Viewing a project’s files

The Project Assets panel lets you preview source material for your projects. Select the Expert view and then click Project Assets.

You can view the contents of a project using the list view or the grid view. Use the panel options menu to switch between the views.

The grid view displays a snapshot of the video you imported into the project. The Project Assets panel indicates files that you use in the Expert view timeline with a green icon. Use the Search box to search for files within the panel.

Display and arrange media items

In the Project Assets panel, you can display items in the List view. The List view lets you view more items simultaneously, search, and sort items by properties such as media type and duration.

• To sort items in List view, click the column heading by which you want to sort the items. (For example, click Media Type to sort items by type.) If folders are expanded, items sort from the top level and down the Project Assets panel hierarchy. To reverse the sort order, click the column heading again.
• To see more of the column headings in List view, drag the right side of the Project Assets panel to the right. Alternatively, drag the scroll bar at the bottom of the panel to the right.

Organize clips in folders

The Project Assets panel can include folders into which you can organize project contents. Folders can contain media files or subfolders. Consider using folders to organize media types, such as still images, audio files, and video clips.

Rename a source file in a project

• To rename a clip, select it, choose Clip > Rename, type the new name, and press Enter. (The change affects only references used in the project; the name of the original source file remains the same in the Project workspace and on your computer.)
• To rename an original source file, close Adobe Premiere Elements before you rename it. The next time you open the project, Adobe Premiere Elements asks you to locate the file.

  Tip: You can also rename a selected clip by clicking its name once to select the text, typing the new name, and pressing Enter.

Find an item in a project

Locate missing files for a project

Premiere Elements doesn’t store original source files in a project—it references the name and location of each source file when you import it. If you later move, rename, or delete a source file from your computer, the Where Is The File dialog box opens when you next open the project.

In addition to source files, a project also references preview files. Preview files allow you to preview effects in real time without having to render them—a process that can take hours. Preview files can be re‑created if necessary.

Delete a clip

Because Adobe Premiere Elements doesn’t store media files in the project, deleting a clip from a project removes all instances from a movie. However, Adobe Premiere Elements does not delete the clip’s source file from your computer. To conserve disk space, delete the source file.

To delete a media file from the Project workspace, do one of the following:

• Select the file in the panel and click the Delete icon.
• Right-click/ctrl-click it in the Expert view timeline, and choose Delete. You can also delete by selecting the file and pressing the Delete key. The file is deleted from the Elements Organizer, but it is not deleted from your hard disk.

  Tip: To identify unused items in a project, see the Video Usage and Audio Usage columns in List view. To display these columns, scroll to the right. A green check mark (list view) and a green dot (grid view) indicates that the asset is being used in the project.