How do I use the Timeline in the Create editor?

The Timeline allows you to edit the duration of scenes overall or individual objects within a scene such as graphics and text. 

In this article, learn how to: 

• Access the Timeline 
• Access the Timeline for individual elements in a scene
• Extend or shorten a scene's duration in the Timeline 
• Extend or shorten individual scene elements in the Timeline 
• Split one scene into multiple scenes

Access the Timeline  

You can access the Timeline in multiple ways.

1. Select the thumbnail of the scene you’d like to access the Timeline for in the storyboard. 
2. Access the Timeline pane in one of the following ways:

• On the Media Inspector Toolbar, select the Edit Timing button
• Select the scissors icon in the top-left corner of the scene.
  
  
• Select the Timeline button at the right side of the storyboard.
• Double selecting the scene directly from the storyboard. 

You can also access the Timeline by selecting the graphic or text that you would like to edit the timing for. 

To select text/graphics in a scene individually: 

1. Select the scene you’d like to edit in the Storyboard. 
2. Select the text box/graphic in the scene that you would like to change the duration of.
3. On the inspector toolbar, select the Edit Timing button. This will open the Timeline where the bubble of the individual element you’ve selected will be highlighted. 
   
   

To extend or shorten the duration of the scene using the trim tool in the Timeline: 

⚠️Note: This section is referring to trimming footage with the Create editor. To learn more about trimming your uploaded videos on the video settings page, see ‘Trim your videos’.

1. Select the scene you'd like to trim in the storyboard and open the Timeline. 
2. Select and drag the edges of the blue box surrounding the scene to extend or shorten the footage. You will be able to see a preview of the beginning or end of the clip as you drag each side of the bar. 

To extend or shorten the time duration of text or graphics in scenes:

1. In the Timeline, graphics and text boxes are indicated by a small bubble above the timeline. A highlighted portion of the scene displays the duration and boundaries of the graphic or text in the scene. 
   
   
2. Select and drag the edges of the yellow box to shorten or extend the duration of the object.
3. You can also select and drag the entire bubble to a different position within your scene. 
   
   

To split one scene into more using the split tool: 

The split tool allows you to take a single scene and split it into multiple scenes.

1. Select and drag the indicator needle to the point in the timeline where you would like to split the clip. 
2.  Select the Split icon in the timeline. . If the Split icon is grayed out, select and drag the needle indicator at least 0.5 seconds from the beginning or end of the clip. 
   
   
3. Your clip will be split into two parts. You can view both clips separately in the Storyboard. You can continue to split the split scenes further by following the same steps. 
   

💡 Tips for splitting scenes with text and graphics: 

• You cannot split a text such as text without also splitting the scene that it is a part of. 
• If the scene has a text box or sticker running through the entire scene, the text/sticker will be shown in both scenes after the split.
  
• If there are multiple text boxes and stickers in the original scene, their appearance in each scene after the split will depend on where you split the scene and also how long they are shown in the original scene.