iMovie 6 & iDVD: The Missing Manual

Playing the Movie Track

The Monitor isn’t limited to playing clips; it can also play the Movie Track. That’s handy, because one of iMovie’s best features is its ability to show your movie-in-progress whenever you like (without having to compile or render anything, as you do in some more expensive editing programs).

Playing the Whole Movie

To play back your entire Movie Track, press the Home key on your keyboard, which in iMovie means “Rewind to beginning.” As a timesaving bonus, the Home key also deselects all clips, as though it knows that you want to play back the entire Clip Viewer now.

Tip

On recent desktop Macs, the Home key is above the number keypad, or stationed together with a separate block of keys like Help, Delete, Page Up, and Page Down. On recent laptop Macs, you simulate the Home key by holding down the Fn key (in the lower-left corner of the keyboard) and tapping the left-arrow key.

Alternatively, you can click the Home button, which is beneath the Monitor just to the left of the Play button. Once again, iMovie deselects all clips in the process of rewinding.

When you tap the Space bar, iMovie plays your movie starting from the location of the Playhead in the Scrubber bar; if you’ve pressed Home, that’s the beginning of the movie. iMovie plays one clip after another, seamlessly, from left to right as they appear in the Movie Track (Figure 5-12).

Playing your movie back is the best way to get a feeling for how your clips are working together. You may discover that, in ...