Above all, thanks to my lovely bride Nicki and my amazing kids, Kell, Tia, and Jeffrey. They make these booksand everything elsepossible.
Many thanks to David Pogue for another great opportunity to collaborate and for his masterful writing and editing (even if keeping up with his writing prowess felt like chasing an Olympic sprinter). Thanks as well to Peter McKie for expert support and guidance, and to the OReilly professionals behind the scenes who make it all look incredible.
Thanks to Peter Miller for great advice, and to all the friends and family members whose smiling faces appear throughout the book. Great thanks as well to my colleagues in the Romney Institute of Public Management and the Marriott School of Management at BYU, where I am surrounded by great thinkers and talented writers.
I also join with Mac owners everywhere in giving thanks to Randy Ubillos and the entire iMovie team, whose abilities turn our home movies into treasures. Warmest thanks, in particular, to Randy for kindly and patiently answering questions.
Finally, my deepest gratitude to Katie, Luke, Sam, Thomas, and Seth for love, support, and antics that make great home movies.
The Missing Manual Series
Missing Manuals are witty, superbly written guides to computer products that dont come with printed manuals (which is just about all of them). Each book features a handcrafted index.
Recent and upcoming titles include:
WordPress: The Missing Manual, Second Edition by Matthew MacDonald
iPhoto: The Missing Manual by David Pogue and Lesa Snider
iWork: The Missing Manual by Jessica Thornsby and Josh Clark
Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Mavericks Edition by David Pogue
OS X Mavericks: The Missing Manual by David Pogue
HTML5: The Missing Manual, Second Edition by Matthew MacDonald
Dreamweaver CC: The Missing Manual by David Sawyer McFarland and Chris Grover
Windows 8.1: The Missing Manual by David Pogue
iPad: the Missing Manual, Sixth Edition by J.D. Biersdorfer
Quickbooks 2014: The Missing Manual by Bonnie Biafore
iPhone: the Missing Manual, Seventh Edition by David Pogue
Photoshop Elements 12: The Missing Manual by Barbara Brundage
Galaxy S4: The Missing Manual by Preston Gralla
Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual by Lesa Snider
Office 2013: The Missing Manual by Nancy Connor and Matthew MacDonald
Excel 2013: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald
Microsoft Project 2013: The Missing Manual by Bonnie Biafore
Access 2013: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald
For a full list of all Missing Manuals in print, go to www.missingmanuals.com/library.html.
Introduction
Whether this is your first time using iMovie or youre an old hand, you have a lot to look forward to. iMovie is incredibly powerful software, but you might not know it from the surface. Under the hood, it does intensely complex things (like stabilizing shaky footage) that video editors in the past wouldve sold their children for.
And thats the whole point of iMovie, to do amazing things with your footage without requiring years (or even days) of expertise. Still, when you first open the software, you wont realize all of iMovies full power. This book will introduce you to iMovie, diving into all its features (and even into a few nooks and crannies), so you can draw on all its abilities.
The Difficult Birth of the New iMovie
Within six months of its release in October 1999, iMovie had become, in the words of beaming iMovie papa (and Apple CEO) Steve Jobs, the most popular video-editing software in the world.
Apple only fanned the flames when it released iMovie 2 in July 2000 (for $50), iMovie 3 in January 2003 (for free), and thenas part of the iLife software suiteiMovie 4, iMovie HD, and iMovie 6 in successive Januaries.
Then, in August 2007, Apple dropped a bombshell. Or, rather, it dropped iMovie.