The library, and importing media

A project can hold more than what you recorded. The library is the grid of thumbnails where everything else lives until you use it.

Getting things in

Press Import on the library and pick the files. Video, audio and still pictures are all accepted.

The tabs

Media holds video and pictures. Audio holds sound files, which is usually music for the background. Titles is different: it is not files you imported but six ready made title styles, which you drop on the timeline and then type into.

Getting things onto the timeline

Drag a tile to the track you want it on, or select it and press Add to timeline. Video and pictures go on a video track, audio on a sound track. Drop something on a track that cannot hold it and Cilevi says so rather than silently doing something odd.

Right clicking a tile gives you the rest: add it to the timeline, rename it so the library says what it is rather than what the camera called it, show the file in Explorer, and remove it from the library. Remove is greyed out while the file is still being used on the timeline, and it tells you that is why.

Music

Background music goes on its own audio track, separate from your voice and from the computer's sound, so you can set its level once and leave it. If it is fighting with your narration, turn it down there rather than trying to compensate elsewhere.

Use music you have the right to use. A video taken down for a copyright claim is an expensive way to learn that.

Pictures

A still picture on the timeline behaves like a video clip with no sound: drag its end to change how long it is on screen, and everything on the Transform tab works on it. A logo, a diagram or a screenshot from somewhere else all come in this way.