Apple Final Cut Pro 7 - Manual (Page 723)

Extending and Shortening Clips in the Timeline
A convenient way to extend or shorten a clip in the Timeline is to tell Final Cut Pro to
adjust an edit point to the current position of the playhead. An extend edit moves an edit
point between two clips to the playhead position in the Timeline.
Note: Although these are often referred to as extend edits, you can just as easily shorten
clips with this method.
A A
A
Before edit Before edit
After edit (extend) After edit (shorten)
A
When linked selection is disabled, extend edits are very useful for creating split edits. You
can also use extend edits to quickly line up a lot of edit points to the same position in
the Timeline. For example, to make all of the clips at the end of your movie end at exactly
the same place, you can select the last edit points in each track in the Timeline, move the
playhead to the position where you want all the clips to end, and then use an extend
edit to move all of the edit points to the playhead position at once.
To use an extend edit to change the duration of a clip in the Timeline
1 Select the edit points for the clips you want to extend using either the Selection tool or
the Edit Selection tool.
Note: To create a split edit, turn off linked selection by clicking the Linked Selection button
in the Timeline, or hold down the Option key to temporarily turn off linked selection while
you select edit points.
2 Move the playhead to the position in your sequence where you want to put the selected
edit point.
Before
3 Choose Sequence > Extend Edit (or press E).
723 Chapter 45 Learning About Trimming Clips