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What is Ripple?
Ripple refers to the automatic shifting of clips to fill gaps when you delete, trim, or move a clip. When ripple mode is enabled, all clips following the edited clip move left to close the gap—they “ripple” along the timeline.
Key Ripple Features in Shotcut:
Ripple All Tracks - There’s an icon in the Timeline toolbar that controls this feature. When ripple mode is enabled, you can use this to apply ripple edits across multiple tracks simultaneously.
Keyboard Shortcuts:
- Ripple Delete:
XorShift + DeleteorShift + Backspace— Removes a clip and shifts following clips to close the gap - Lift (non-ripple delete):
ZorDeleteorBackspace— Removes a clip but leaves a gap
When Ripple Affects Your Edit:
- Cut operations are ripple actions by default—they shift following clips to close the gap
- Transitions — If you drag a clip and create overlap with ripple OFF, you get a gap. With ripple ON, no gap
- Trimming clips — The ripple behavior depends on this fundamental setting
You can enable/disable ripple from the Timeline toolbar to control whether edits automatically close gaps or leave them behind. This gives you flexibility in how you want your timeline to behave during editing operations!