Digital Commons at Penn State

Transitions provide a smooth and easy way to cut between clips. Adding transitions to your project in iMovie 09 is a fairly simple procedure.

First, make sure that you have some footage in the timeline. Now click on the Transition button on the middle right side of the iMovie 09 interface.

This will open the Transitions browser.

Mousing over the transitions available will show you a short preview of what the transition will do when applied to your timeline.

To add the transition to your timeline, simply click and drag the desired transition into the desired place in your timeline. Transitions can be applied at the beginning or end of clips or between other clips.

The added transition will appear as a little box wherever it has been placed in the timeline.

To adjust the duration of a transition that you have already added to your timeline, right click on the transition and go to “Transition Adjustments.”

Here you can adjust the duration of the Transition in seconds.

You can also choose to apply this change just to the selected transition or to all transitions that you have added to your timeline.

However, all transitions have a different max amount of time that can be added to their duration. Some transitions cannot exceed 3.3 seconds and some cannot exceed 1 second.

If you choose to apply a duration change to all transitions, not only will it apply to transitions currently added to the timeline but also any future transitions you add to the timeline.

To delete an unwanted transition, simply click on the transition and press the delete key on the keyboard.