Glossary

Editing has a vocabulary of its own, and Lightworks adds a few terms with long heritage. This glossary covers the words used throughout this guide.

Lightworks terms

• Bin - a folder for organising clips, sequences, and other items within a project.
• Black - empty space on a track. A trim treats black as material, which is what lets a track stay in sync when the sequence ripples. Also called a gap.
• Clip - a video or audio clip in the project.
• Clip Link - the timeline switch that decides whether a clip travels with the clips it is linked to on other tracks, so a video clip and its associated audio select, move and delete as one, and clicking the start or end of a clip to trim it unjoins the same end of its linked clips too. On by default.
• Collection - a saved grouping of bins and items in the Content Manager.
• Content Manager - the panel for browsing and organising everything in the project.
• Cue - a marker placed on a clip or sequence, optionally with a comment.
• Cut point - the join between two clips on a track. To trim, you unjoin the start or end of a clip, or the cut between two clips, adjust it, and rejoin it.
• Drag In Black - trimming without rippling, so shortening a clip leaves black in its place and lengthening one overwrites the black beside it. Hold Cmd/Ctrl as you click the start or end of a clip to do it for one trim, or turn Sync off, with the default Sync Off Action, to make it the default behaviour.
• Insert Black - inserting black at the start or end of a clip: hold Shift and drag. Every track being kept in sync gets black at the same point. Reassignable on the Actions tab of Timeline Settings.
• Insert Gap - five seconds of black put in at the playhead, from Insert gap on the right-click menu of a clip or black segment, or the Insert Gap command once you give it a key. The targeted tracks take the gap and the others get black too, so nothing falls out of sync.
• Link / Unlink - the commands that join the selected clips into one linked group, or separate them again.
• Linked clips - the remembered relationship between clips that makes them behave as one. Created automatically when you lay material into a sequence, and set by hand with Link and Unlink. Shown by a chain icon on the clip.
• Log - the record of a clip in the project (its name, marks, metadata), as distinct from the media file it references.
• Marked region - the region between the in and out marks on a clip or sequence.
• Project space - a location holding projects; can be local or shared on a network.
• Proxy - a lightweight copy of a clip used for smooth playback; originals are used for export.
• Segment - an individual element on a track: a piece of video, audio, subtitle or black. A video clip and its audio are separate segments on separate tracks.
• Sequence - the edit that is loaded onto the timeline. Other applications call this a timeline or edit.
• Subclip - a new clip that references a section of an existing clip.
• Sync - the timeline toolbar switch that decides whether trimming the start or end of a clip ripples the sequence, keeping the other tracks in sync. With Sync off, nothing else moves. On by default; toggle it with the key above Tab.
• Sync clip - video and audio (or several angles) locked together to play as one item.
• Targeted track - a track whose Track Target button is lit, so edits and keyboard trims are aimed at it. With nothing targeted, edits use every track, and a trim key trims the top clip under the playhead and its audio. During a trim, the tracks in the trim are lit. Other tracks are not out of the edit - they are still kept in sync.
• Timeline - the panel holding the tracks and their controls. The edit loaded into it is the sequence.
• Track Sync - keeping the other tracks in step when a trim or insert ripples the sequence. Every unlocked track that is not part of the edit is kept in sync; lock a track, or Alt+click a Track Target, to leave tracks behind. The amber Track Sync strip in each track header shows which tracks will be kept in sync.
• Track Target - the V1 / A1 button down the left of each track header. With none lit - the default - edits use every track, and a trim key trims the top clip under the playhead and its audio, as a click would. Light one or more to target those tracks, and edits and trims use the targeted tracks only.

Editing terms

• Cut - an instant change from one shot to the next; also the act of splitting a clip.
• Dissolve - a transition that blends one shot into the next.
• Drift - a track left out of sync by a trim: a locked track, a track you chose to leave behind, or one that ran out of media to give up to stay in step.
• Split - adding a cut without removing anything, making two clips out of one. The half after the cut becomes a clip in its own right, so it is no longer linked to what the original was linked to.
• Drop Zone - the strip above the video tracks and below the audio tracks; material dropped there lands on new tracks created for it.
• Handle - spare frames beyond a clip's in or out point, needed for trims and transitions.
• Unjoin - to open the start or end of a clip, or the cut between two clips, so it can be trimmed. The term comes from film editing: you are literally pulling apart the join between two pieces of film. An unjoined start, end or cut curls; click it again, or press Tab, to rejoin it. White brackets preview what a click will unjoin, and yellow brackets show a click-and-drag trim as you make it.
• Move Cut - a trim where both sides of a cut move together, so the cut point shifts without changing the sequence length. Other editing systems often call this a rolling cut. U on the keyboard.
• In / out points - marks defining where a clip's use begins and ends.
• Insert - an edit that pushes existing material later to make room for the new.
• J-cut / L-cut - split edits where the audio leads or lags its video.
• Replace - an edit that overwrites what's on the timeline without moving anything.
• Ripple - the knock-on movement of later material when an edit changes duration.
• Slip / slide - a slip changes which frames a clip shows without moving it on the timeline. A slide moves a clip along between its neighbours without changing which frames it shows, so the clips either side get longer or shorter. Neither changes the length of the sequence.
• Trim - adjusting an edit point - lengthening or shortening clips at a cut.

Technical terms

• Bitrate - the amount of data per second in an encoded file; the main quality/size trade-off.
• Codec - the method used to encode video or audio (H.264, ProRes, DNx).
• Container / wrapper - the file format holding encoded streams (MP4, MOV, MXF).
• EDL / AAF / XML - interchange formats that describe an edit for other systems.
• Frame rate - frames per second; the project's rate is set at creation.
• Keyframe - a recorded parameter value at a specific frame; the basis of animation.
• LUT - a lookup table that transforms colour, often for camera log footage.
• Timecode - the time-based address of every frame in a clip or sequence.
• VFR - variable frame rate, common in phone recordings; corrected on import to keep sync.
• Waveform - the visual representation of audio loudness over time.

Related articles

• Welcome to Lightworks
• Basic editing
• Media formats and technical settings
• Troubleshooting common problems