Beyond editing and trimming, the timeline has a set of dedicated tools and commands that speed up day-to-day work: tools for cutting, selecting, and keyframing, plus settings, snapping, markers, and powerful ways to find your way around a sequence.
The timeline toolbar and tools
The timeline toolbar holds dedicated tools you switch between as you work, grouped by purpose:
- Edit tools - Marks (with options), then Insert, Replace, Remove, Delete and Split, then the Cut and Selection tools. Dotted separators divide the group into marking, editing and cursor tools.
- Trim - Trim (with options) and Sync. Sync lights in amber when it is on, matching the trim playhead and the Track Sync strips.
- Behaviours - Clip Link and Snapping.
- Tools side menu - Search, New, Clean Up, Voiceover, Conform, Render, and Export, behind a toggle.
Sync decides whether a trim ripples. With Sync on, everything after the trim moves and the other tracks stay in sync; with Sync off, nothing else moves (see Trimming).
Format, colour space, quality, and Settings sit on the timeline header, and the tool groups collapse into drop-downs when space is tight. The Settings button carries a label like the tools beside it.
Showing and hiding the tools
Two settings in Timeline settings decide how much of the header you see:
- Show Edit Tools turns the edit tools off altogether - Marks, Insert, Replace, Remove, Delete, Split, the Cut and Selection tools and the Trim drop-down - leaving the behaviours, the timecodes and the Tools side menu. It is on by default in both Fixed and Flexible layouts, and is remembered separately for each. Where a window is too narrow for the full set, the groups collapse into drop-downs rather than disappearing.
- Show Tool Labels names each tool on its button, and is on by default so the tools name themselves. Turn it off to keep the header compact, and the tools show tooltips instead. The labels also give the timecode readouts more room and show what each one is displaying.
The Effects and Audio timelines keep their edit tools off whichever way you set this, though trimming, dragging and selecting still work on them.
Cut tool
With the Cut tool active, click on clips to split them.
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Click | Cut the clicked clip, and the clips it is linked to when Clip Link is on |
Alt+click |
Invert Clip Link for that click |
Shift+click |
Cut every clip at that position, on every unlocked track |
The Cut tool cuts what you point at. Adding a cut moves nothing, so Track Sync has no bearing on it, and track targets have no say either - track lock is the only thing that prevents a track from being cut. Grouped tracks (e.g. stereo pairs) always cut as one, whichever modifier you hold.
The playhead follows the tool as you hover, showing you the first frame of the new clip your cut would create. Two settings control it, both on the Behaviour tab of Timeline settings:
- Show Playhead With Cut Tool - on by default. Turn it off to leave the playhead where it is.
- Show Topmost Video With Cut Tool - off by default, so the preview shows the track you are over and hides the tracks above it while you hover. Turn it on to always preview the topmost video track.
Note: Splitting a clip splits its clip link group. The half after the cut becomes a clip in its own right; the half before it keeps the original links. Merge Redundant Cuts puts it back together (see Selecting and moving material).
Selection tool
The Selection tool selects and repositions blocks of the sequence.
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Click | Select the clicked clip and everything after it |
Shift+click |
Select the clicked clip and everything before it |
Alt+click |
Restrict either of the above to the track of the clip you clicked, and its grouped tracks |
Ctrl/Cmd+click |
Toggle individual clips in or out of the selection |
The tool takes a block of the sequence, so it spans every unlocked track including subtitle tracks, and Alt is what narrows it to one. Track targets, Clip Link and Track Sync have no bearing on it; lock a track to keep it out. See Selecting and moving material for how selections move and nudge.
Keyframes on a track
There is no separate keyframe tool. Each track header has a Keyframes button that turns keyframe editing on for that track - video parameters on video tracks, level lines on audio tracks - and a master button above the headers switches them all (Ctrl/Cmd+2).
Turning it on does not take the track over: trimming, dragging, selecting clips and adjusting fades all still work, so you can leave keyframes on while you edit. Click the segment's text label to choose which parameter you are adjusting (see Keyframes and animation).
Clean Up
Clean Up is in the Tools side menu, between New and Voiceover - it is occasional housekeeping rather than an everyday editing action, so it sits with Search and the other utilities rather than taking a slot in the edit tools. It tidies a sequence with two operations:
- Merge Redundant Cuts - removes cuts where the material either side is continuous, rejoining clips that were split without change. This is also how you put a split clip back together, links and all.
- Delete Gaps - closes black gaps in the sequence.
Both respect a marked region if one is present, and are aware of track targets and track locks - so a clean-up touches only the tracks you intend.
Right-clicking a stretch of black offers two operations, and it is worth knowing which you want:
- Delete black segment removes that black exactly as it would remove a clip: the range goes, the timeline closes up behind it, and the other tracks stay where they are. This is how you take black out on one track alone.
- Delete gap across all tracks closes the gap right through the sequence, so it can only go as far as every unlocked track has black to give up. It is greyed out when another track holds material across the gap - not a failure, just a gap that is not free, and Delete black segment is the way through.
