iMovie 08 Getting Started
Get to know iMovie and revolutionize the way you play, watch, store, and share your video.

Contents

Chapter 1
Welcome to iMovie 08 The iMovie Interface A Single Video Library Exploring and Playing Video Creating Video Slideshows About Video File Formats What Youll Learn Before You Begin What You Need Learn iMovie Step 1: Import Video into iMovie Identifying Your Camera Type and Importing Video Step 2: Organize Your Video Library and View Your Video About iMovie Events Viewing Your Source Video Selecting Source Video Marking Video as Your Favorite or for Deletion Sorting (Filtering) Video Step 3: Enhance Video Images and Adjust Sound Volume Cropping Video Images Adjusting Clip Volumes Step 4: Create an iMovie Project Starting an iMovie Project Adding Video to Your Project Adding Background Music to Your Project Trimming Unwanted Frames from Your Project Clips Previewing Edits Quickly Adding Transitions Between Clips in Your Project Adding Titles to Your Project Adding Sound Effects and Voiceovers to Your Project Adding Photos with Motion Effects Step 5: Share Your Movie Publishing for Viewing on Your iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV Sending Your Finished Movie to iDVD, iWeb, or Other Applications

Chapter 2

Publishing Directly to the Web Continue to Explore iMovie Getting More Help

Welcome to iMovie 08

Introducing iMovie 08, a revolutionary way to enjoy, store, and share all your home video.
You can bring video into iMovie from a variety of sources and devices so that your memories are always at your fingertips. All those clips you have hidden away on your digital camera or camcorder? That box full of discs and tapes in your closet? Add them to your video library to enjoy anytime. Watch all your home movies without having to unpack your camcorder or connect it to your computer or TV. Browse the events that make up your life, moment-to-moment, year-to-year, person-to-personall in one place. With iMovie its easy to organize and catalog your video, separate the good from the not-so-good, and find just the parts youre looking for, when you want them. You can also create quick and simple movies, adding titles over video, scene transitions, background music, and voiceovers. iMovie makes it easy to share your movies with friends and family on the web, your computer, your iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV. Before starting with the tutorial that begins in Chapter 2, read the following sections to get familiar with the concepts and tools that iMovie provides for playing, organizing, and working with video. Even if youve used previous versions of iMovie or other video editing applications, youll benefit from understanding the ideas that make iMovie 08 different from anything youve seen.

The iMovie Interface

The main iMovie window, shown below, is your console for viewing, organizing, and editing video. From here, you can access almost every tool that youll use to work with your video.
iMovie project Put together video clips, photos, music, and more to create movies you can share on the web, your iPod, or Apple TV. Viewer Your video plays here.
Project Library Lists all the iMovie projects youve created.
iMovie toolbar Most of the tools and controls you need are available here.
Event Library Lists the names of all the Events youve recorded on video and gathered into iMovie.
Source video Shows the contents of the Events youve selected in the Event Library.

A Single Video Library

By collecting all your video from every source into iMovie, you create a single library of all your videoa video library. In the library, simply select the name of any Event that youve recorded and view its contents; its as easy as opening a book and displaying its pages. Group together all the video from a single eventyour last vacation, for exampleeven if it comes from different sources and is recorded in different video formats. Now you can access it all with a single click.

Chapter 1 Welcome to iMovie 08
Exploring and Playing Video
Enjoying your video library has never been easier. The moment you select an Event youll see your video displayed as though it were a series of filmstrips, unrolled, allowing you to see the images within the individual movie frames. When you move the pointer over the images, they move. This is called skimming, and it allows you to watch any moment you want instantly, without having to fast-forward or rewind a tape or even select and play individual clips. You can also press the Space bar or double-click anywhere in your video to play it through at normal speed.
Creating Video Slideshows
iMovie makes it easy to create better movies, faster. The easiest way to create a great home video is by building a video slideshowa series of very short video clips of equal length, representing only the best seconds of video in your library. iMovie lets you do this almost effortlessly, and then drop in background music, to create snappy, evenly paced home movies youll be proud to share.

