iMovie 10.0.2 - features gone?

Question

I was using iMovie for years - nice and easy editing of family movies; was happy with the looks and tools layout. Then iMovie updated a few times (now it is 10.0.2). And I just can't find things.

• When creating a new project it was possible to specify default transition to be applied (with parameters), now it is gone. Can't add this feature once a project is created either.
• Timeline now looks like a single strip in the bottom of the screen; it used to be a multi-line strip (navigation for a larger projects was much easier).
• I was able to specify default length of selection if double clicked on the library's clip, now it is gone - double-click selects the whole clip...

And many other places where functionality seems to be reduced or missing... Is there a pay version of this iMovie? How should I go about my video editing now?

Answer 1

Fear not! All of your questions have answers.

• To add transitions between all clips, select all the clips, and go to the menu "Edit > Add Cross Dissolve" or Command-T. Granted, this doesn't add transitions by default, but it works nonetheless. Just select any new clips you get, and hit Command-T.
• To make the strip at the bottom loop, it's now an option in the menu "View > Wrapping Timeline." Personally, though, I think it's a little unwieldy that photos are torn on wrapping, but that's just a look difference, not a difference in operation.
• And to set the length of all clips together, you can select all, or select all of just photos/videos/etc. (in the new "Edit > Select in Movie > ..."). Once you've selected them, go to Adjust (above the video) then click the little i for clip information, and you can type in the "Duration" to change them all at once. (Note, if it's still importing, I'd suggest waiting till the import is complete, as I tried typing a number in for duration, and it would randomly clear what I had - not sure the version's completely been debugged)

In conclusion, it does seem like the new iMovie is moving away from global default settings since at times it's more convenient to apply settings to only portions of movies. Personally, I don't despise the new iMovie. It's a big change, but it's still possible to get around with it once you can get used to it.

– People don't like change - me neither :-/

Answer 2

Assuming you haven't removed it, you can go back to iMovie version 9 and continue to use it, even after updating.

Go to Finder, then to the Applications folder. Next to iMovie there should be a folder called iMovie 9.0.4 (or similar). Within this folder is the old version of iMovie.