The "newer version" which you're using doesn't really have a 'Timeline'. You just import clips into 'Events', and then you can add clips from any of those 'Events' (sets of movie clips) into any Project.
So that phrase
"Place clip in Movie Timeline" doesn't apply in iMovie '08. Your clips will go into an Event - either a new Event or into an already existing one - and from there you can drag your clip(s) into a Project - either a new one or an already existing one.
Essentially, the "new" iMovie ('08 and '09) lets you build libraries of clips ('Events') which you can then use, and re-use, in any movie Project (..a Project is a new movie which you're building from a variety of clips).
With the older versions of iMovie it was difficult to use clips from one movie in another movie: you had to find the folder where the original clips were stored, copy them or move them and insert them into a new folder for a new movie. In current versions of iMovie
all your clips are kept in the same place - like having all your photos in iPhoto, or all your movie clips in one shoebox - and you can now mix'n'match any of those clips and put them into any movie. So you can now make separate movies of each holiday (vacation) ..but it's also very easy to make a "Holiday Highlights" movie containing a few clips from each separate vacation!
The 'Timeline' versions of iMovie had a single video 'track' and two audio 'tracks' into which you dropped video and audio. The latest versions ('08 and '09) are more "freeform" and let you just add one video clip to another, and drop audio clips "onto" video clips so that they play along with them. iMovie '09 has a more precise audio-positioning capability than '08, so that you can position and trim audio exactly how you want it. The older versions, such as "iMovie HD" had very precise audio-trimming features - far better than in iMovie '08. But iMovie '09 has now made audio trimming far more precise in the "new style" no-Timeline current version of iMovie.
Here's what the video and audio 'tracks' looked like in iMovie HD: (video at the top, and two audio tracks beneath)
Here's what
video and audio look like in iMovie '08 and '09 (click on that blue link) ..the little green(?) strips are separate audio clips which have been added to the video clips above them.