About Video File Formats

Today you can use a multitude of video devices to shoot video almost everywhere you go. The camcorder has branched out to new formats that record to mini-DVD, hard disks, or flash memory cards. Even most digital still cameras record video, as do many other mobile devices. And each of these devices may record video in different video file formats. iMovie works with the emerging generation of video recording devices. You can import video from any of the following sources into your iMovie video library:
Camera Type USB camcorders (random access devices) Recording Medium Hard disk drive (HDD) DVD (small, 8 cm DVD) Flash (Memory card) FireWire camcorders iSight camera Digital still cameras Camera phones (automatically added through iPhoto) Mini DV tape Hard disk drive (on your computer) Flash DV (standard) and HDV (High Definition Video) QuickTime movie MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and others Video File Format MPEG-2 and AVCHD
In addition to these video sources, you can also add video from movie files already stored on a hard disk (including from projects created in iMovie HD). Note: An Intel processor is required for AVCHD video support. For more information about AVCHD camcorders, go to www.apple.com/ilife/systemrequirements.html.

If youre importing high definition (HD) video, the 1080i HD Import Setting dialog opens. If youre not importing 1080i format video, just click OK. If you are importing 1080i format, or if you will do so in the future, select the size in which you want iMovie to import your video. The Large size video is recommended for most ordinary uses (including viewing on Apple TV) because it saves hard disk space and may play back more smoothly on some computers. However, if your camcorder records in true 1920 by 1080 HD video, and if you will use this video for broadcasting or exporting to Final Cut Pro, select the Full size, which better preserves the original quality of the video but uses more disk space. (For more detailed information about this, search for 1080i in iMovie Help.) Note: If youre using a DVD camcorder, plugging it into your Mac may cause DVD Player to open. If that happens, simply close DVD Player. 2 Click Import All to import all the clips. 3 From the Save To pop-up menu, choose a disk where you want to store the imported video. You can choose any supported hard disk thats connected to your computer with a FireWire cable. It takes about 13 GB to store an hour of standard definition (DV) video and 40 GB to store an hour of high definition (HD) video, so make sure you have enough space on the disk you choose. The amount of free space on each available disk is shown in parentheses next to the disks name in the pop-up menu. 4 Choose how you want to organize the imported video in your Event Library: To add the imported video to an already existing Event, select Add to existing Event, and then choose its name from the pop-up menu. To create a new Event, type a name for it in the Create new Event field (for example, Birthday Party). If you want to create a new Event for each day on which the video was recorded, select Split days into new Events. 5 If youre importing 1080i-format video, make a size selection from the pop-up menu. Large size video is of high enough quality to view on a high definition television (HDTV) and for most other uses. However, if youll be exporting your movie to Final Cut Pro, or if you have some other reason to maintain the original, full size of your video, choose Full - 1920 x 1080 from the Import 1080i video as pop-up menu. 6 Click OK. It can take from several minutes to more than an hour for iMovie to import the video and generate thumbnail images of each clip, depending on how many minutes of video you have. The progress bars in the Import window indicate which clip is currently being imported and how quickly the import is proceeding.

Step 2: Organize Your Video Library and View Your Video
After youve imported your video, youre ready to enjoy it. Your video is categorized into Events in your Event Library, where its available for immediate viewing, browsing, searching, or embellishing.

