How to use Windows Movie Maker

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How to use Windows Movie Maker
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Using the Tools
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1
2
4
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The Task Pane

1. 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 ViewgtTask Pane
   from the top menu items.

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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.
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Your Video
The Video gives you the preview of the movie
youre making. After placing an object into a
timeline or storyboard field, you can run your
movie to see how it will look.
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The Timeline Tool
The timeline allows you to edit sound and
pictures together. You can drag video and
sound files from the collection field to the
Audio track. Its 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 its tricky to do.
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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.
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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,
youll 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
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Transitions
The 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
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Make Titles or Credits
In Step 2, Edit Movie, click on Make Titles or
Credits. Youll get this menu in the next window.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Converting your project
To 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
Movie Step 2, Save it to your desktop
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Converting your project
To 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, Youre 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.
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Reminders
While 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.
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PowerPoint
A 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 FilegtSave Asgt and scroll down to .jpg.
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PowerPoint
The 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.