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Previewing a media file

You may preview files before placing them in your project. The Explorer window has a mini-transport bar

with Play, Stop, and Auto Preview buttons (). When you preview a file, its stream is sent to the Mixer window’s preview bus (for audio files) or to the Video Preview window (for video files).

Tip: You can use the same mini-transport bar buttons in the Project Media window to preview files in the Project Media list.

1.Select a file in the Explorer window.

2.Click the Play button ( ) to listen to the file.

3.Click the Stop button ( ) or select a different file to stop previewing the file.

Tip: To automatically preview selected files, click the Auto

Preview button ( ) on the Explorer window’s transport bar.

Using the Project Media window

Media files, both video and audio, tend to be the largest files on your hard drive. It is therefore not always easy to move them around and impractical to store multiple copies of these files. You can add media files to the Project Media window to organize them before any editing begins. Once you begin working on a project, all files you add to the timeline are automatically included in the Project Media list. From the View menu, choose Project Media to open this window if it is not already visible.

Using Project Media views

You can control the information that is displayed in the Project Media window by clicking the Views button

() and selecting a view. The purpose of each view is explained below.

 

View

Description

 

List

Displays a simple listing of the file name of each file in the Project Media window.

 

 

Detailed

Displays all the properties for each file. The information is presented in a table format. You can

 

 

 

customize the information displayed:

 

 

 

Reorder columns (fields) by dragging the column label to a new position.

 

 

 

Hide a column by dragging the column label off of the Project Media window. To display a hidden

 

 

 

column, right-click the Project Media window, choose View from the shortcut menu, and choose

 

 

 

the column name from the submenu.

 

 

 

Sort the files in the Project Media list according to a category by clicking the column label for that

 

 

 

category.

 

 

 

Use the Comments field to add your own annotations to a file’s entry in the Project Media list.

 

 

 

Double-click the field to enter text. This information is saved with the project and is not saved

 

 

 

with the media file itself.

 

 

Thumbnail

Displays the first frame of a video file.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHP. 2

 

GETTING STARTED