About iMovie Events

When you import video into iMovie and give it an Event name, a new Event appears in the Event Library, listed by the year in which it occurred. Clicking the disclosure triangle for a year in the Event Library displays all the Events in a single year. If the video of a single Event spans several days and you elected to separate the days when you imported the video, the individual days are listed separately. By choosing the name of an already existing Event when youre importing new video, you group video from multiple sources into one Event. You can also merge multiple Events (or Event days) into one, or split a single Event into two. By merging and splitting events or moving video clips from one Event to another, you can organize all your video into meaningful categories and time frames and browse through them as if you were browsing the titles of books on a bookshelf. For example, if you imported video from multiple sources that youd taken during a vacation to the Galapagos Islands, all your video from all sources could be grouped together under a single Event, for example, Galapagos Vacation, which can easily be found in the year in which the vacation occurred. Selecting an Event in the Event Library displays all the video that Event contains. Selecting multiple Events simultaneously displays the video contained in all of the selected Events. To browse multiple Events: m Hold down the Command (x) key as you click the names of the Events containing video you want to browse.
m Select a year in the Event Library to browse all the Events within it.
Sort Events by hard disk.
Event names are listed in the Event Library, separated into days.
Video clips appear like filmstrips in the source video library.
To merge Events: m Select them in the Event Library, and then choose File > Merge Events. To split an Event into two: m Click the video clip you want to make the first clip in the new Event, and then choose File > Split Event Before Selected Clip. To move a video segment (clip) from one Event to another: m Drag it to the title of the Event (in the Event Library) where you want it to appear. The Event appears in the Event Library listed under the year in which its most recent clip was recorded. You can also choose to further sort your Event Library by the hard disk where the video is stored. When your Events are sorted by hard disk, you can browse all the Events on a single disk by selecting the disk name. To sort the Event Library by hard disk: m Click the button with the hard disk icon at the top of the Event Library pane. To learn about more options for organizing your Event Library, see the topic Reorganizing Events in the Event Library in iMovie Help.

Viewing Your Source Video
Select the name of any Event youve created in the Event Library and take a look at the video segments it contains. The video contained in your Events is called source video because it always remains exactly as you imported it and will not be altered by any editing you perform in iMovie. It serves as the source for video that you can use to create movies.
Notice that you can see into the video by looking at the images stretched across time, just like looking at filmstrips unrolled on a table. Each filmstrip represents a video clip, or a segment of video that begins at the moment the camera started recording and ends when it stopped recording. Typically, each Event includes several video clips, one for each time you started and stopped the camera while recording the Event.
A series of thumbnail images joined together like a filmstrip represents a video clip.
A thumbnail image represents a video frame within a clip.
Jagged edges indicate that this clip is continued on the line below, or from the line above.
Several individual clips, each showing multiple thumbnail images
By default, iMovie displays one image for every five seconds of video in a clip; you can change this setting to unroll (expand) the filmstrips further, or roll them up (contract them), depending on how you like to work. The duration of each clip is visible on its left end as you move the pointer over it. To expand or contract the filmstrips: Drag the clip thumbnail slider to the right to reduce the number of images displayed for each clip, making each filmstrip shorter. Drag the clip thumbnail slider to the left to increase the number of images displayed for each clip, making each filmstrip longer. Expanding and contracting the filmstrips using this slider does not alter your video in any way; it only affects the view you have while youre working.
Playing Your Video Youll notice as you move the pointer across the filmstrips that the images in the filmstrips move and so does the larger image in the viewer. The image in the viewer corresponds to the moment of video, or video frame, where the pointer is resting. Moving the pointer back and forth across the video to watch it play is called skimming, and its a quick way to get an idea of how the video looks. As you skim through your video, you can hear the audio play back too; it plays backward and forward as you skim backward and forward. Sometimes this is useful for finding a particular moment in your video. Other times, youll want to silence it. To silence audio during skimming: m Click the button to silence skimming in the iMovie toolbar, or choose View > Audio Skimming and make sure the item is deselected in the menu.
Click to silence audio during skimming.

