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 holds dedicated tools you switch between as you work, grouped by purpose:
Track Sync is not in the toolbar. It belongs with the track controls, so it sits with the master track buttons above the track headers (see Trimming).
Format, colour space, quality, and Timeline settings sit on the timeline header, and the tool groups collapse into drop-downs when space is tight.
Two settings in Timeline settings decide how much of the header you see:
The Effects and Audio timelines keep their edit tools off whichever way you set this, though trimming, dragging and selecting still work on them.
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 state has no say either - track lock is the only thing that keeps a track out. Grouped tracks always cut as one, whichever modifier you hold, so a stereo pair is never cut down the middle.
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:
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).
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 clicked track only |
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 state, 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.
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).
The Clean Up tool tidies a sequence with two operations:
Both respect a marked region if one is present, and are aware of track enable/disable states 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:
Timeline settings is organised across Appearance, Behaviour and Actions tabs. Settings worth knowing about include:
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.
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.
Move quickly through a sequence by jumping rather than scrubbing:
These are far faster than dragging when you're navigating a long cut.
Lightworks includes a strong set of commands for finding material and relationships in a sequence:
For wholesale media replacement and reconnection, the Conform and Relink tools work at the sequence level (see Media management).