thank you johnebaker - it's still pulling the next picture forward... how do I make sure it's not in stretch mode?  I am getting the symbol you showed above on the sound clip...but when I click to shorten the sound clip, it's stretching out the next slides

does that make any sense?  how do I check to make sure it's not in stretch mode I guess

and I;m not sure if this would help, but when I get the mouse to the symbol you pasted above and click, I notice (as i'm in the timeline mode...) that it also highlights some other of my pictures and effects...

Hi kelly-hirschbock,

In order to use just a portion of a song, or indeed ANY audio or video file, you need to cut or trim it to the length you need it to be.

My method of doing this:

1. Make sure you are using the timeline mode
2. Put your videos, photos etc. on one track, with all the transitions, fades etc. you want to use. In other words, make sure the "video" part of your project is more or less complete before you start to add your audio.
3. Place your first song on a second track on the timeline.
4. Decide which part of that audio track you want to actually use. Make sure only that track is highlighted.
5. If you want to use the the track from its start, ignore sections 6 - 8 below.
6. Listen to the audio and place the cursor (the playback line) on the audio track exactly at the point in the song that you wish it to start from.
7. Cut the file at this point (use the scissors icon or simply press the T key).
8. Highlight the section of the file before the cut and press delete to remove that first part.
9. Repeat this procedure (from section 6) to find the end of the part you actually wish to use.
10. Once you have cut the file (as section 7) highlight and delete all the audio after the cut point.
11. Slide this "new" audio along the track until its start is exactly at the place where you want its playback to begin.
12. What you should now have is an audio track containing only the parts of the original that you actually want to use, in the exact place in your video where you want to use it!
13. Repeat all the above for each of the audio tracks you want to use, making sure that they all "join up" (I'm assuming you want the audio to be continuous?)

This is a somewhat time-consuming task, at least initially, but once you have learned the technique you should find you are able to accomplish what you want quite quickly; quite likely it will take you less time to perform these "edits" than it has taken me to type this post!

You mention in your post trying to pull the clip "shorter"; as you've found this does not achieve what you are wanting to do, unless you ensure that you have the cursor exactly on the right hand edge of the bounding box,  the cursor should become two short parallel lines, then you can drag the end forward (i.e. shorten the track) but you will not be able to select the section of the music you actually want to use; it will simply stop wherever the end of the graphic occurs and wherever that equates to in the song.

HTH

Jeff

EDIT: I see John EB beat me to it again!

So my 'T' key on the movie editor brings me up 'Title Editor'....so that's not the right solution.... and there are no scissors option in the timeline mode...there is only the scissor option in the storyboard mode.

this is SO frustrating!!

You are pressing the "T" on your keyboard aren't you, not the "T" above the timeline?

Also, I've made a small amendment to my original post, hopefully to prevent you accidentally cutting/splitting your video track when you cut/split the audio.

Hi,

T - the key on your keyboard, not the T that you see on the toolbar above the timeline, is the shortcut for trim and it should simply cut the object at the location of the playback marker - all objects if none are selected, or only those that are selected (highlighted).

You say that when you select (highlight) the audio clip, other clips are also highlighted. That is because they are grouped and you need to ungroup them. The shortcut is Shift+G (do not press on the + key). Once ungrouped, you should be able to modify the length of any of these objects. Then follow the instructions from John EB and Jeff.

And you need to read the manual (especially getting started - and in your case, pages 28-31, 40-45) and watch my tutorials on Basic Editing part 1 and . If you don't read the manual and watch tutorials, the program is difficult; if you do, it is simple.