The yellow border denotes a selected frame range within a clip.
Drag the selection handles to resize the selection.
You can extend or shorten a frame range selection, recenter it, or select an entire clip or multiple clips at once. To select a video frame range in the source video library, do either of the following: m Click a clip to select four seconds of video, beginning at the point where you clicked. m Drag across a clip to select as much of it as you want. To adjust a frame range selection, do either of the following: m Drag the handle on either end of the selection border to extend or reduce the selection. m Place the pointer over the desired startpoint or endpoint and click while holding down the Shift key. If you want to move the selection to a different frame range within the same clip without changing its size, you can recenter it. To recenter the selection: m Drag the top of the selection border to wherever you want within the clip. m Press the Right Arrow or Left Arrow keys to move the entire selection to the right or left, one frame at a time. By sliding the selection range along the clip, you can move the selection to make multiple selections of the same size, which ensures even pacing when youre building a movie. To select an entire video clip in the source video library: m Click a clip while holding down the Option key. m Click a clip while holding down the Control key and choose Select Entire Clip from the shortcut menu that appears.
Tip: Bringing up shortcut menus by Control-clicking can help you work more efficiently. Shortcut menus give you relevant options, depending on where youre clicking.
To select multiple video clips: m Hold down the Shift key and click the first and last clips you want to select in a continuous range. m Hold down the Command (x) key and click individual clips that are not contiguous; click a clip again to remove it from the set of selected clips. With multiple clips selected, you can drag them into another Event or into an iMovie project. You can also adjust the look of a video clip and then copy and paste the adjustments onto multiple other clips; to learn how, search for video adjustments in iMovie Help.
Marking Video as Your Favorite or for Deletion
With iMovie you can find the best moments instantly. You dont need to go through hours of video, fast-forwarding and rewinding to find the moments you want. Instead, as you quickly skim through your video you can mark the segments you think are the best and worst, making it easy to filter through your video later and find the moments you want to work with or the moments you want to delete. To create a more fine-grained organization for your video, you can also tag any frame range with keywords. For more information about tagging video and searching for video using keywords, search for tagging with keywords in iMovie Help. In this step, youll select some video you especially like and mark it as a favorite; video you dont like, youll mark for deletion. First, set your source video filter to show all clips, by choosing All Clips from the Show pop-up menu below the Event Library.

Step 3: Enhance Video Images and Adjust Sound Volume
As you watch your video, you may feel that even your favorite moments could use some improvement. Perhaps in your favorite clip the volume is too loud or too soft. In another clip, the main subject gives you a great smilebut hes a bit too far away. Or maybe you think the colors look dull or overexposed. With iMovie you can easily enhance your videos appearance and sound.

Cropping Video Images

Just as you might crop a photograph, with iMovie you can do the same to video, creating a close-up shot of your chosen subject where you didnt have one before. If youre working with standard or lower-resolution video, cropping the clip may cause it to appear grainy. With high definition video, cropped clips can look almost as good as the originals.
To crop a clip: 1 Click the Crop button and then click a clip to select it. 2 In the viewer, click Crop. A green crop rectangle appears around the outer edges of the frame in the viewer. 3 Drag the green crop rectangle to resize and reposition it until it highlights the parts of the image you want to focus on.
Click to crop. Click to restore the image to full frame. Click to rotate the entire image. Click to preview your work. Click when youre done.
Drag and resize to set size and placement of crop.
The maximum crop is 50 percent of the original image size. The crop rectangle retains an aspect ratio of 16:9 (widescreen) if no project is selected (otherwise, it matches the aspect ratio of the selected project). 4 To preview your work, click the Play button. 5 When you like the way it looks, click Done. The crop applies to the entire clip. Youll see a crop icon at the beginning of the clip.

Crop icon

Click the crop icon to change or remove the crop at any time. You can restore your video to the original size at any time by opening the crop editor and clicking Fit.

Nondestructive Editing

Nondestructive editing means that any change you make to your video (or other media you add to your iMovie projects) is always reversible if, for example, you change your mind or dont like the result. This is because iMovie never alters the original media that you edit; nor does iMovie create a copy of the original. Instead, it simply stores the changes youve made and displays them every time you watch the video, without you ever having to save them. To undo your last action: m Choose Edit > Undo [Action]. To restore media to its original state: 1 Select the clip and then click the button to open the tool you used to make the original edits to the image or sound. 2 Remove the edits you dont want. At the end of each topic in this tutorial youll find more specific instructions for how to restore your media to its original state.

