Files

Before we can begin making a video, we need to import files into OpenShot. Most media file types are recognized, such as videos, images, and audio files. Files can be viewed and managed in the Project Files panel.

Import Files

There are many ways to import media files into OpenShot.

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File Menu

To view the file menu, right click on a file (in the Project Files panel). Here are the actions you can use from the file menu.

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Name Description
Import Files... Import files into your project
Thumbnail/Detail Toggle the view between details and thumbnails
Preview File Preview a media file
Split Clip... Split a file into many smaller clips
Edit Title Edit an existing title SVG file
Duplicate Title Make a copy, and then edit the copied title SVG file
Add to Timeline Add many files to the timeline in one step
File Properties View the properties of a file, such as frame rate, size, etc...
Remove from Project Remove a file from the project

Split Clip

If you need to cut a file into many smaller clips before editing, the Split Clip dialog is built exactly for this purpose. Right click on a file, and choose Split Clip... from the file menu. This opens the Split Clip dialog. Use this dialog to quickly cut out as many small clips as you need. The dialog stays open after you create a clip, to allow you to repeat the steps for your next clip. When you are finished, simply close the dialog.

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Add to Timeline

In certain cases, you might need to add many files to the timeline at the same time. For example, a photo slide show, or a large number of short video clips. The Add to Timeline dialog can automate this task for you. First, select all files you need to add, right click, and choose Add to Timeline.

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Properties

To view the properties of any imported file in your video project, right click on the file, and choose File Properties. This will launch the file properties dialog, which displays information about your media file. For certain types of images (i.e. image sequences), you can adjust the frame rate on this dialog also.

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