Selection Methods

Concerning Selection methods, the following information is partially pertinent to all editing, but is most important to keep in mind when using Drag and Drop Editing.

Originally, there was the column oriented timeline drag selection which can be seen in 1 of 3 ways:

1. a highlighted vertical column
2. the colored line region between the [ in and out ] marker labels
3. a single flashing line

The selection priority works like this. When the highlighted vertical drag column is in use (1), it has the highest precedence and is used as the selection. When the column is a single line (2), then the fall back selection is the [ in/out ] marker region, if they are set. When they are not set, and the cursor is flashing, then the selection start=end and the selection is empty, but it does have a position on the timeline which can be used for editing. This is input for the vertical style cut/paste drag/drop editing.

More recently, in addition to the column oriented timeline drag selection, there is now group capabilities which have various edit selections. These are created in the Drag and Drop editing mode by clicking edits to toggle select/deselection. These groups are input to a different (more modern) set of cut, paste and overwrite drag/drop editing. You can see this set of operations when you click on an edit with the middle mouse button, and are also available using the shortcuts shown. They are more like text editor commands to include ctrl+x=cut, ctrl+c=copy, ctrl+v=paste, and so on ...The keyboard Delete key is not hooked to these operations, and is hooked to the original editing methods.

In this group mode, if there are In/Out markers set, they enter the selection priority queue between the column selection and the cursor only. You can see the In/Out markers selected region colored line across the timebar (slightly underneath where the time, samples or frames show ) on the main timeline extending between the [ and ]. This means that when the highlighted cursor selection is empty, the In/Out selection will be used.

Summarizing: to select multiple edits/clips on the timeline you can simply use LMB on each edit. Or, if in Settings → Preferences → appearence tab → Flags we have enabled Clears before toggle, use CTRL + LMB on each edit.

There is also a faster way:

1. Arm the tracks you want to be used.
2. Highlight the area as usually you do with I-beam mode (or use In/Out Points; or position Insert Point over the stack of edits). If you miss an edit that you want included, the same method can be used to add it. It is an additive operation. And, it will include the partial edits in the selected area, thus making it easy to disinclude ones you do not want. It will include silence also but you can remove that or any other edit with CTRL + LMB.
3. Press MMB on a clip inside the highlight area and the PopUp menu is shown with the Select edits option on the top.
4. Choose the Select or Deselect edits option and the clips inside the highlight area will be selected or deselected.

NOTE: Select Edits/Deselect Edits option toggle between select and deselect edits. If you have selected an edit and you want to deselect it but select the edits near to it, you can highlight the area and using Deselect Edits (or Select Edits) the edits near to it will be selected while the edit selected before will be deselected. Of course it works for more edits selected before too. In practice, edits that were selected are deselected, while unselected edits (included in the selection area we created) are selected. If you want to deselect all the selected edits you must use Clear Select option by MMB.

There is a Drag mouse way (this requires that the cursor be on the first clip and from there you start the drag):

1. To Drag Select edits, hold down Alt+Left Mouse Button (LMB) and drag over the selection area. Releasing the mouse results in selecting.
2. To Drag Deselect edits. hold down Alt+Ctrl+LMB and drag over the area to be desected. Releasing the mouse results in deselecting.

If using certain operating systems (for example Ubuntu and Arch) that might field the Alt key before it gets to CINELERRA-GG, you can use the following for both Select and Deselect instead:

1. Press and hold down Ctrl+Alt+LMB on an edit
2. Drag on the edits you want to select
3. Release the Ctrl key
4. Release the LMB
5. Release the Alt key