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Windows Movie Maker Manual
Windows Movie Maker
Getting started
Key concepts
Understanding collections, projects, and movies
Understanding source files
Understanding capture devices
About video capture devices
About audio capture devices
Connecting capture devices
About the capture buffer
About saving a movie
About Windows Media
Understanding video settings
Understanding connection speeds
Preparing to create your video
Creating and improving video
Compensating for flaws in video
Creating and improving audio
System requirements
Supported file types
Keyboard shortcuts
Understanding the Windows Movie Maker interface
About the menu bar and toolbar
About the panes
About the Movie Tasks pane
About the Collections pane
About the Contents pane
About the monitor
About the storyboard and timeline
About the storyboard
About the timeline
Using Windows Movie Maker
Capturing video
To capture the entire video from a tape in a DV camera
To capture parts of video from a tape in a DV camera
To capture video from tape in an analog camera or VCR
To capture live video
Choosing a video and audio capture device
To change the capturing device
Understanding the Configure Video Capture Device dialog box
To change camera settings
To change video settings
To change the settings for a TV tuner
Choosing a saving destination
Choosing a video setting
Choosing how to capture from a DV device
Capturing automatically from a DV device
Capturing video and audio
Using the DV controls
Troubleshooting capturing video
Previewed and captured video is distorted
Captured video file exceeds the FAT32 4-gigabyte file size limit
DV device is not responding
Taking pictures
To take a picture from video in the monitor
Importing existing digital media files
To import existing digital media files
To import a Windows Movie Maker collections file
Importing video files and clip detection
Saving a project
To save a project
To save a project with a new name
Previewing projects and clips
To preview a project
To preview a clip
To pause or stop previewing a project
To play video in full-screen mode
To change the preview monitor size
To jump to a frame
To jump to a clip in a project
Displaying clip properties
To display clip properties
Displaying project properties
To edit project properties
To display project properties in Windows Explorer
Editing projects
To switch the view of a project
To add a clip to a project
To remove a clip from a project
To clear the storyboard/timeline
To create a new project
To open a project
Zooming in and out
To zoom in or out on the timeline
To fit the timeline on the screen
To increase or decrease the size of the storyboard
Moving and copying clips
To copy a clip on the storyboard/timeline
To move a clip on the storyboard/timeline
To nudge a clip on the timeline
Undoing actions
To undo the last action
To redo the last undone action
To undo or redo multiple actions at one time
Using AutoMovie
To create an AutoMovie
Selecting an AutoMovie editing style
Entering title text
Selecting background music
Editing clips
Splitting and combining clips
To split a video or audio clip
To combine a split audio or video clip
Trimming clips
To trim a clip
To clear trim points
Creating clips
To create clips for an existing video clip
Using video transitions, video effects, and titles
Working with video transitions
To add a video transition
To change the video transition duration
To remove a video transition
Using video effects
To add a video effect
To remove a video effect
Changing video effects
To add or remove video effects
Adding titles and credits
To add a title or credit
To edit an existing title
To change the title duration
To remove a title
Choosing the title location
Entering title text
Choosing the title animation
Selecting the title font and colors
Working with audio
Narrating the timeline
To narrate the timeline
Adjusting the audio levels
To adjust audio levels
Adding audio effects
To add an audio effect
To remove an audio effect
To mute audio
Adjusting audio clip volume
To adjust the volume of an audio clip
Organizing collections and clips
To change the clip view
To arrange clips in the Contents pane
To create a collection
To delete a collection
To rename a collection
To delete a clip from a collection
To copy a clip in a collection
Working with the collections file
To back up the collections file
To restore the collections file
Saving and sending movies
Saving a movie to My computer
To save a movie on your computer
To save a movie to a Pocket PC device
To open and watch a movie in the My Videos folder
Saving your movie for local playback
Completing the Save Movie Wizard when saving to My computer
Troubleshooting saving a movie to My computer
Movie file exceeds the FAT32 4-gigabyte size limit
Not enough disk available free disk space
Movie file saving destination does not exist
Source files for movie not found
Saving a movie to a recordable CD
To save a movie to a CD-R or CD-RW
Saving a movie for playback on a recordable CD
Completing the Save Movie Wizard when saving a movie to a recordable CD
Troubleshooting saving a movie to a recordable CD
Recordable CD drive not detected
Recordable CD drive not enabled for recording CDs
Permission denied for recording CDs
No recordable CD
CD is not recordable or rewriteable
Sending a movie in e-mail
To send a movie as an attachment in an e-mail message
Saving a movie for sending in an e-mail message
Completing the Save Movie Wizard when sending a movie in an e-mail message
Troubleshooting sending a movie by e-mail
File size is too large to send in e-mail
E-mail program does not support automatic attachments
Determining and changing your default e-mail program
Sending a movie to the Web
To send a movie to a video hosting provider on the Web
Choosing a movie setting for the Web
Saving a movie for sending to the Web
Getting video hosting provider information from the Internet
Choosing and signing in to a video hosting provider
Signing in progress
Sending a movie to the Web progress
Completing the Save Movie Wizard when sending a movie to the Web
Troubleshooting sending a movie to the Web
Movie not accepted by video hosting provider
Cannot download latest video hosting provider from the Web
No video hosting providers available in your country or region
Recording a movie to a DV camera
To record a movie back to tape
To copy a movie on DV tape to an analog tape
Choosing a DV device
Cuing your tape
Recording to tape
Completing the Save Movie Wizard when recording to tape
Troubleshooting recording a movie to DV tape
No DV device found
DV camera does not support DV In
Switch DV camera to VCR mode
No tape in DV camera
DV tape is write-protected
First seconds of movie recorded to tape are missing
Entire movie may not fit on tape if recording in SP mode
Temporary movie file exceeds the FAT32 4-gigabyte size limit
Naming the saved movie file
Choosing a movie setting
Configuring options
Setting general options
To specify the default author
To specify the temporary storage location
To automatically open the last project when Windows Movie Maker starts
To change the save interval time for automatic file recovery
To automatically download uninstalled codecs
To reset warning dialog boxes
To clear all passwords and user names
To restore default general settings
Setting advanced options
To specify default durations
To set the video format
To set the aspect ratio
To set the maximum movie file size for sending movies by e-mail
To restore default advanced settings
Accessibility for people with disabilities
Accessibility features in Windows Movie Maker
Accessibility features in Windows Movie Maker Help
Keyboard shortcuts for using the Help window
To change the appearance of a Help topic
To change the color of the background or text in Help
To change the font in Help
Accessible products and services from Microsoft
Accessibility in Microsoft Windows
Adjusting Microsoft products for people with accessibility needs
Free step-by-step tutorials
Microsoft documentation in alternative formats
Assistive technology for Windows
Customer service for people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing
Getting more accessibility information
Glossary

