iMovie 11 interface... Is it me or is it awkward?

[Pheo]

I'm trying to edit some video on my Mac Mini, and the event selection interface is really starting to get on my nerves - I'm finding it really hard to get to grips with, I keep getting menus instead of selecting clips, not being able to drag and drop them etc

Just wondering if its just me and the learning curve (I've used it a couple of times before but not that much)

Does anyone know of some good guides which arnt Janet and John / aimed at my parents, but could allow me to get to grips with the interface a bit easier?

Also wondering if I should bin off my Magic Trackpad for this and use a mouse!

 

[jamesjingyi]

In short, yes

It is different and you will get used to it... eventually

 

[swingerofbirch]

I haven't "gotten" iMovie since iMovie 06 HD. Every version from the first through iMovie 06 HD made perfect sense to me. I've long said that the best type of software is one that makes easy to understand paradigms that then allow the user to do powerful things. For example, in early GUI OS's you could drag a file inside a folder. And then you realized you could drag that folder inside another folder, or drag it to a floppy disk. It was so powerful because there was one simple paradigm that could be extended in multiple ways.

I've seen Apple move to Windows' old method of doing things, which was to have Wizards. Apple anticipates what you should want to do but takes away those simple paradigms that make you so powerful.

I was helped in this thread I started:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1381161/

I learned how to turn off the magnetic timeline in FCP X, but I'm not sure if that's possible in iMovie.

To me, iMovie is a jumbled, confusing mess. I can't figure it out. And even though I don't understand the precision editor, and maybe it's fine and dandy, it's another example of Apple creating more interfaces rather than just creating one powerful paradigm of how you work with video. To me it's going backward in time, back to when computers were less natural and intuitive. I can't even seem to place clips where I want them with the precision editor.

If you go to iMovie Help they have steps for making cookie-cutter projects, but I remember being able to do arbitrary things with video, not things Apple had planned out for me, like movie trailers.

Sorry this probably wasn't too helpful.

 

[Dave Braine]

Does anyone know of some good guides

Work through iMovie Help. Most of what you want will be in there.