How to Perform a Ripple Edit Using the Adobe Premiere Pro Trim Monitor

When you are editing in Adobe Premiere Pro you may have a clip where you will want to adjust the cut between two clips, and use variations of simple trimming known as “ripple edits.” By using this tool, you can make adjustments in a one action that would otherwise require many steps to accomplish. A ripple edit trims a clip and shifts the subsequent clips in the track by the amount you trim. When you shorten a clip by a ripple edit, you shift all clips after that cut back in time. At the same time, extending a clip shifts the clips that follow that cut forward in time.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. When you make a ripple edit, the empty space on one side of the cut is treated as a clip and shifts in time as a clip would. You can press the “Alt” key when you begin to perform a ripple edit, and it will ignore the link between video and audio linked clips.

2. Display the edit point in the trim monitor. To open the trim monitor, first click on the “Trim” button at the bottom right corner of your program monitor. The monitor will open in a pop-up window.

3. Position your mouse on the left or right image so that it becomes the “Trim-out icon” or “Trim-in icon.” The icon of the mouse pointer will change. Drag left or right to ripple-edit the corresponding clip.

4. You can also drag the timecode display under the left or right image to trim the corresponding clip, and then drag left or right to trim the corresponding clip.

5. Drag the “Out Shift” or “In Shift” timecode number to the left or to the right to ripple-edit the corresponding clip.

6. You may also click the left clip’s timecode display (for the Out point) or the right clip’s timecode display (for the In point), and then type a valid timecode number to trim the corresponding clip to that frame. Press Enter when finished.

7. Another way to do this is to click the "Out Shift" display (for the Out point) or the "In Shift" display (for In point). Type a negative number to trim left and type a positive number to trim right. Press "Enter" when finished.