Step 4: Create an iMovie Project
If you want to share parts of your video library with friends, publish it on the web, or send it to your iPod or Apple TV, you can create a movie using the source video in your Video Library and putting your best clips together in whatever way you like. You can enhance your movie with background music, sound effects, voiceovers, and photos. iMovie also comes with several handsome title styles for adding text to your movie, and transition styles to move smoothly from one clip to the next. You start by creating an iMovie project, where youll arrange all the pieces you want to build your movie. In this step, youll begin an iMovie project, add video from the source library, organize it into a sequence that you like, and then add background music to create a basic video slideshow. After that, youll refine it by learning how to trim unwanted frames from a video clip, add titles and transitions, and finish by adding sound effects.
Starting an iMovie Project
An iMovie project can be as simple or as complex as you like, depending on how much you want to add to your movie in addition to the essential video. The tasks outlined here are organized in the ideal order to follow for all your iMovie projects. Remember that when you make changes or adjustments to any video in iMovie, the actual media is not affected. You can remove adjustments youve applied to video at any time, and your original video is always intact, safe from undesired changes, so feel free to try different things and have fun. To create an iMovie project: 1 Choose File > New Project. 2 Type a name for your project. 3 Choose the aspect ratio you want to use for your finished movie from the Aspect Ratio pop-up menu. Base the aspect ratio you choose on the dimensions of the video and photos that youll use in your project.
Standard (4:3): Produces a movie for viewing on a standard TV screen or on the web. When viewed on an HDTV, there will be black space on the left and right sides of the video, known as pillar box. iPhone (3:2): Produces a movie for viewing on the iPhone. Widescreen (16:9): Produces a movie ideal for viewing on a widescreen monitor or high definition television (HDTV). When you view the movie on a standard TV, there will be black space above and below the video, known as letterbox. You can mix video formats and sizes in a single project. If youre using video and photos of different sizes, choose the aspect ratio that best suits the media. If this results in letterboxing or pillar boxing in some of the content, you can add it to your project and then crop it to remove the black bars. (To learn about cropping video, see Cropping Video Images on page 28.)

Adding Video to Your Project
You can add as much video as you like to a video project, selecting it from a single Event or several Events, and put it together in any order you like. When you add a frame range to your project, it appears as a whole clip within your project even if it was only part of a source video clip. When you add video from an Event to your project, iMovie doesnt move or duplicate the video. Instead, it simply references the source video. For this reason, if your source video is stored on an external hard disk, the disk must be connected to your computer whenever you work in a project that references it. It also means you can add the same video segment more than once if you want to duplicate it in your project, or add the same video to multiple projects. In each instance, the video will function as a freestanding clip. To create a video slideshow, youll want to make all your project clips the same size, or nearly the same size. Using clips of equal size evens the pacing of your movie. Its easy to do with the auto selection feature in iMovie, which always selects the same amount of source video in a single click. To add clips to your project: 1 Click a source video clip to select a frame range that you want to include in your project. Four seconds of video are automatically selected. 2 Click the Add to Project button in the middle of the iMovie toolbar to add video to the end of your project, or drag the video selection to where you want it to appear in your project.

Add to Project button

3 Continue selecting video and adding it to your project. 4 In the project, drag the clips around to rearrange them in any order you want. You can preview your project by playing it one of the following ways: To play a selected project from the beginning: m Click the Play Project button below the Project Library, or press the Backslash (\) key. To play a selected project from any point: m Press the Space bar or double-click the frame where you want to begin playing. To stop playing your project video: m Press the Space bar or click anywhere in the iMovie window. To play a selected clip or frame range in your project: m Press the Slash (/) key. To play a selected project full screen: 1 Choose where you want to begin playing the project: To begin playing from wherever the pointer is resting, press Command (x)-G. To play a project from the beginning, select any clip in the project and click the Play Full Screen button below the Project Library. 2 Move the pointer and click the filmstrip that appears, and then skim forward and backward through the video. 3 Press the Escape key to exit full-screen mode. As you work on your project, you can expand and contract the project filmstrips to see more or fewer frames within each clip as you work. Your project filmstrips and source video filmstrips dont have to be expanded to the same setting. To expand or contract project filmstrips: m Drag the project thumbnail slider directly below your project.

