To see what’s in a clip, iMovie gives you a couple of options. First, you can skim a clip to get a general idea of what it holds. To do that, drag your mouse cursor across the clip. As you do, iMovie shows you the clip in the Viewer, playing it back just as fast (or slowly) as you drag the mouse.

To play the clip at normal speed, click a spot and press the space bar. iMovie previews your clip in the Viewer. To watch a clip from the beginning, click anywhere in the clip and press the key. iMovie starts playing the clip from the beginning at normal speed.

To rename an event, click it once in the Libraries list to select it. Then, showing a bit of patience, click it again and wait a fraction of a second. When you do, iMovie highlights the old moniker, ready for you to type in a new one (Figure 3-3).

Figure 3-3. To change an event name, click it once to select it, wait a second, and then click it again. Movie highlights the text so you can change it. Then hit Return.

You can merge events, too. For example, if you filmed your kids during the month of May, and created a new event each time you imported a day’s footage, you might want to group all those clips into a single event, called something like May Madness. To do that, grab an event and drop it onto another one (Figure 3-4). The grabbed event shows up in the event where you dropped it. If you like, rename the event to reflect the grouped footage.

Figure 3-4. Merging events is just a matter of dragging one event and dropping it onto another.

To move a misplaced clip to its proper event, select the clip in the Event browser (using the techniques described on Select by Dragging) and drag it onto the name of the correct event.

To delete an event (and regain some disk space in the process), select the event and then choose File→“Move Event to Trash” (or press ⌘-R). iMovie moves the event to a hidden trash folder (described on Project Properties) and deletes it for good when you quit iMovie.

To get the event back, choose Edit→Undo (⌘-Z). Just be sure to do that before you quit iMovie. (See Aspect Ratios: The Missing Manual to read up on the mighty Undo.)

To delete individual clips from an event, use the same technique.

While iMovie includes just one stock library when you first use the program, you may see a few others as you start working. If you use either of Apple’s photo-management programs, iPhoto for casual photographers and Aperture for pros, iMovie automatically detects these libraries and adds them to its Libraries list, making it simple to pull still images or clips from either program into your projects (see Chapter 12).

In addition, once you start working on a film (Chapter 4), iMovie reveals a second library at the bottom of the Libraries list: the Content Library. It includes all the elements Apple gives you to enhance your movie: transitions, titles, maps, backgrounds, and audio tracks. (You’ll find each of these components discussed in detail in the chapters to come.)

You can work with more than one library at a time. To open a library, choose File→Open Library. If you’ve opened the library before, its name shows up in the drop-down menu; select it to go to that library. To open a library you’ve created but haven’t worked with before, choose Other, and then click the Locate button (Figure 3-6). That brings up a file chooser where you specify the library (which can be somewhere on your Mac or on any other drive connected to it). Find and select the library you need and then click Open.

Once you open a library, it shows up in the Libraries list on the left-hand side of the iMovie window.

If you’re done with a library and want it out of your way, select it in the Libraries list and choose File→Close Library.

Figure 3-5. When you create a new library by selecting File→Open Library→New, iMovie prompts you to name it.

Figure 3-6. To open a library you’ve created but haven’t worked with before, choose File→Open Library→Other, and then click Locate.