Trim

Use the trim function to remove the beginning or the ending of a clip. Click on the clip and move the mouse to the left or right edge and when the double-headed red arrow appears, just drag it to your left on right (depending on what part you want to trim).

Transitions

Open the Transition collection and choose transitions for your clips. When using clips to create a movie, you can choose transitions to make the passing from one sequence to another more aesthetic. Preview available transitions and if you want to add them, just drag them to your storyboard. Change the transition time by adjusting the time scale (Page Up/Page Down buttons) or by selecting another value in the Transition Duration box. To create a fade effect, select the second clip and drag it over the first one. You will see a blue bar which marks when the fade effect begins.

Effects

You can also add Effects, which will change the whole appearance of your movie. To insert an effect, browse the Effects collection, and just drag the desired effect to the clip – up to six effects can be used per video clip.

Audio/Music

There are two audio tracks found in the timeline:

1. the Audio track, which contains the original sound of your recorded video
2. the Audio/Music, which allows you to add background music from a separate MP3 or WMA file. To add some background music, just drag the desired audio file to the timeline, and position it in your movie as you wish.

Narration

Narration can be simply added if you have a microphone connected to your computer. Align the playback pointer where you want to start the narration, select Narrate Timeline from Tools, adjust audio settings (in the window that pops up) and start recording. Choose Limit narration to available free space on Audio/Music track to prevent the narration from overriding other audio tracks, like background music.

Remember to change the sound balance between audio and video and audio/music tracks. This will give priority to the desired track, making it louder than the other. Move the slider to the left or right as you prefer.

Credits and titles

Credits and titles can be added to personalize your movie. The title editor can be opened from Tools, Titles and Credits. If you select the end of the movie, the editor will allow you to add credits.

AutoMovie

Using the AutoMovie function will permit Movie Maker to automatically create a movie from your clips. Create a collection folder with your desired clips, open up AutoMovie and follow the instructions on the screen. Select a movie style, title text and an audio file for background music.

Now that your movie is ready, we need to publish it. Click the Publish movie button to activate the wizard.

• Publish to your computer: name your file, choose your location and the quality for your movie. If you want to keep it simple, just select the first option – Best quality for playback on my computer.
• Publish to a DVD: if you have Vista Ultimate or Premium, this selection will close Movie Maker and open DVD Maker. If you have other windows version, the movie will be burned directly to a DVD.
• Publish to a CD will burn your movie to a CD.
• Publish to e-mail will open up your default e-mail program and attach the movie. You won’t be able to create very large movies (maximum 25MB) and to select the quality.
• Publish to a Digital video camera will record your movie to your digital camera with the highest movie quality.

Related articles:

• Windows Movie Maker Basics: Features & Interface
• Windows Movie Maker: Importing options; before you start...
• Windows Movie Maker Basics: Transferring data from a digital camera