The timeline is the area of a video editing application where you arrange your video clips and map out all the edits you’d like to apply. From start to finish, you’ll see all your video clips, audio clips, effects, and transitions laid out in chronological order as you work. You’ll be able to reorder, trim, and enhance your clips — all the basics of video editing. You can also play your project at any point in the timeline to see how your edits will look.
Edits on the timeline do not alter your source files and are just previews of how edits will appear. You can undo anything you’re not happy with. Trim down a clip, and then extend it back out to full length again without consequence. Once you’re happy with your edits and are ready to export your video, Premiere Pro will encode a whole new video file incorporating all the edits you added to the timeline.
“If you’re a video editor, the video timeline is your canvas for making your art,” says cinematographer Joshua Martin. “You’re taking the footage that you shot and crafting it to make something very compelling, whatever that might be — a YouTube video, a film, a trailer, a commercial. On the timeline, you’re in full control of the story.”