Different ways to move clips

Last updated on Jun 23, 2025

Learn how to shift clips around the Timeline to arrange your video and audio elements in Adobe Premiere Pro.

Premiere Pro offers various ways to manipulate clips in the timeline, and the method you choose may depend on the complexity of your project and your desired outcome. Use these methods to move clips according to your needs.

The simplest way to move a clip is to select the clip and drag and drop it to a different place on the timeline.

Drag and drop a selected clip to move it to a different position on the timeline.

You can also use the keyboard arrow keys to nudge selected clips left or right by small increments. This is useful for precise adjustments. Hold down the Ctrl (Windows) or command (macOS) keys while pressing the arrow keys to make larger nudge adjustments.

If you want the other clips to automatically adjust to make room for a clip when you move it, use the Ripple Edit  tool.

Use the Ripple Edit tool to trim and automatically shift adjacent clips, keeping your timeline gap-free.

You can perform insert and overwrite edits by using the comma (,) and period (.) keys, respectively. These shortcuts allow you to insert a clip at the playhead position (comma) or overwrite a clip at the playhead position (period).