After youve adjusted the duration of a video clip or made another change to your project, you may want to preview the change by playing just a few seconds of video and then make further adjustments. iMovie provides keyboard shortcuts to make this quick preview easier. To see a short preview of your edit: m Make sure your pointer is placed at the point where youve made the edit, and then do one of the following: Press the left bracket key ([) to play one second of video ahead of where the pointer is placed, and one second beyond. If the pointer is resting within a selected frame range, the pressing the left bracket key will play only one second of video, either starting at the beginning of the selection or finishing at the end of the selection, depending on which side of the selection the pointer is nearer to. Press the right bracket key (]) to play three seconds of video ahead of where the pointer is placed and three seconds beyond. If the pointer is resting within a selected frame range, the pressing the right bracket key will play only three seconds of video, either starting at the beginning of the selection or finishing at the end of the selection, depending on which side of the selection the pointer is nearer to. For additional keyboard shortcuts that can help you work more efficiently, search for keyboard shortcuts in iMovie Help.
Adding Transitions Between Clips in Your Project
To add variety and interest to your iMovie project, you can insert transitions that smooth the movement between video clips. For example, you can make the images from the last frames of one clip fade into the first frames of the following clip, or you can create the appearance that one scene is pushing the previous scene off the screen. iMovie comes with several handsomely styled transitions that can add flair to your project.
To add a transition between two clips: 1 Choose Window > Transitions, or click the Transitions button in the iMovie toolbar. In the Transitions pane, you can preview the available transition styles by letting the pointer rest over each one. 2 Select the transition you want and drag it between two clips in your iMovie project. A black transition icon appears.

Transition icon

To preview the transition in your project: m Double-click anywhere in the clip just in front of the transition to play through it, or skim through it by dragging the pointer across the transition as quickly or slowly as you want. If you dont like the way it looks, you can drag another transition over it to replace it, or delete it and add a different transition at any time. To delete a transition: m Select the black transition icon, and then press the Delete key. Try out different transitions to see how they look at different points in your project. To close the Transitions pane: m Click the Transitions button in the iMovie toolbar. The length of time between one clip and the next through a transition is called the transitions duration. A transition can never have a duration thats greater than half the duration of the shorter clip on either side of it. So, for example, if you have a transition between one clip thats four seconds long, and another thats six seconds long, the transition cannot be more than two seconds long. By default, all the transitions in your project are set to one half of one second. You can change the duration of transitions in the project properties window or by choosing Edit > Set Duration. For more details, search for transition duration in iMovie Help. You can also have iMovie automatically insert the same transition between every clip in your project. To learn more about this, search for automatic transitions in iMovie Help.

