How to use Windows Movie Maker

Using the Tools1

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The Task Pane1. Capture video actually allows you to import video,

pictures, and audio. Just click and navigate to your file (avi, jpg, gif, mp3, etc…)

2. Edit Movie allows you to add effects and transitions to your videos, pictures, and audio. It also lets you add titles and credits to your movie.

3. Finish Movie turns your project into the movie. You MUST save it to your computer for the final product. Your project is a .mswmm file, but the final project must be .wmv.

4. If you lose the task pane, go to View>Task Pane from the top menu items.

The Collection Field

The Collection field is where your picture, audio, and sound files will appear after you import them from Step 1 of the Capture Video option. Above, you see a sample of a sound file, video file, and a picture file.

Your Video

The Video gives you the preview of the movie you’re making. After placing an object into a timeline or storyboard field, you can run your movie to see how it will look.

The Timeline ToolThe timeline allows you to edit sound and pictures together. You can drag video and sound files from the collection field to the Audio track. It’s best to use audacity of you want to use multiple sounds.

Along the top, you can see the time sequence of the movie. You can use the magnifying glass to zoom in or out on the time. You can shorten a video clip from the end, but you cannot make it longer. You can edit the middle, but it’s tricky to do.

The Storyboard Tool

The storyboard is easier to work in, especially for pictures. From the Collection. Just drag and drop the file into the larger boxes in the order you want them to appear. You can drag and drop pictures and videos, but not sounds files with it automatically switching you back to the Timeline view.

Video Effects

You can add effects to your pictures and sounds using Video Effects found in Step 2, Edit Movie found in the Task Pane. When you select this, you’ll see a small star appear on your storyboard slide. Just click on View Video Effects and drag the desired effect onto the star. You can add two effects to one slide.

Video Effects

TransitionsThe smaller boxes are from transitions you pick from Step 2, Edit Movie. Just click View Video Transitions from the Task Pane and click and drag the desired transition effect. If you want to use the same transition, you can insert the transition into the first small box, click back in the box, copy it, and then paste it into the rest of the small boxes.

Sample Transitions

Make Titles or Credits

In Step 2, Edit Movie, click on Make Titles or Credits. You’ll get this menu in the next window.

Make Titles or Credits

Places a title as the first slide. Places text before the chosen slide. Places text on a slide. Places text after the chosen slide. Places a title as the last slide.

Make Titles or Credits

Each option allows you to pick an effect, font, color, and font size. You can also pick animation for your text.For each of these, you can see how it will look in the Video field.

Audio/Music Field

In your Timeline field, you can add different sounds. However, in Movie Maker, you can only have one sound playing at a time. So, if you want soft sound playing behind your recorded voice, you cannot do that. You should use Audacity to layer sounds, save that as an MP3 file, then import that MP3 into Movie Maker.With other sounds, you can shorten them by moving your mouse to either end of the sound file (where the triangle is in the picture above for example, and once the hand turns into a double red arrow, you can shrink the size of the audio file.You can also shift the sound files in the Timeline view by clicking and dragging the sound field to the left or right.

Converting your projectTo finish your movie, Got to Step 3, Finish Movie. Choose Save to My Computer.The Save Movie Wizard window will open.

Step 1, Name Your MovieStep 2, Save it to your desktop

Converting your projectTo finish your movie, Got to Step 3, Finish Movie. Choose Save to My Computer.The Save Movie Wizard window will open.To get the best quality:Step 3, You’re best off choosing the bottom button and choosing High Quality Video. This may not always be the best option however.When you click next, the movie will convert. It may take a while depending on the length of your movie.

RemindersWhile you are working on your project in the .mswmm file, you can edit anything you need to edit. This is not the final copy.

Once converted, your movie will be a .wmv file. You cannot edit this anymore. But this is the version you want to give people. So make sure you are 100% satisfied with the .mswmm version before converting to .wmv.

PowerPointA great trick with Movie Maker is to actually create your project in PowerPoint first, then save your PowerPoint as a .jpg. You can do this by going to File>Save As> and scroll down to .jpg.

PowerPointThe next window asks if you want to save every picture or the current slide. You decide. Either way, it saves the .jpgs into a folder and you can simply insert each PowerPoint slide into Movie Maker.

PowerPoint sounds, transitions, and effects do not transfer to Movie Maker, just the slide.