This tutorial is based on Adobe Premiere 5.1 for Apple Mac. The Windows version is very similar but newer versions of Premiere (version 6+) are slightly different.

The timeline window is where you assemble your grand vision. Placement of all your video and audio clips is controlled by placing them on the timeline, which forms the main area of the timeline window, with various buttons and tags at the left hand edge.

The timeline has a number of channels (3 audio and 2 video when you start a project, but you can add more). The left hand end of the timeline represents the beginning of your project, and time extends to the right. All audio channels can be heard at the same time, and the volume levels of each clip can be controlled by setting the red lines which can be seen in the picture below. If your audio (or video) tracks are minimised and these red lines are not visible, click on the triangle beside the track's name (just to the left of the timeline) to expand them. Next to this control are two check boxes. The first allows you to hide the track (so it is not audible/visible when the project is played back - it stays visible on the timeline). The second locks the track so that it cannot be edited, and is not affected by the multiple selection tools (see below).

You'll notice that the video clip on video channel two also has a similar red line on it. This controls the opacity of the clip - when the line is right at the top of the box, the clip is opaque, and when the line is right at the bottom it is completely transparent. In between are degrees of transparency, so you can create a fade by having a gradual change in opacity, as illustrated. This system means that it is possible to have video clips on the timeline which cannot be seen. Clips on the higher channels take precedence, so if a completely opaque clip with no transparency effects applied was placed on channel six, this would block out channels one to five.

Video channel one is different from the other channels, because it is split into Video 1A and Video 1B, with a transitions track in between.

At the top of the timeline window, just above the strip with the time marked on it, is a blue strip, book-ended with small white triangles. This is used to define your work area, which tells Premiere what part of the timeline to render when you press return.

In the top left corner of the timeline window is a selection of different tools. They are:

1. The selection tool ¨C used to select and move individual clips, or to select empty areas of the timeline.
2. The multiple selection tools ¨C hold down the mouse button on this button to bring up an array of four different tools. The first allows you to draw a rectangular box around the clips you wish to select, and move them around the timeline, although they may only be placed in an empty space which is large to contain all the clips. The second is the virtual clips tool. The third tool selects all of the clips in a single track, from the point where you click to the end of the timeline, and fourth does the same, but for all the track (audio and video).
3. There are lots of tools here. Some are quite useful (rate stretch tool, ripple edit tool, rolling edit tool) and some less so (slip tool and slide tool).
4. Razer tool. This allows you to cut clips into smaller pieces after you put them on the timeline. If video and audio clips are tied together, you will cut them both. If you wish to avoid this, you will have to break the link between them ('edit>break link'). Also in here are the multiple razor tool (cuts clips across all channels of the timeline) and the fade scissors tool, which is a complete waste of time.
5. Hand tool. Use it to wave bye bye at people. It also scrolls the timeline window if you click and drag. nobody ever uses it. This shares its space with the link over ride tool, which allows you to move part of a linked clip without breaking the link first. This is rarely useful, but can come in handy if you have audio and video which are out of sync.
6. Magnifying glass. Use it to zoom in and out of the timeline (in a timebase sense). This is slower and more awkward than using the drop-down menu at the bottom left of the timeline window, so use that instead.
7. There are three tools on offer here. First, the cross fade tool. This automatically creates cross-fades between audio clips. Make sure the two clips overlap, and then click on one of them, and Premiere will create a cross fade which last for the duration of the overlap. The second is a tool for adjusting the audio level across the whole length of an audio clip. You can achieve the same thing by holding down shift when you change the audio level. Third, the soft link tool, which allows you to link audio and video clips (they don't have to be from the same clip originally). Only a single video and audio clip can be linked.
8. There are two tools here ¨C the in point tool, and the out point tool. Guess what they do.

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