Splitting a clip and leaving the gap?

[Troy at TheGTAMblog]

Greetings all, hope you don't mind if I make my First Post here

I am having a lot of fun with the Trial of VSPx7 so far - I have finally gotten around to trying Corel's "pro-sumer" video editing app

I have only one question, as everything else I could want to know [so far] is in the fantastic manual/help/tutorials/videos/etc, great job everyone at Corel, wonderful amount of info for a newer user... What was I talking about? Oh yes, my question:

If I split a clip in two places and want to take the middle portion out, the end parts of the clip automatically 'slide up' and take up the space that would have been left by the extracted section - I would like to leave the gap there, to sync up other events in the future

...
After playing around with it a bit more, I found a workaround, where I would right-click the 'middle portion' and choose to Replace Clip, choosing a black/empty image, which VS nicely trims down to take up the exact space for me.
However, is there a way to leave the gap open? It would be more efficient of a workflow to leave the gaps to easily spot them in the timeline when zoomed out, in order to sync up other events later on.

Apart from the above query; great app, great site, nice forums (of the bit I have read so far). I'm glad to be here.

[Ken Berry]

Video placed in the top track of the timeline will behave the way you have found i.e. always moving left to fill any gaps, unless you place the black matte there.

But if you place the cut clip -- or in fact any clip or photo -- in one of the overlay tracks, they can be placed anywhere in the overlay track and gaps are allowed there.

[BrianCee]

Hello

As you have found VideoStudio does not allow gaps in the top track - so if you really want to leave a gap then do not use the top track - use the overlay tracks instead where gaps are allowed - you can have 20 of them so there should be ample for your use - it is not compulsory to use the top track.

However I find it much easier to use the coloured block approach but if you are having problems with the visibility of the black block then why not use bright red or yellow instead.

[Troy at TheGTAMblog]

Thank you for your speedy and helpful replies, Ken and Brian!

Ah, I see, that's the default behaviour of that track. Well, it is still useful and nice to have it done automatically. If it's in the User Guide that the other tracks act differently, I apologize,I must have missed it. Thanks for letting me know I can use the other tracks in this manner. On a related note, if I add additional tracks, will they too act like this first 'automated' track, or will additional tracks act as overlay tracks?

Nice idea to use a different color than the source material for the 'still frame/filler', that will make the cuts easier to see at times yes, thanks!

[BrianCee]

Yes it is only the top track which has the all move left default - all others are overlays and items stay where put

To change the colour of already inserted blocks - open the "color" library and drag any colour down on top of the black block - hold down 'ctrl' while dragging and until you release the left mouse button - this will make the clip fit the exact size of the black block - if you do not hold down 'ctrl' the clip will insert at your default setting and ruin your sync.