To change the Ken Burns effect: 1 Select the photo in your project, and then click the Crop button in the iMovie toolbar. 2 In the viewer, click Ken Burns. Two crop rectangles appear in the viewer. The green crop rectangle indicates the startpoint of the Ken Burns effect and the red crop rectangle indicates the endpoint of the Ken Burns effect. You can quickly exchange the positions of the red and green crop rectangles by clicking the small button with two arrows inside the selected crop rectangle. 3 Drag to resize and reposition the green crop rectangle until it highlights where you want the Ken Burns effect to begin.
Click to create or change the Ken Burns effect. Click to crop the image with no motion effects. Click to restore the image to full frame with no motion effects. Click to rotate the entire image. Click when youre done. Click to preview your work.
Click to switch the places of the startpoints and endpoints.
Drag and resize the red crop rectangle to set the end position.
Drag and resize the green crop rectangle to set the start position.
4 Drag to resize and reposition the red crop rectangle until it highlights the final position for the Ken Burns effect. The crop rectangles always retain the aspect ratio that youve chosen for your project. 5 To preview your work, click the Play button.
6 When you like the way it looks, click Done. Youll see a crop icon at the beginning of the clip. The same crop icon represents a clip that has been simply cropped or rotated, or to which the Ken Burns effect has been added.
Click the crop icon to change or remove the crop at any time. You can remove the Ken Burns effect and restore your video to the original size at any time by opening the crop editor and clicking Fit. You can also rotate an image in iMovie. To learn how, search for topics about rotating images in iMovie Help.
Rotating and Cropping Images
The rotation buttons that appear when you crop images or apply the Ken Burns effect allow you to change the orientation of the image by 90 degree increments. If you have a photo or video that was shot with the camera turned sideways, this allows you to set it straight again. Likewise, you can crop photos or video that dont fit the aspect ratio youve chosen for your project. When you export your movie, it will fit the dimensions of the widest video or photos youve included in it, causing pillar boxing or letterboxing. Cropping photos and video to fit the same dimensions can prevent this.

Continue to Explore iMovie
Congratulations, youve completed the tutorial. Now that youre familiar with the basic tools and features of iMovie, you can continue importing and enjoying your video whenever you want, and creating and sharing more movies. In iMovie Help, you can learn more tips for working with video and sound, including shortcuts for working with video, and much more. Here are just a few more things you can do with iMovie: Adjust color, brightness, contrast, and other images qualities. Tag your video with keywords for easy retrieval of specific moments. Customize your workspace to suit your working style. Share your movie across a variety of formats and devices. iMovie allows you to create movies in a number of different formats so that you can show your movie in almost any digital medium, including the following: Sending it in an email message Burning it to a DVD with iDVD Saving it as a QuickTime movie in a variety of formats For information about sharing your movie in these ways, see topics about sharing your movie in iMovie Help. iMovie offers advanced tools for working more quickly and flexibly with your video after you get comfortable with the basics. Using the advanced tools, you can perform many of the tasks of this tutorial on the fly, including tagging your video with keywords and enhancing video. For more information about advanced tools, see the topics about using advanced tools in iMovie Help.

Getting More Help

There are several resources you can consult for additional help using iMovie: Onscreen help: iMovie comes with a built-in help system. When iMovie is open, choose Help > iMovie Help. When the help page opens, type a word or phrase into the search field at the top of the page, or click one of the topic areas to get detailed instructions for completing specific tasks. Video tutorials (www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/imovie): These short video tutorials demonstrate how to do common tasks in iMovie. To access them, choose Help, and then click How-To Videos. (These tutorials are available in some languages only.) iMovie support website (www.apple.com/support/imovie): Look here for helpful community discussion boards, as well as detailed troubleshooting information and software updates.

The following Voluntary Product Accessibility information refers to iMovie 08 for Mac OS X. For more information on the accessibility features of Mac OS X and iMovie, visit Apples accessibility web site at http://www.apple.com/accessibility Summary Table Voluntary Product Accessibility Template

Criteria

1194.21 Software applications and operating systems. 1194.22 Web-based intranet and internet information and applications. 1194.23 Telecommunications products. 1194.24 Video and multimedia products. 1194.25 Self contained, closed products. 1194.26 Desktop and portable computers. 1194.31 Functional performance criteria. 1194.41 Information, documentation, and support.

