Windows Movie Maker places you in the director's chair.
The Collections panel in Windows Movie Maker can turn your computer into a semi-professional video editing system. This free program, that comes with Vista and Windows XP, lets users combine video clips, arrange them in any order and produce a single movie they can share or upload to the Web. If you have a collection of old home movies or favorite videos from the Internet, drag a few of them into the program's Collections panel, and combine them into an entertaining movie.
Instructions
Load Video Clips
1. Open Windows Movie Maker. Click "View," then click "Collections." The Collections window opens. This window allows you to create and manage collections of videos.
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2. Press "CTRL" and "T." A horizontal panel opens at the bottom of the program window. This panel displays a "Timeline" or a "Storyboard." Both panels help you combine and arrange video clips.
3. Click the "Show Storyboard" button near the top of that panel" if you see that button. If you do not see the "Show Storyboard" button, the panel is already in Storyboard mode. The Storyboard contains boxes that run from left to right across the panel. Each box can hold one video clip. By adding clips to these boxes and arranging them, you can create a single movie.
4. Click one of the names in the Collections panel. An image thumbnail appears in a panel to the right of the Collections panel. This thumbnail contains a scene from one of the scenes in the selected video. These thumbnails help you identify video files and clips quickly when you work on many at one time.
5. Drag the thumbnail to the first box in the Storyboard.
6. Return to the Collections panel, and click another video name. Its thumbnail image will appear to the right of the Collection panel. Drag that thumbnail to the second box on the Storyboard.
7. Drag the third video to the Storyboard using the same process. When finished, the Storyboard will contain three video clips appearing in three boxes.
8. Press your "Spacebar." The program plays the movie consisting of the three combined video clips. Press the "Spacebar" to pause the movie at any time.
Arrange Video Clips
9. Click the video in the first box on the Storyboard, hold down your left mouse button and drag the video thumbnail to the right of the second video.
10. Release the mouse button. The program rearranges the movie and places the first video in its new location after the second video. Drag and drop video clips this way to sequence them in any order you like.
11. Press the "Spacebar." Windows Movie Maker plays the movie in the order you arranged the clips. Press the "Spacebar" to pause the movie, and then press "CTRL" and "P." A wizard will guide you through the process of saving your movie.
Tags: Collections panel, Movie Maker, video clips, Windows Movie, Windows Movie Maker, Press Spacebar, clips Press