Hello there :) So i'm completely new to vegas (5.0). Now being that I've stuck with adobe products for so long (after effects, premiere pro, photoshop etc)..The set up of Sony Vegas is like.. completely confusing to me. I figured this would be the place to come to for some help.

I am so used to my old editing softwares ( i still use my first one.. Ulead 10 because I know my way around it so well) but I want to move to more advanced softwares, and tackling vegas is definetly a challenge for me. Everything is different.

So here's the deal.. I open vegas, I import a clip of video I uploaded for another project just to mess around with vegas.. the clip is imported and its sitting on my timeline.. now.. I cannot figure out.. how to cut a clip.. as in.. trim it down.. to make segments of the video.

Second of all, In my other editing software the audio is fine.. when imported to vegas.. it's.. gone.. Except for a short like 1.5 second clip.

What I want to know.. is how do I trim clips. And whats up with my audio being gone? Perhaps it's just the clip..

Oh and I chose that "open in trimmer" button, which seemed like it might do the trick, but too confusing for me.

If anyone can clearly explain the steps that would be GREAT.

P.s I have tried looking up tutorials, even for the basics and beginners, and NONE actually explain how to do this.. but if you know some video tutorials that actually touch on this then feel free to send the links my way

Sony vegas definetly is more difficult to learn than premiere pro.. or any other software i've encountered.. and usually I pick up on these things fairly quickly, but not this time

Thanks so much for your help!

I believe your looking for the "s" key....just hit s for split...

Good luck,
Bob T.

Check out the Vegas Training Videos (http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/support/trainingvids.asp?prod=vegas5)
on the Sony site.
These are excerpts from their Vegas 5 Seminar series.

Also, check out the Vegas shortcuts and mouse gestures sticky post. That will give you a printout of all the keyboard shortcuts that you can use in Vegas.

Ditto to the shortcuts sticky thread. In particular, some of the modifiers enable roll and slip editing (see the link I posted in there).

2- You can do things from the trimmer, where you make a selection by hitting i and o to set in and out points, or drag-selecting with the mouse. Then you hit the button that puts the clip into your timeline, or you just drag and drop.

F, Crtl F, and Crtl Shift F will ripple your tracks. Crtl Shift F is most useful... you may want to map it to something that's less of a fingerful (like d, though you have to unmap d first).

Wow, who knew.. the "s" key.. lol, so why isn't there an actual drop down choice for "split" .. like when you right click.. or a tool or something.. But I mean, S is easy enough, but thanks for the quick responses everyone, i'll be sure to check out the shortcuts thread the resources, I appreciate it. I was getting so frustrated I was about to run back to good old easy Ulead.

Oh, and i was wondering, there is a feature I often use in my old software for saving a frame as a still image, is there anything of that sort in Vegas?

In the video preview window, there is a button that does that. The floppy disk icon.

You can also copy the frame into your clipboard.

To add to what Glenn said, make sure you set your preview window to Best/Full before you do save a frame.
The quality of the saved frame is dependent on this setting.

As a general rule, when I don't know how to do something, the easiest way to figure it out is to say "what would be the easiest way to do this?", think of an answer, then try it out.

Problem: I don't know how to split a clip.
Question: What would be the easiest way to do this?
Answer: Press "s" for split.

This kind of logic is why I'm using Vegas even though PP is probably ahead on features right now.

Now that i'm figuring things out a bit more (those videos were helpful for a newbie!) The features in Vegas are great! It's actually alot easier than I thought it was once I started watching a few of those videos. Thanks so much for your help!