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Content Manager

The content manager is where you can find all the assets contained under the ‘Project Contents’ heading on the left-hand side. This is split into several sections: Filters, Bins and Libraries.

Some additional information in one line

Overview

A Lightworks project is used to organise all your media, it holds all the information about assets, including clips, subclips and sequences. Once a project is created, it never needs saving, this is because Lightworks saves your project every few seconds to make sure you never lose any of your work for whatever reason.

You will not find a 'Save' or 'Save as…' within Lightworks because it is simply not required. The Lightworks 'Projects' folder can be found in the default location below:

Windows:  C:\Users\Public\Documents\Lightworks\
macOS:  /Users/USER ACCOUNT/Lightworks/
Linux:  /Home/USER ACCOUNT/Lightworks/

Tip: You can right click a project on the project browser and choose Reveal which will open the folder project location on the operating system you are using.

Creating a New Project

Click on the 'Create a new project' link.

When the dialog box opens:

  1. Type a name for your project in the Name text box.
    Project Browser (No hint and arrow)
  2. Optional: Click the Advanced tab to define custom Asset or Marker metadata.
    New project
  3. Optional: Add notes relevant to your project.
  4. Click Create.
    image16

A new, empty project is created and will open with the Edit tab selected. A tooltip will display, prompting you to take a quick tour of the application (strongly recommended).

Opening an Existing Project

In the Project Browser, double-click on the tile representing the project you want to open.

If there are too many projects to display on screen at once:

  1. Use the scroll bar at the right-hand side to reveal projects hidden from view.
  2. Use the Sort by dropdown option to sort by Name, Creation Date or Modification Date.
  3. Hold down the CTRL or CMD key and scroll with the mouse wheel to change the size of the thumbnail images.
  4. Click on the Search icon, type your search criteria in the open text box, and press Enter.

Importing Local Files

Make sure you have the Log, Edit or Assemble tab selected.

Click on the 'Import clips' button. The Import panel will open.

To filter content that is displayed:

  1. Click the Filter arrow and select which content to filter.
  2. Toggle between List or Tile view using the view icon.
  3. Click on a clip to select it for import, or hold down Shift/Ctrl to select multiple clips.

Select the import method from the drop-down list:

  • Create Link: Keep the imported file in its original location and format.
  • Copy Local: Copies the file into the 'Material' and 'Sound' folder without transcoding.

Closing a Project

To close a project and return to the Project Browser, click the Exit button at the top left of the Project window.

Remember, a project does not need saving, all changes have already been saved automatically.

Deleting a Project

In the Project Browser, click on the Settings icon (three vertical dots) for the project you want to delete.

From the menu that opens, click Delete.

Warning: Your project is about to be deleted and you may lose data. Click Yes to confirm the deletion, or No to cancel the operation.

When deleting a project any media that was imported using the 'Copy local' or 'Transcode' option will be deleted from the 'Material' and 'Sound' folders unless the media has been copied to another project.