iMovie is a free video editing application by Apple. This app comes for macOS, iOS, and iPad OS. It was originally released back in 1999 for macOS 8. Since version 3, the app has been a macOS-only video editing app and the app has been made free to all users since 2017. The app offers a complete set of video editing tools and timeline editing. Before switching to Final Cut Pro, I also used iMovie for years. This article is not about iMovie, so I will not talk much about this free video editing software. If you use iMovie, you need to learn iMovie keyboard shortcuts to save your time and boost your productivity. I will add a table of iMovie keyboard shortcuts that you need to learn if you use iMovie.
iMovie Keyboard Shortcuts
| Navigation | |
| Space bar | Play/Stop and Start/Stop capture |
| Home (not available on some keyboards) | Move playhead to beginning of movie |
| End (not available on some keyboards) | Move playhead to end of movie |
| Right Arrow | Forward one frame |
| Shift+Right Arrow | Forward ten frames |
| Hold down Right Arrow | Move playhead forward |
| Left Arrow | Back one frame |
| Shift+Left Arrow | Back ten frames |
| Hold down Left Arrow | Move playhead backward |
| Selection | |
| Shift+click items | Select multiple items |
| Click first item then Shift+click last item | Select a range of items (in the clip viewer or timeline viewer) |
| Command+click items | Select items that are discontiguous (not adjacent to each other) |
| Moving/cropping | |
| Click clip, then Left Arrow or Right Arrow | Move audio clip |
| Click clip, then Shift+Left Arrow or Right Arrow | Move audio clip ten frames |
| Click clip in timeline viewer, then Ctrl+Left A | Move video clip to create black frames |
| Click clip in timeline viewer, then Ctrl+Shift+ | Move video clip to create ten black frames |
| Click marker+Left Arrow or Right Arrow | Move video crop marker |
| Click marker, then Shift+Left Arrow or Right Arrow | Move video crop marker ten frames |
| Accept/cancel | |
| Return | Accept dialog (OK) |
| Esc | Cancel dialog |
| Command+period (.) | Cancel rendering |
| Titling | |
| Tab | Move between text fields |
| File menu functions | |
| Command+N | New Project |
| Command+O | Open Project |
| Command+S | Save Project |
| Command+F | Save Frame As |
| Shift+Command+E | Share |
| Shift+Command+I | Import |
| Command+I | Show Info |
| Edit menu functions | |
| Command+Z | Undo |
| Shift+Command+Z | Redo |
| Command+X | Cut |
| Command+C | Copy |
| Command+V | Paste |
| Command+K | Crop |
| Command+T | Split Clip at Playhead |
| Shift+Command+S | Create Still Frame |
| Command+A | Select All |
| Shift+Command+A | Select None |
| View menu functions | |
| Command+E | Switch to Clip Viewer or Timeline Viewer |
| Option+Command+P | Scroll to Playhead |
| Option+Command+S | Scroll to Selection |
| Option+Command+Z | Zoom to Selection |
| Bookmark menu functions | |
| Command+B | Add Bookmark |
| Shift+Command+B | Delete Bookmark |
| Command+[ | Previous Bookmark |
| Command+] | Next Bookmark |
| Advanced menu functions | |
| Command+J | Extract Audio |
| Shift+Command+V | Paste Over at Playhead |
| Command+R | Reverse Clip Direction |
| Command+L | Lock Audio Clip at Playhead |
| Help menu functions | |
| Command+? | iMovie Help |
