How to select parts of a clip in a project in iMovie 10.0.1

to shorten a clip, just grab'n drag the start or end of the clip in the Project timeline

to select a part 'in the middle' of a clip in the timeline, set playhead, hit I, set playhead, hit O (as In/Out)

Further to Karsten's advice, position the skimmer (or the playhead) within the clip where you want to start your selection. Now click and hold down the mouse button (or trackpad). As you do this you will firstly see that the whole clip is highlighted with a thin yellow border. While still holding down on the click, you will then see a wider yellow vertical line on the clip, being the start point - drag this to mark your selection. Release the mouse button (or trackpad) once you've reached the end point of your selection.

If you wish to delete the segment that you've highlighted, just press the Delete key on the keyboard. Otherwise perform whatever other actions are available from the Modify menu item.

The key is to not release the mouse button after clicking on the clip. The selection border will appear within a millisecond after clicking and holding.

John

Message was edited by: John Cogdell

I should have said that when you click and hold, you will see a left/right arrow head. As you begin to drag, the thick yellow selection handle will appear. You can drag this left or right. After completing the selection, you can adjust the start and end points by again dragging the handles (the arrow heads will reappear as you hover over the end handles).

John

The "I" and "O" tip was gold. Saved me a lot of time, thanks.

If the Caps Lock is engaged, the click and hold method doesn't work !!

I'm running iMovie 10.1.2 and I have the same problem as the original post. I've been using iMovie for years and rely on skimming clips with hovering the mouse cursor and more importantly, "holding down" the left click to select certain portions of a clip.

A few days ago I manually went into the Movies folder and deleted some old files from iMovie that were taking up lots of hard drive space. Since then I have been unable to hold down to select clips. Holding down, as mat060 indicated, would drag the entire clip. The only solution, but not a fix, is to use the I and O keyboard shortcuts.

Is anyone aware of a fix?

And I literally just found a link (http://9to5mac.com/2016/04/28/imovie-for-mac-update-fast-project-creation/) with the following changelog:

• Easy to find New Project button in the Projects browser • Larger project thumbnails that match the look of iMovie for iOS • Fast project creation lets you begin editing with a single click • Clicking a video clip selects the entire clip, instead of a range • Keyboard shortcut to select range within a clip in the browser and timeline (hold down R key while dragging) • Support for App Preview resolutions for iPad Pro (1600 x 1200) and Apple TV (1920 x 1080) • Improves stability

So the key to this issue is to hold down the R key while holding down on your mouse.

Thank you!