The control bar tools

The control bar is the floating row of tools and toggles above the timeline in Sequence. It holds the editing tools that change what clicking and dragging does, three tools for inserting elements, and a set of toggles for playback aids and the timeline view. The bar is icon-only — hover a button to see its name and keyboard shortcut in a tooltip.

Letter shortcuts (V, B, Y, R, H, P, T, C) are the same on macOS and Windows. This page lists every control in the order it appears on the bar, left to right.

Tools#

These tools change what a click or drag does in the timeline. Selecting one deactivates the others. See Timeline overview and tools for how each behaves in practice.

Select (press V): The default tool for arranging and trimming. Click a clip to select it, drag it to move it, or drag its edges to trim.

Blade (press B): Cuts a clip into two at the point you click.

Advanced Trim (press Y): Trims a clip against its neighbors for slip, slide, and roll edits that keep the surrounding clips aligned. See Slip, slide, and roll with Advanced Trim.

Retime (press R): Changes a clip's playback speed. See Retime a clip.

Hand (press H): Pans the timeline view when you drag, without moving any clips.

Insert tools#

These tools add a new element to the timeline. Like the editing tools, selecting one changes what your next click does.

Placeholder (press P): Attaches a blank placeholder element to your pointer; click in the timeline to drop it. A placeholder holds space without adding any picture or sound to the output.

Title (press T): Adds a title or text element to the timeline. See Add clips to the timeline for how inserted elements land in the edit.

Comment (press C): Draws a comment onto the timeline so collaborators can respond in context.

Toggles and view#

These controls stay on until you turn them off — they don't change what clicking does in the timeline.

Command Palette (press Cmd-K — Windows: Ctrl-K): Opens the command palette to find any tool or action by name. The button highlights while the palette is open.

Keyframes (press Shift-K): Opens or closes the keyframe panel for editing animation. The diamond icon fills in when the panel is open.

Snap (press Option-M — Windows: Alt-M): Turns snapping on or off. When snapping is on, a clip's edge pulls toward the edges of nearby clips as you drag, so cuts line up cleanly.

Audio Skimming: Turns on audio preview while you skim across clips, so you hear the sound under your pointer as you hover. It has no keyboard shortcut and starts off at the beginning of every session — click the button to turn it on.

Reflow / Track: A two-button toggle that switches the timeline between Reflow view (the default, where the timeline reflows around each edit) and Track view (your edit shown as stacked tracks). See Work with component tracks.