Find, select, and group clips in a sequence

You can see whether any clip in the Project panel has been used in a project, the number of uses, and the location of each use, with the Clip Usage menu. The Clip Usage triangle appears next to the thumbnail viewer only if the selected clips has been used in a sequence.

When you want to perform an action that affects a clip as a whole, such as applying an effect, deleting a clip, or moving a clip in time, first select the clip in a Timeline panel. The Tools panel contains selection tools that can handle various selection tasks.

Do any of the following:

• To select a single clip, use the Selection tool and click a clip in a Timeline panel.

• To select only the audio or video portion of a clip, use the Selection tool and Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) that portion.

• To select multiple clips by clicking, use the Selection tool and Shift-click each clip you want to select. (Shift-click a selected clip to deselect it.)

• To select a range of clips, click in an empty area of the sequence under the time ruler, and then drag a rectangle (marquee selection) that includes any part of the clips you want to select.

• To add or subtract a range of clips in the current selection, Shift-drag a marquee around clips. Shift-dragging a marquee that includes deselected clips adds them to the current selection. Shift-dragging a marquee that includes selected clips deselects them.

• To select all clips that exist on and after a certain time on one track, select the Track Select tool and click the clip at the beginning of the time span you want to select. Shift-click with the tool to select clips in all tracks.

• To select clips in a track independently of its linked video or audio, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) using the Track Select tool .

• In Premiere Pro, use the Select Next Clip or Select Previous Clip commands to select clips on targeted tracks at the current location of the playhead. These keyboard driven commands must be set in the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog box prior to using them.

• In Premiere Pro, use the Select In to Out command to select clips based on In and Out points on targeted tracks. This keyboard driven command must be set in the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog box prior to using it.

You can disable a clip while you try out a different editing idea, or to shorten processing time when working on a complex project. Disabled clips do not appear in the Program Monitor or in a preview or video file that you export. As long as you have not locked the track containing a disabled clip, you can still make changes to it. If you want to disable all clips on the same track, exclude the entire track instead. See Targeting tracks.

You can group multiple clips so that you can move, disable, copy, or delete them together. Both audio and video tracks of a linked clip are included when you group it with other clips.

You can’t apply clip-based commands, such as the Speed command, or effects to the group, though you can select individual clips in the group and apply effects.

You can trim the exterior edges of the group (the head of the first clip in a group or the tail of the last clip), but you can’t trim any of the interior In and Out points.

• To group clips, select multiple clips, and choose Clip > Group.
• To ungroup clips, select a group clip, and choose Clip > Ungroup.
• To select one or more clips in a group of clips, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) a single clip in a group. Shift+Alt-click (Windows) or Shift+Option-click (Mac OS) to select additional clips in a group.

To make it easier to align clips with one another or with particular points in time, you can activate the snap feature. With Snap on, when you move a clip, it automatically aligns with, or snaps to, the edge of another clip, a marker, the start or end of the time ruler, or the playhead. When you drag a portion of a clip vertically into another track, it snaps to its original time location in the new track. Snapping also helps to ensure you don’t inadvertently perform an insert or overwrite edit when dragging. As you drag clips, a vertical line with arrows appears and indicates when clips are aligned.