Preview Window

Specific to the Timeline Editing interface, the Preview window is a screen for previewing movie 'clips' from Asset Bin or movie 'scenes' from Timeline strip. There are 4 video buttons (pause, play, previous frame, and next frame) and a frame scrubber lined along the bottom side of this window. They are used for playback and frame search of a movie clip or scene. On the top side of the window there is a frame display window showing both the current and total frame numbers of the previewed clip or scene. If there is a scene length symbol present next to the frame display, it means the length of the current scene had been modified. You can reset the scene to its original length or make further changes to it in the SC mode.

Note that the play button is to play a clip or scene from the beginning to end. You use pause button to temporarily stop the playback in the middle. You use previous and next buttons or the frame scrubber to locate a precise frame in that clip or scene.

To preview a clip (from Asset Bin):
you simply drag and drop a thumbnail from the Assets Bin into Preview window and the first frame of that clip will show up. Now use the video buttons and/or frame scrubber to examine the clip.

To preview a scene (from Timeline):
you can either: a. click on the thumbnail of a (Timeline) scene to have it showed up in Preview window or, b. simply drag-n-drop a thumbnail from Timeline into Preview window to have it showed up. Now use the video buttons and frame scrubber to examine the scene.

When a (scene) preview is initiated from Timeline by these methods, an arrow button on the top of PREVIEW window will become accessible for switching from TE mode to SC mode. This normally grayed out button is located on the left of letter "PREVIEW". When it is live you'll see a rollover text from this button says: COMPOSE SCENE. This button is mute if the preview is a clip drag-n-dropped from Assets Bin.

To copy a previewed clip to Timeline:
If you want to add, replace or insert a scene to your movie with the previewing clip (or scene), you simply drag a copy of the clip/scene from the Preview Window (you'll see a ghostly thumbnail of the clip as you "grab" the picture) and drop it to the desired spot in your Timeline.