file on the top bar, select Analyze Video from the drop-down menu and finally go to Stabilization and People.

8. Swap Events

It is possible to swap different video clips over the timeline, all that you need to do is use the shift button that is available on the left-most corner of the middle toolbar, it allows users to swap events with just a single click.

9. Fast Timeline Switching

It helps to provide a few more traditional and user-friendly editing options; for this, you will find the switch button on the horizontal toolbar in the top right corner, it can help you to go to show advanced tools over the iMovie platform, and finally, you need to go to preferences for performing any desired option.

10. iMovie Drop Box

With this classic drop box feature, you can easily import several files at a time on a software timeline. To use this feature you need to download a drop box on your device and then all media files can be easily placed inside it.

Related:

• How to Add Voiceover in iMovie
• How to Add Video Effects in iMovie

Part 3: iMovie Tips for Mobile Editing

The most powerful mobile editor of Apple allows users to create wonders with creative video editing on portable devices too. For all iPhone and iPad users, the following iMovie tips will be very helpful.

1. Fast Preview

From your media library, you can easily select any video by tapping over it, holding it, and then dragging this clip to the timeline in order to have a quick preview.

2. Jump Between Start and End Position

It is possible to bring playhead very easily to any position over a video clip, even if you have a large project it is much easier to go to beginning and end points. For moving towards the beginning, simply tap and then hold the left-hand side of your interface, and in order to go to the end of the video sequence, just tap and then hold the right-hand side.

3. Gesture-based Rotation

This wonderful feature provides the user’s ability to rotate any video clip by twisting over the screen with their two fingers. The rotations can be performed clockwise as well as in an anti-clockwise direction with a simple finger twist.

4. Zooming for Reframe

It is possible to reframe any video clip by just zooming it in. The magnifying glass available on the viewer window will help you to perform such tasks with just two fingers.

5. Freeze Your Frames

Users can easily freeze any video frame at any desired point by just swiping in an upward direction. It serves with frame freezing for 2 seconds.

Learn More:

• Top 5 iMovie Alternatives for iPad
• Top 5 iMovie Alternatives for iPhone
• Top 10 Best Video Editors for iPad

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox