How to Trim a Video on macOS

For those who import their photos from their iPhone or camera to their computer and edit there, you might need to know how to trim your video clips. Although sometimes you might find that you record something that either the beginning or end that you rather not keep or you just want the middle. In this case, all you need to do is trim the ends. On macOS, you have two options neither need you to download any special, top quality, pro-level software. If you import your videos to Photos you can use that. If the video is in Finder, in other words just saved on your computer, you can use QuickTime. Both ways are super simple and the steps for each are below. In both Photos and QuickTime videos are trimmed the same. That being the case when you get to that section scroll down to “The Same From Here”

Using Photos

Step 1: Open Photos

Open the Photos app and navigate to the video in your library. Once found click edit in the top right of the Photos window.

Step 2: Trim

Click on the gear next to the playback controls than in the menu click trim.

Click Here to learn how to trim in Photos

Using Quicktime

For those who don’t use Photos or you just saved the video in Finder you can use QuickTime Player.

Step 1: Find the video and Open it

Open a new Finder window by clicking the Finder icon on the dock. Now navigate to where the file is saved then open it. If you know the name of the video you can search it by using the command Command+Space to open the Spotlight Search window where you can instantly type in the name of the video. Select it from your search results by clicking on it. Either way, you open the video it should open in QuickTime Player.

Step 2: Open Trim Controls

To trim click on Edit on the menu bar then go down to Trim, or a quicker way to get there is by using the command which is Command+T.

Step 3: Trim

Click Here to learn how to trim in QuickTime Player

The Same From Here

In both Photos and QuickTime videos are trimmed the same it is also done the same way as iOS. For both QuickTime and Photos look at the timeline that appears across the bottom of the window. Notice that it is raped in a yellow. The part of your video that is selected in yellow is the video that will be saved. That being the case you can move the front of the yellow slider inwards to crop out the beginning of the clip. On the other hand, you can drag the right side of the yellow inward to cut out the end of the clip. As you edit the clip the timeline will reshape it’s self accordingly. Once you are finished click Done. Now the video will be saved with your changes.

Just like iOS if you would like to further edit your video you can download iMovie from the App Store for free.

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