Copy/Paste multiple tracks

Adorable weird. Unexpected result in selecting multiple tracks, using Copy and Pasting with the head at the right spot. The tracks spread out beautifully, but why?

Maybe more than why is how do I keep them together even though it’s not hard to drag them back into position. - This is because I can make a better INTRO comment at the end of my YT videos so pasting from the end to the beginning is something I’ll be doing a lot!

Hi @PeaceGalley - you see that “wheel” type icon above the timeline which is coloured blue-ish? That means you have it switched on. It’s “Ripple all Tracks” and it’s really important to switch it off (just click it) if you don’t want strange and unwanted behaviour of your clips. Good luck!

@jonray in this case, when you need to copy a group of clips to the beginning of the timeline, disabling Ripple all Tracks will still mess up the Timeline.

I think there is a way to do it properly, but I can’t remember the method.
Hopefully someone else will post the right solution.

In the meantime @PeaceGalley , I found one method that involves a bit more steps.

  • Use a range marker to mesure the total length of the intro clips you created at the end of your project.

  • Move the range marker to position 00:00:00:00 (first frame) of the Timeline

  • Select the entire Timeline
    Timeline Menu > Selection > Select All

  • Move all the clips to the right, until the first clip snaps to the end of the range marker.

  • Deselect everything
    Timeline Menu > Selection > Select None

  • Select & Copy all the clips of your intro

  • If, for example, the highest clip of your intro is on track V2, make that track active (IMPORTANT)

  • Move the Playhead to the start of the Timeline

  • Click the Overwrite button

Oh yes, of course, so it will. I was a little hasty with my reply then. Thanks @musicalbox for putting this straight. Good workaround.

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Like @MusicalBox wrote, Paste or Overwrite with multiple clips is sensitive to the current track (highlighted gold) in a top-down fashion. Also, paste is inherently a ripple operation (not overwrite), and it honors the Ripple All Tracks option regardless of the Ripple option. This is doing the ripple-all behavior sequentially for each item pasted, which is why it behaves weird. One could argue it is a bug and the ripple-all behavior should be applied one time as a block. But that’s really hard to do and not available. Probably best to avoid that combination.

Move all the clips to the right

This is only necessary to simulate the ripple all tracks as a single block. Another way to simply move everything like a spacer tool in some editors is: turn on both Ripple and Ripple All Tracks, drag a clip to the right. Instead of using range marker to measure things, you can: open a wide gap using the ripple drag, overwrite, right-click a gap on the appropriate track, and choose Ripple Delete.

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Agreed, that is a faster way to do it.

So the steps are:

  • Enable Ripple and Ripple All Tracks
  • Grab the first clip on the timeline and drag it to the right. All the other clips will move as well.
  • Drag until the gap looks more than wide enough.
  • Select and Copy the group of clips at the end of the timeline.
  • If, for example, the highest clip in that group is on track V2, make that track active (IMPORTANT)
  • Move the Playhead to the first frame of the Timeline.
  • Click the Overwrite button.
  • Right-click the gap left between the groups of clips and choose Ripple Delete.

Don’t forget to disable Ripple and Ripple All Tracks when you’re done.

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