Ubuntu – How to easily delete snippets using Kdenlive

kdenlivevideo-editor

I'm using Kdenlive to edit some video I recorded. I have some "uh"s, "um"s, and dead air I want to delete quickly. For every little bit I need to remove, I'm having to:

  1. Select track
  2. Set end cutting point
  3. Cut clip (Shift+R)
  4. Set start cutting point
  5. Cut clip (shift+R)
  6. Select portion to delete
  7. Press delete
  8. Right-click in empty area
  9. Click "remove space"

This is a real pain. 🙁 I'm used to Cinelerra, where you just click-drag a selection, then press delete. Unfortunately, the codecs in Cinelerra are sorely out of date. How can I speed this process up in Kdenlive?

Best Answer

1. How to quickly mark a segment to delete:

  1. Make sure the video track is selected.
  2. Press X to switch to the Cut (Razor) Tool
  3. Click once in the timeline at the start point
  4. Click once at the end point

  5. Press S again to switch back to selection mode

    enter image description here

2. Use xdotool to automate delete/remove space with a single keyboard shortcut

  1. xdotool allows automation of keyboard and mouse clicks/movements; install it with sudo apt-get install xdotool

  2. Copy and paste the below to an sh file, say kdenlive_cut.sh in your home directory:

    #!/bin/bash
    
DELAY=0.5  # delay in seconds between each action
xdotool search --limit 1 -name Kdenlive > nul  # activate only if kdenlive running
if [ $? -eq 0 ]
then xdotool click 1 && sleep $DELAY \       # left-click
   && xdotool key Delete && sleep $DELAY \  # DEL
   && xdotool click 3 && sleep $DELAY \     # right-click
   && xdotool key r;                        # 'R' to remove space
fi

    Make it executable with chmod +x ~/kdenlive_cut.sh

  3. Open Settings...Keyboard, and go to the Shortcuts tab. Create a custom shortcut, naming it whatever you want, and setting the "Command" path to /home/username/kdenlive_cut.sh. Click Apply. The right-column will say "Disable", click on it and you'll see "New Accelerator": press your shortcut key combo. I chose Ctrl+Del since it doesn't conflict with the existing shortcuts in Kdenlive.

    enter image description here

  4. Now go to Kdenlive, and mark a segment you want to cut (as explained in Section 1). Click on that segment to outline it in red, and without moving the cursor, press Ctrl+Del; you will see the segment deleted, an empty space appear, the right-click menu show and the space removed -- all in the space of about 2 seconds.

    • Sometimes the shortcut fails the very first time it's invoked, giving you the longer right-click menu or the "Insert Space" option. Just cancel, and try it again...it works.

    • Here's a Youtube Demo of the shortcut in action.

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