Premiere Elements 8: The Missing Manual

Appendix C. Premiere Elements 8 Menu by Menu

Premiere Elements 8: The Missing Manual gives you all the details, explanations, and examples you need to create awesome movies. This appendix gives you a quick description of every command in every Premiere menu.

Note

For menu-by-menu descriptions of Elements Organizer, see File Menu.

File Menu

The File menu’s commands work on your Premiere projects as a whole. For example, you can create new projects and open earlier ones. It’s also where you find commands for the important job of importing and exporting media.

New

This menu item opens a submenu listing what you can create in Premiere, like projects and folders.

Project (Ctrl+N)

When you start working in Premiere, you create a project file for your movie, which holds your movie’s timeline and all its tracks. The project file keeps tabs on all the media clips you use in your movie, but it doesn’t store the clips themselves. Instead, it uses copies of your original clips as you edit (called “previews”) but remembers where it stored the raw clips on your computer. When it’s time to create a copy of your edited movie, Premiere uses your original clips. That way, you always get the best quality video.

Folder (Ctrl+/)

Use this command to create new folders when you’re in the Project panel (Windows → Available Media). The Project panel displays all the clips you added to a project, even if you’re not currently using all those clips in your movie. You can use the folders to organize your clips; for example, ...