Supporting Features

Please refer to the attached VPAT Not Applicable Not Applicable Not Applicable Not Applicable Not Applicable Please refer to the attached VPAT Please refer to the attached VPAT
Subpart B -- Technical Standards 1194.21 Software applications and operating systems.
Criteria Supporting Features Remarks and explanations
(a) When software is designed to run on a system that has a keyboard, product functions shall be executable from a keyboard where the function itself or the result of performing a function can be discerned textually. (b) Applications shall not disrupt or disable activated features of other products that are identified as accessibility features, where those features are developed and documented according to industry standards. Applications also shall not disrupt or disable activated features of any operating system that are identified as accessibility features where the application programming interface for those accessibility features has been documented by the manufacturer of the operating system and is available to the product developer. (c) A well-defined on-screen indication of the current focus shall be provided that moves among interactive interface elements as the input focus changes. The focus shall be programmatically exposed so that assistive technology can track focus and focus changes. (d) Sufficient information about a user interface element including the identity, operation and state of the element shall be available to assistive technology. When an image represents a program element, the information conveyed by the image must also be available in text. (e) When bitmap images are used to identify controls, status indicators, or other programmatic elements, the meaning assigned to those images shall be consistent throughout an application's performance.

Partially supported

Many basic functions in iMovie can be operated from the keyboard. The HUDs can be opened using keyboard shortcuts. In most dialog boxes, the form elements can be controlled from the keyboard.

Supported

The focus in some dialog boxes can be detected.

Not supported

Some on-screen controls may be correctly labeled or adjusted.
(f) Textual information shall be provided through operating system functions for displaying text. The minimum information that shall be made available is text content, text input caret location, and text attributes. (g) Applications shall not override user selected contrast and color selections and other individual display attributes. (h) When animation is displayed, the information shall be displayable in at least one nonanimated presentation mode at the option of the user. (i) Color coding shall not be used as the only means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element. (j) When a product permits a user to adjust color and contrast settings, a variety of color selections capable of producing a range of contrast levels shall be provided. (k) Software shall not use flashing or blinking text, objects, or other elements having a flash or blink frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz. (l) When electronic forms are used, the form shall allow people using assistive technology to access the information, field elements, and functionality required for completion and submission of the form, including all directions and cues.

The VoiceOver speak text function works when the mouse is passed over elements in dialog boxes.
Some on-screen controls are properly labeled and adjusted.
The Video Adjustments HUD can be used to adjust color and contrast properties.

See 1194.21(a) and (f)

Subpart C -- Functional Performance Criteria 1194.31 Functional performance criteria.
(a) At least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require user vision shall be provided, or support for Assistive Technology used by people who are blind or visually impaired shall be provided. (b) At least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require visual acuity greater than 20/70 shall be provided in audio and enlarged print output working together or independently, or support for assistive technology used by people who are visually impaired shall be provided. (c) At least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require user hearing shall be provided, or support for assistive technology used by people who are deaf or hard of hearing shall be provided. (d) Where audio information is important for the use of a product, at least one mode of operation and information retrieval shall be provided in an enhanced auditory fashion, or support for assistive hearing devices shall be provided. (e) At least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require user speech shall be provided, or support for assistive technology used by people with disabilities shall be provided. (f) At least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require fine motor control or simultaneous actions and that is operable with limited reach and strength shall be provided.
iMovie can be successfully operated by users who are visually impaired and rely on a screen magnifier or custom-display alterations.
Visual alerts can be used in place of audible alerts.
Subpart D -- Information, Documentation, and Support 1194.41 Information, documentation, and support.
(a) Product support documentation provided to end-users shall be made available in alternate formats upon request, at no additional charge. (b) End-users shall have access to a description of the accessibility and compatibility features of products in alternate formats or alternate methods upon request, at no additional charge. (c) Support services for products shall accommodate the communication needs of end-users with disabilities.

Online documentation can be found at http://www.apple.com/support/imovie/
Information about Apples built-in access technologies is available at http://www.apple.com/accessibility.
E-mail support and discussion groups are available at http://www.apple.com/support/imovie/
Apple does not promise that the information provided in this document will be error-free, or that any errors will be corrected, or that your use of the information will provide specific results. THE DOCUMENT AND ITS CONTENT ARE DELIVERED ON AN AS-IS BASIS. ALL INFORMATION PROVIDED IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. APPLE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTIES OF ACCURACY, NONINFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.