How to Trim Videos in Windows Movie Maker [3 Ways]

Liza Brown

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Windows Movie Maker makes it easy to remove unwanted frames at the beginning or ending from video footage shot by your camera or smartphone. You can now shoot as much footage as possible, and then use Movie Maker to delete unwanted parts and keep just the best moment of a video clip in your movie. In this article, we will show you how to trim and edit videos in Windows Movie Maker with 3 simple ways.

• Part 1: Trim Videos with Windows Movie Maker in 3 Ways
• Part 2: Trim Large Video Clips with WMM Alternative

Trimming Video in Windows Movie Maker [3 Ways]

Trimming video clips in Windows Movie Maker is easy, and I will show you 3 different ways. After launching Windows Movie Maker, drag the clip that you want to trim into the right timeline panel. Now, you can trim the video clip.

Method 1. Use Trim Tool in Edit tab to trim video

With Windows Movie Maker's trimming options you are able to manipulate your footage and edit it so that your movie looks exactly how you want it to. One of the easiest ways to do this is by using the trim tool.

Using this tool you can shave off parts from the beginning or ending of your footage, so that you only have the chunk of video that you need. One thing to remember is that when you trim footage, your original file is not altered at all, so if you end up not liking what you are left with you can re-import the file and start from scratch with the whole file.

Step 1: Select Trim Tool

Click the clip you want to trim in the timeline, and then click the Trim tool in the Edit tab to enter the trim panel. And then follow which ever of the following step suits where you would like to trim.

Step 2: Set up New Start Point and End Point

You can set the Start point and End point of the starting and ending point by entering the exact time of trimming.

Or, you can preview the video clip and then drag the trimming slider underneath the Preview box to determine the trimming duration, and then click Set Start Point to set the new start point, and Set end point to set the end point.

Step 3: Save Trim

After getting the trimmed starting and ending points, click Save trim button in the upper-right corner to save the trimmed video as a new clip. And the trimmed video clip will be loaded in the timeline automatically. You can now save the newly trimmed video to your computer or upload to YouTube by clickingSave Movie option under Home tab.

Want to save the video in a smaller size? Check How to Reduce Video Size in Windows Movie Maker.

Method 2. Set Start Point and End Point in Timeline to trim quickly on Winows Movie Maker

Step 1: Preview the video in the Preview box and locate the specific frame of the video that you want to make the starting point. You can click the Previous Frame or Next Frame button to target it frame by frame.

Step 2: Right click the clip in the timeline when the specific frame is located at previewing, and then select Set Start Point to make this frame as a new start point of the trimmed video. Repeat the same to set the end point of the video by click Set End Point in the context menu.

Step 3: Preview the trimmed video and when you are sure, save the video by clicking Save Movie option on the main menu.

Using this method to trim video, you can trim away the unwanted part whenever it is at the beginning or the ending of the clip or it is located in the middle of the clip.

Method 3. Trim video after Spliting in Windows Movie Maker

One of the other ways you can trim the beginning or the ending of your footage in Windows Movie Maker is by using the programs split feature.

To do this you will drag the vertical line that represents your video's starting point to where you want your new starting point to be. Once you have this new location selected, you will click the Split feature found at the top of your window. This function will then split your video into two separate parts on either side of the vertical line.

From here, you can delete the portion of the footage you no longer with to use by right clicking it and selecting the Remove function.

Use Windows Movie Maker Alternative to Trim Video Clips

While it is true that Windows Movie Maker has been one of the cornerstones of video editing for non-professionals and beginners since 2001, it is not true that this makes it the best option for everyone to use. In fact, there are a few fantastic alternatives out there that not only do exactly what Windows Movie Maker is capable of doing, but can do a little bit more, and all while making the process as easy and stress free as possible.

If you are looking for an alternative to Windows Movie Maker, we recommend you Wondershare Filmora. Filmora allows you trim video frame by frame and do some basic video editing such as add music sound from the built-in Music library, add filters, overlays and transitions, as well as edit audio with Audio Mixer, Audio Equalizer and Audio De-noise. Filmora is easy to use, but you can use it to make a professional looking video with Color Correction, Chroma keying, and Picture-in-Picture features.

In Filmora, you can trim out the unwanted parts at the beginning or the end of the video clip by dragging the trimming slider . To trim the unwanted parts which are located in the middle of the clip, you can split the video first and then remove the unwanted parts by clicking the Delete icon in the toolbar.

For the detailed information on trimming videos in Filmora, you can check our guide of How to Trim Video Clips. If you want to know the detailed steps of splitting videos into smaller parts, you can check our guide of How to Split Large video into Small Parts.

Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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