WL Movie Maker PM Mike Torres Part 2: a LiveSide interview

In this second part of our interview with Mike Torres, a PM for Windows Live Movie Maker, we talk a bit more about how WLMM was built: the weekly meetings with teams from Office and Windows about how to best use the Ribbon;  on the hard choices any software developer has to make; on some of Mike’s favorite features; and on reaction to the release.

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LiveSide with Mike Torres Part 2 (on our Facebook Fan page)

Mike mentions a couple of specific “tips”, one on the time zoom feature.  It’s in the lower right corner:

WLMMtimezoom

Moving the slider zooms in or out, pretty basic but good to know.  He also mentions some keyboard shortcuts.  Along with the usual ones like Ctrl-X to cut and Ctrl-V to paste, these shortcuts can make editing a bit easier:

To Press
Play or pause Space or K
Go to the previous frame J
Go to the next frame L
Trim the video so it starts at the current point in the video I
Trim the video so it ends at the current point in the video O
Split the video into two items at the current point in the video M
 
Windows Live Movie Maker is a great free program that makes quick work of “telling a story”, and allows for a bit more creativity once you learn your way around.  We’ve had fun with it, and will definitely be using it more in the coming weeks and months.