The Advanced Trim tool lets you adjust a clip against its neighbors with three edits — slip, slide, and roll. Each one changes timing without leaving a gap: the surrounding clips stay put or shift to absorb the change, so the rest of your edit keeps its rhythm.
Turn the tool on once and it stays active for every edit until you switch tools:
- In Sequence, open the project and click Advanced Trim in the control bar above the timeline (or press Y).
- Move your pointer over a clip. The pointer changes to show which edit you'll make — slip on the clip body, slide when you hold the modifier key, roll on a cut point.
Which edit you get depends on where you drag and whether you hold a key:
- Slip: drag the body of a clip.
- Slide: hold Option (Windows: Alt) and drag the body of a clip.
- Roll: drag the cut point between two clips.
While you drag, a small tooltip follows the pointer showing how far you've moved as a signed timecode (for example, +00:12 or -05;02). If the move isn't possible, the tooltip and cursor change to a "not allowed" state.
Slip a clip#
Slipping changes which part of the source plays inside a clip without moving the clip or its neighbors. The clip stays in the same place and keeps the same length — only the in and out points slide together, so you see earlier or later footage in the same slot.
- With Advanced Trim active, drag left or right on the body of a clip in the timeline.
- Release when the frame you want is in place.
The clip's start and end move to different source frames, but its position and duration on the timeline don't change, and no neighboring clip moves. The delta tooltip shows how far you've slipped.
Note
Slipping needs spare source media beyond the clip's edit — the extra footage on either side of the in and out points, called handles. If a clip is already using all of its available media, there's nothing to slip into, and the cursor shows the "not allowed" state.
Slide a clip#
Sliding moves a clip earlier or later in the timeline while its neighbors adjust to fill the space it leaves and make room where it lands. The clip you're moving keeps its content and length; the clips before and after it grow or shrink to compensate.
- With Advanced Trim active, hold Option (Windows: Alt).
- Drag the body of the clip left or right, then release.
The clip moves to its new spot, the clip before it and the clip after it retime to close and open the gap, and the overall timeline length stays the same.
Tip
You can switch between slip and slide in the middle of a drag: press or release Option (Windows: Alt) without letting go of the mouse, and the edit changes to match.
Roll a cut point#
Rolling moves the cut point (the edit point — the shared edge where one clip ends and the next begins) between two adjacent clips. One clip gets longer and the other gets shorter by the same amount, so the two clips together occupy exactly the same span and nothing else on the timeline shifts.
- With Advanced Trim active, move your pointer over the cut point between two clips until the roll cursor appears.
- Drag the cut point left or right, then release.
Sequence extends one clip and trims the other to match, keeping the combined length fixed. The delta tooltip shows how far you've moved the cut.
Note
Rolling and sliding both borrow frames from the neighboring clips, so each neighbor needs enough media to give. When a clip runs out of frames to lend, the edit stops at that limit and the cursor shows the "not allowed" state.