Insert gap, on the right-click menu of a clip or a stretch of black, does the opposite: it puts five seconds of black in at the playhead. All tracks take get a gap iinserted, so nothing falls out of sync. There is also an Insert Gap keyboard command, but is has no default keybaord shortcut until you set one.
Timeline settings
Timeline settings is organised across Appearance, Behaviour and Actions tabs. Settings worth knowing about include:
- Default track height for new tracks.
- Show Edit Tools and Show Tool Labels, described above.
- Show Track Sync Indicators - the amber per-track strips in the track headers (on by default).
- Show Clip Links - the chain icon on clips that have a link partner (on by default).
- Second timecode display.
- Trim Point Indicators (Appearance) - the white trim preview brackets that show, as you hover, what a click will unjoin. Defaults to Segments And Black; can be set to Segments Only or Off.
- Sync Off Action (Behaviour) - what turning Sync off does. It is best left on its default, No Tracks Ripple (Drag in Black). The other choice, Only Target Tracks Ripple, is there for legacy workflows.
- Click To Unjoin (Trimming) (Behaviour) - whether clicking the start or end of a clip, or the cut between two clips, unjoins it (on by default). Keyboard and Trim menu trims are unaffected.
- Timeline Resize After Trim (Behaviour) - off by default, which keeps the sequence the same length when you trim.
- Show Playhead With Cut Tool and Show Topmost Video With Cut Tool (Behaviour) - the Cut tool preview, described above.
- Clip sync loss indicators, track sync loss display, and master sync track behaviour.
- Show Audio Levels - keeps level lines visible whether or not a track has keyframes on.
- Clear Marks After Copy - copying a marked region clears the marks, as cut and delete do (on by default).
- Mouse Wheel - what a plain scroll does over the tracks: Vertical Scroll (the default), Frame Nudge, or Previous / Next Event.
- Scroll speed - Slow, Normal, or Fast, and scroll direction.
- Click and Drag - Natural Trim and Unjoin - Natural Trim (Behaviour) - whether dragging moves the picture or the cut on screen. It changes how the trim looks, not what is trimmed. Both off by default. The other trim settings are described in Trimming.
- Pre-roll and post-roll durations for preview.
- Enable Segment Nudging and snapping options.
- The Actions tab, for assigning the timeline's own mouse combinations: Insert Black (
Shift+drag by default), Drag In Black (Cmd/Ctrl+click), Copy Segments, Copy Effects and Copy Audio Levels.
Snapping
Snapping makes material align magnetically to cuts, markers, and the playhead, so clips and edits land cleanly. It works everywhere you position material: dragging clips, dropping material in from a bin or viewer, trimming, nudging, and choosing where the Cut tool cuts. A green indicator shows what you have snapped to.
Toggle it with Ctrl/Cmd+N or the Snapping button in the Behaviours group. Holding Ctrl/Cmd while you drag or cut inverts whichever state you are in - it suspends snapping while snapping is on, and snaps while it is off.
Cuts, marks and markers are snap targets by default. Enable Audio Node Snapping adds audio level nodes, and Enable Playhead Snapping makes a dragged playhead snap; both are in Timeline settings and both are off by default.
Markers and cues in the timeline
Drop cue markers on the timeline to flag moments - a beat, a sync point, a note for later. Markers carry text and colour and appear on the timeline ruler, just as they do on the scrub bar of a clip in a viewer (see Clip information and metadata). Ranged markers flag a section rather than a single frame.
Clicking a marker does different things in the two places it appears. On the timeline ruler, clicking a marker moves the playhead to it - a quick way to jump between flagged moments. To read or change a marker's details, click it on a viewer's scrub bar instead: its panel opens, and the pointer becomes a hand as you pass over the marker to show you where to click.
Markers move with your edits: insert, delete or trim ahead of a marker and it travels with the material it belongs to.
Jumping between cuts and markers
Move quickly through a sequence by jumping rather than scrubbing:
- Next / previous cut jumps the playhead between edit points.
- Next / previous marker jumps between cue markers.
These are far faster than dragging when you're navigating a long cut.
Timeline display options
- Segments show clip name and duration by default, with refined backgrounds for clarity.
- Track heights can be set per track or globally (see Sequences and timelines).
- Dual timecodes display two readouts at once, such as sequence and source time.
- Timeline Map gives a bird's-eye overview for navigating long sequences, covering video, audio and subtitle tracks.
Advanced timeline commands
Lightworks includes a strong set of commands for finding material and relationships in a sequence:
- Match frame - loads the source clip at the current timeline frame into the source viewer.
- Current clips - opens the Current collection showing every clip at the playhead.
- Clip references - a comprehensive search for where a clip is used across your timelines.
- Bins containing sequence - quickly locate which bins hold the current sequence.
For wholesale media replacement and reconnection, the Conform and Relink tools work at the sequence level (see Media management).