Moving clips within timeline

In iMovie 10 the clips in the timeline snap together like they are magnetized and cannot be moved and placed with separations between them, unless you put a spacer in between such as a black background trimmed to the duration you want.

However, you can place clips in the secondary time line as cutaways just above the main timeline, and there you can move them freely. You would need to place a long duration black background in the main timeline so that your added clips will have something to overlay onto. The only thing is that you wouldn't be able to add transitions.

-- Rich

What version of iMovie are you using?

-- Rich

I'm not sure whether iMovie 9 lets you move clips freely. iMovie 9 is no longer sold by Apple. If iMovie 9 is still on your computer you can use it to edit, provided that it is still functional. iMovie 9 is not fully functional on operating systems from El Capitan onward.

I recall that with iMovie 6 you could move clips freely. That is a very old version that is no longer sold but it still works on current operating system High Sierra. There is a free hacked version here, called iMovie 6.5.1:

http://www.blip3.com/home.html

It's not an official version but it has been discussed on this forum and others have reported that it works fine.

-- Rich