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Importing video files and clip detection

You can choose to have the video file separated into smaller, more manageable clips when you import video files into Windows Movie Maker. Clips are created through a process called "clip detection." When you import video files and select the Create clips for video files check box in the Import File dialog box, clips are created based on the type of video file or files you choose to import.

Clips are created as follows, for the different video file formats.

  • Windows Media Format video files. If you import a Windows Media video file with an .asf or .wmv file name extension, a clip is created for each marker that is in the original file. The markers help to divide the file into manageable sizes. Markers may have been inserted into the original Windows Media file to describe a specific portion or event within the video. If the original Windows Media file contains no markers or only one marker, a clip is created when there is a substantial change in one frame of the video compared to the next frame. The minimum duration of a clip is one second.
  • Other video file formats. If you import a video file that is not a Windows Media file, such as a video file with a .mpeg file name extension, a clip is created when there is a substantial change in one frame of the video compared to the next frame.
  • DV-AVI files. If you import an AVI file that contains video captured from a DV camera, and time stamp information was added to that file, clips are created based on the time stamp information in the file.

If the Create clips for video files check box is not selected when you import a video file, the video file is imported and appears as one whole clip in Windows Movie Maker. You can later run clip creation after the video file is imported into Windows Movie Maker to separate the clip into smaller clips.

When importing video files, you can choose the following option:

Create clips for video files

Specifies whether video files are separated into smaller clips when imported. If this option is selected, the video file is separated into smaller video clips through clip detection. If this option is not selected, the video file is imported as a single video clip.

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