Getting to Know PowerDirector’s Interface

Welcome to the Learning Center where you can learn the fundamentals of video editing through our step-by-step tutorials. This tutorial covers a few basic features on how to navigate through PowerDirector’s ‘workspace’ interface.

A First Look at the Interface

The ‘workspace’ in the Edit module is where most of the video editing happens.

A - Preview Window, B - Library Window, C - Rooms, D - Timeline.

A. Preview Window

The player controls lets you preview your ongoing video production as you edit. This means you can pause, preview and playback your project from any position in the timeline.

Undocking the Preview Window

You can also undock the Preview Window from the workspace for a clearer preview – particularly useful if wish to view an enlarged preview window on a dual-monitor setup. Click the button (marked in yellow on the image below) to undock the preview window.

Similarly, click the button (marked in yellow) to dock the preview window back into the workspace.

B. Media Library

The Media Library contains all of the media imported into PowerDirector, including your videos, images, and audio files, which include voice over recordings and sound effects. You can also access stock media, a number of useful color boards, and background music for your video production.

C. Titles, Transitions, Effects, Overlays, Subtitles, Templates

At the top of the editor, you will find various edit modules where you can apply creative effects, titles, transitions, and more while editing your video production.

D. Timeline

Timeline is the main area where you can arrange all your source materials - videos, photos, music and effects. Timeline lets you view your entire project based on its run-time. To add a video, photo, audio or effect component to the timeline, simply drag and drop the item from your media library onto the timeline.

Adding Tracks to Timeline

Each track on the timeline contains a video track and an audio track. You can choose to only add the video or audio track when adding additional tracks. Click  to add additional video tracks and/or audio tracks in the Track Manager. PowerDirector allows you to add up to 100 video tracks (and corresponding audio tracks) to the timeline.

Adjust Track Height

You can adjust the height of the timeline in order to view more tracks in a single view. Alternatively, you can also decrease the height of the timeline if you wish to view the thumbnail snapshots or audio track waveforms in more detail.

Right-click on the sidebar to the left of a track on your timeline and you’ll find the option to change your track’s height. The track height can be displayed as Small, Medium or Large.

View Entire Editing Workspace

To view your entire project, just right click the mouse on the timeline ruler and then select View Entire Movie in the pop-up menu.

Tip:  You can also click and drag the slider in the lower left corner to resize the timeline view, or click the highlighted icon on the top left corner to view the entire movie production.