How To: Use Windows 7 Movie Maker

Video editing is one of the most interesting hobbies a person can have. One can easily combine different video clips or images, add effects and background music etc. Most of the video editing applications are not free. A person, who only wants to carry this as a hobby, is always looking for free solutions. Luckily, Microsoft provides a free downloadable application called the Windows Live movie maker. One can easily perform the tasks mentioned above with this application. To make a small home movie, just follow the instructions given below:

1. Download Windows live movie maker from the Microsoft official website.
2. Run it.

Adding Videos:

1. Drag and drop all the small video clips you would like to add in your home movie.
2. You will now be able to view and edit your video clips.

Arranging the Video Clips:

1. You can arrange the video clips by just dragging and dropping them in the desired position.

Splitting a Video Clip:

1. You can easily split the videos you have added. Just move the timeline pointer to where you would like to split the video.
2. Right click on that part and select split option.

Adding Visual Effects and Clip Transition:

To do so, just

1. Click the video clip.
2. Click on the visual effects tab.
3. Choose a desirable effect by clicking on it.
4. Choose transition by clicking the transition tab.

Adding Background Music to your Movie:

To add background music:

1. Click home tab.
2. Click add music button.
3. Open the music file you want to add.

You can also edit the music file in the same way as you can with your video clips like splitting, start point, end point etc.

Adding Title, Text and Credits

To Add a Title to Your Home Movie:

1. Take the timeline pointer to the beginning.
2. Click on home tab.
3. Click Add Title button.

To Add Text over a Particular Video Clip:

1. Position your timeline pointer to the place you would like to add text.
2. Click home tab.
3. Click Add Caption button.
4. Double click on the text to edit it.
5. Drag the text to position it in the preview window.

To Add Credits:

1. Click home tab.
2. Click the credits button.
3. Edit the text by double clicking it in the preview window.

Other Options:

You can change the properties of the video, music and text by

1. Clicking on the video or text or music
2. Clicking on the text, video or music tab
3. Changing the properties to your will.

Saving or Publishing your Home Movie:

To Save your Home Video:

1. Click the Movie maker drop down menu, located to the left of the Home tab.
2. Click Save movie.
3. Select one of the settings, then name your file, and also mention the location to save.
4. Click on save button.

To Publish Movie on YouTube:

1. Click Movie Maker drop down menu button.
2. Click publish movie.
3. Click YouTube.