How to Use a Video Editor

When first opening VideoImpression for the first time, click "new video" and choose any compatible file to start.

Once the project is open, it's easier to add more media files onto the thumbnail preview window. The Media tab is selected when first open program. Click file icon in order to select media files that will be placed in the preview thumbnails area.

Click and drag file(s) to bottom of the window where the storyboard frames are. If select one file and drag between the frames of the storyboard it will insert itself. Shuffle storyboard by clicking and dragging the frames.

At the top of the window, click the tab labeled Edit and 'enter active clip mode.' The movie preview window will have colored slides at the start and end of the movie clip. In the lower right hand corner of the video preview window the icon on the right is selected which shows that you are in active clip mode.

To preview the finished movie, click the film reel icon located below the video preview window in the lower right-hand corner located to the left of the 'active clip' icon and click. Now no longer in active edit mode and able to press the play arrow within the movie preview to watch the movie. It will automatically go back to active edit mode when click the tab Edit.

Save project during editing because saving the project does not save the final movie, it saves all the elements settings that you have edited so far. The finished movie itself is saved by clicking onto the Produce tab located on the top right hand corner of VideoImpression window labeled with a big huge 6 and then afterwards clicking Start button in order to save the actual final movie.

When the Edit tab is selected, there will be a green slide at the start of the movie clip and a red slide at the end of the movie clip. These colored slides are located underneath the preview movie window. If the frame in the story board is a still image then edit duration of image on the left side of the VideoImpression window. Choose from a drop down menu or enter your own time in seconds.

Edit all your times before going to the next step of inserting transition effects, remembering to add just a little more time on the beginning and ending of your edited clips to avoid obscuring pertinent action during the transition.
The default for transitions are to make them as long as possible and can be changed. Do all editing first before transition effects are inserted between each storyboard frame. The only transition I use is the +/- and make them long only for dramatic effects.

For a cool effect with transition +/-, take a movie of a fast action such as the Lion Dancing during the Chinese New Year. After editing, copy and paste onto next frame, long transition with overlap to get that acid-trippy look. It's too bad the VideoImpression can't make it slow motion.

Tab labeled 4 Text activated will bring a black screen in the movie preview window. Don't freak out, it will be visible as soon as you enter a letter into the text box. Adjust size, color, font, shadow of text. To place text where you want it, mouse over the movie preview window, then click, and drag. Changing the font size afterwards will mess up your placement and would have to be redone. Adjust text size first.

To save the project during video editing, click File and Save. The project is settings that you have just completed and can always re-edit. Save the final project first and then produce the movie, always, always, always.

To make huge files smaller, defaults can be change for a lower quality video and bad results can happen. If saved your project, then just have to change the video quality savings until quality is acceptable. If didn't save the project and exited out of the program then lost all changes done.

To save movie, click tab Produce and after choosing directory, press the Start button to save finished movie after completion.

Default settings can be changed for frame rate and sound quality. Clicking Options and Default Duration can change the default duration of transition effects or still images. Once a transition effect is inserted duration adjusted can be copied for all the following transition frames by clicking 'Apply Transition to All' after right clicking mouse over the transition frame. For still pictures, able to apply duration to current frame to all frames. It doesn't matter if the following frames are mixed stills and movie clips.

This video editor has many features without being too complicated. The only thing that doesn't' work well is trying to record a narrative. I use a separate program to record audio and edit and then when audio is same length of time as the video I add the overvoice narrative in the video editor VideoImpression.