Keyboard shortcuts in Bolide Movie Creator
Keyboard shortcuts and a few mouse tricks make everyday editing in Bolide Movie Creator much quicker. You don't have to learn them all at once: start with the ones you need most often, such as Space, Ctrl+Q and Ctrl+Z.
Project and program
- Ctrl+N – "New Project".
- Ctrl+O – "Open project..." (open a previously saved project).
- Ctrl+S – "Save project".
- Ctrl+Enter – "Save as video file..." (create the finished video).
- Ctrl+M – "Transfer project...". Bolide Movie Creator copies all files used in the project into one folder. You can move that folder to another computer and continue editing there. See Saving and Opening Projects.
- F1 – "Open Video Editing Guide..." (this online guide).
- F2 – "About...": the program version and the license holder. The Help menu and program options are described in Program Settings and the Help Menu.
- Alt+F4 – "Exit".
- Hold Shift while starting the program – if Bolide Movie Creator was closed unexpectedly last time, the restored project will not be opened automatically (see Saving and Opening Projects).
Editing
- Ctrl+Z – "Undo" the last action. Redo has no keyboard shortcut: use the "Restore" button next to the "Undo" button on the timeline toolbar. The small arrow next to "Undo" opens the list of recent actions.
- Ctrl+X – "Cut" the selected blocks to the clipboard.
- Ctrl+C – "Copy" the selected blocks to the clipboard.
- Ctrl+V – "Paste" the blocks from the clipboard at the cursor position.
- Del – "Delete": removes the selected transition; if no transition is selected, removes the selected blocks or the selected empty gap between blocks.
- Ctrl+Q – "Split the fragment at the current position": cuts the selected blocks at the cursor. If no blocks are selected, the block under the cursor is split.
- Ctrl+T – "Add Text": adds a simple text block at the cursor position.
- Ctrl+P – "Adjust Bright, Contrast, Saturation": brightness, contrast, saturation, "Color balance (red - blue)" and "Color balance (green - purple)" of the selected block.
- Ctrl+W – "Arbitrary crop and zoom" for the selected block.
- Ctrl+A – "Adjust sound": turns the volume editing mode on or off for the selected block with sound.
- Ctrl+Left Arrow / Ctrl+Right Arrow – move the selected blocks one frame to the left or to the right.
- Esc – cancel dragging: the block (or its edge) returns to where it was.
Preview and cursor
- Space – "Play / Pause". Plays the project or the clip selected in the library. It does not work while an editing mode is open (for example, while you edit text in the preview window).
- Left Arrow / Right Arrow – "Previous Frame" / "Next Frame".
- Home – move the cursor to the beginning of the project.
- End – move the cursor to the last frame of the project.
- Alt+Left Arrow / Alt+Right Arrow – select the previous or the next block in the same track.
- Ctrl+Up Arrow / Ctrl+Down Arrow – change the volume of the preview player by 1%. The sound of the project itself does not change.
Timeline zoom and scrolling
- Ctrl+Plus – zoom the timeline in by 5%. On the main keyboard press Ctrl+= (without Shift), on the numeric keypad – Ctrl+Num +.
- Ctrl+Minus (or Ctrl+Num -) – zoom the timeline out by 5%.
- Ctrl+8 or Ctrl+Num * – "Zoom Timeline to see the entire project".
- Mouse wheel – scroll the timeline horizontally.
- Shift + mouse wheel – zoom the timeline around the mouse pointer.
- Ctrl + mouse wheel – scroll up and down across the tracks (when not all tracks fit on the screen).
Mouse on the timeline
- Ctrl + click a block – add the block to the selection or remove it from the selection.
- Drag the mouse over an empty area of a track – draws a blue rectangle and selects all blocks inside it.
- Double-click the track header (the left part of the track with its buttons) – select all blocks of the track. Double-click again to deselect them.
- Click an empty gap between blocks, then press Del – removes the gap: the blocks to the right of it move to the left.
- Double-click a block – for a text, titles or ticker block opens the text editor; for a background block opens the background editor; for a music visualizer block opens its settings.
- Drag the edge of a block – trim the block.
- Ctrl + drag the edge of a block – change the playback speed of the block instead of trimming it.
- Hold Shift while dragging a block – the block does not stick to the neighboring blocks and to the cursor.
- Alt + mouse wheel while dragging – move the grab point, i.e. the place where the mouse "holds" the dragged blocks (wheel up – to the left, wheel down – to the right). The mouse wheel, Shift + wheel and Ctrl + wheel keep working while you drag; a reminder appears in the status bar.
- Drag the cursor with the right mouse button – moves all blocks to the right of the cursor in all tracks. This is the easiest way to make room in the middle of a project.
- Shift + drag the cursor with the right mouse button – the same, but only in the tracks that contain selected blocks.
Volume editing mode
These keys work after you turn on "Adjust sound" (Ctrl+A) for a block.
- Up Arrow / Down Arrow – change the volume by 1%. If a key point is selected, only this point changes; if a fragment of the block is selected, the volume of this fragment changes; otherwise all key points of the block change at once.
- Del – "Make silent": mutes the selected fragment.
- Esc – "Finish audio editing".
Libraries and dialogs
- Del in the "Photo/Video Library" or the "Audio Library" – remove the selected file from the list (the file itself stays on the disk).
- Del / Enter in the "Backgrounds" library – delete / edit the selected background preset.
- Enter on a visualizer style in the "Audio Library" – open the visualizer settings.
- Enter / Esc – confirm or cancel most dialog windows.
- Space – preview the result in the "Edit Pan & Zoom effect properties" window and in the "Pitch shift", "Equalizer" and "Reverb" settings (see Improving the Sound of a Clip).
- Arrow keys in the "Edit Pan & Zoom effect properties" window – move the selected frame by 1 pixel.
- While you edit text in the preview window, Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+A, Home, End and Shift + arrows work on the text, as in any text editor.
Back to the Video editing guide.