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Selecting and Playing Part of a Movie

To perform editing functions such as Copy and Delete, in most cases you need to first select the desired portion of a movie. (If you don't select anything, the edit commands work on the current frame.)

To select a portion of a movie, move the In and Out selection markers. The darkened area between the two markers indicates the selected portion. To fine-tune the selection, select a marker and move it with the arrow keys. You can also move the playhead and press I (for In) or O (for Out) to set the start or end point of the selection, even while the movie is playing.

To play the selection, choose View > Play Selection Only (so that the checkmark appears), then click Play. To play the whole movie, choose View > Play Selection again (to remove the checkmark).

You can save the movie (choose File > Save) so that the next time it is opened, only the part you selected plays.

Note: By default, the selection markers hide when nothing is selected, making it easy to determine whether or not a frame is selected. To turn off this option so that the selection markers appear even when nothing is selected, change the "Hide selection indicators for empty selection" option in QuickTime Player preferences.