Understanding the Timeline Panel

Available Files

The following files are available for download from Microsoft SharePoint:

Download Exercise Files

Before we go further into editing, let's take a closer look at the Timeline panel. The Timeline panel is an important piece of the Premiere Pro interface, and a lot of editing work takes place in the Timeline. The following diagram highlights the most important elements of the Timeline panel:

Diagram of the various parts of the Timeline panel. Each of these pieces is explained in detail in the following table.

The table below provides information about each of these elements:

Feature	Function
Sequence tab	Displays the title of the sequence you are currently working with. If you are working with several sequences in the same project, each sequence will show on a different tab in the Timeline panel.
Timecode	Shows the timecode for the current frame in the Timeline panel.
Playhead	Indicates the current frame displayed in the Program Monitor.
Time ruler	Displays time within the Timeline.
Video tracks	Area for placing the video clips and/or still images that you want in your movie. Multiple tracks are used to superimpose or mix clips.
Audio tracks	Area for placing the audio clips that you want in your movie. Multiple tracks are used to mix clips.
Zoom control/scrollbar	Allows for zooming in and out on the Timeline, and also allows for scrolling along the Timeline if a sequence is longer than the visible area in the Timeline.

Let's experiment with some of the tools in this panel so we can better understand how the Timeline panel works. We will start by exploring the Zoom control, which is built into the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the Timeline panel.

Step 1. To zoom out, using the horizontal scrollbar at the bottom of the Timeline panel,

Press & Drag Right-side handle on the horizontal scroll bar to the right

Now we can see all the clips on the timeline at once. The video clips on the Timeline appear smaller, and the intervals on the Time Ruler get larger.

When you want to focus on a single clip, you can zoom in.

Step 2. To zoom in, using the horizontal scroll bar,

Press & Drag Right side handle of horizontal scroll bar to the left

Now we can work on a specific section of our sequence in more detail.

NOTE: You can also use a keyboard shortcut to zoom in or out on the Timeline. To zoom in, press the plus key (+) multiple times and to zoom out, press the minus key (-) multiple times. However, the plus and minus keys on the numeric keypad won't work for these shortcuts, as the numeric keypad is used for controlling the time displayed in the timecode.

Next, let's practice moving the playhead. Before we do, take a look at the timecode displayed in the upper left corner of the Timeline panel. It currently looks like this:

00;00;00;00

This means that our cursor is positioned at the 0 hour, 0 minute, 0 second, and 0 frame of our sequence — in other words, the very beginning of the sequence.

Step 3. To move the playhead to a different position, at the top of the Timeline,

Press & Drag to the right

You see the video advance in the Program Monitor and the numbers on the Current Time Display change to reflect the playhead's position on the Time Ruler.

When editing a sequence, you'll likely be moving between different locations in a clip frequently. While pressing and dragging the playhead to move to a different location works fine in most cases, there are times you may want to quickly jump to a different spot on the Timeline. This can be done by clicking on the Time Ruler — wherever you click on the Time Ruler, the playhead will jump to that position.

Step 4. To quickly jump to another location on the Time Ruler,

Click anywhere on the Time Ruler

The playhead jumps to wherever you clicked on the Time Ruler.

Now that we've become a little more familiar with the Timeline, let's go ahead and start editing one of the video clips in our sequence.