iMovie '11 & iDVD: The Missing Manual

Appendix A. iMovie ’11, Menu by Menu

As you’ve certainly noticed by now, iMovie doesn’t look like a standard Mac program. Part of its radical charm is that it represents almost all its functions onscreen. There simply aren’t many menu commands. But don’t get complacent: You’ll miss some great features if you don’t venture to the top-of-screen menu bar much.

Now, documenting iMovie menu commands is tricky because they’re constantly changing. The command that says Select All Events one minute might say Select All another, and Select Entire Clip a minute after that. The wording is always of the same gist—delete things, select things, and so on—but it changes according to the situation.

Here’s a rundown of the commands in iMovie’s menus:

iMovie Menu

In Mac OS X, Apple names the first menu (after the menu) for the program you’re using—in this case, iMovie.

About iMovie

This command opens the About box, containing the requisite Apple legal information. There’s really only one good reason to open this window: It’s the easiest way to find out exactly which version of iMovie you have.

Preferences

Opens the Preferences window (Figure A-1). (Keyboard shortcut: ⌘-comma.)

Figure A-1. You can get to this box quickly by pressing ⌘-comma, which isn’t so hard to learn considering it’s also the keystroke that ...