iMovie Cross-Dissolve greyed out?

Unlike the lower timeline, the clips in the upper timeline can be moved about freely, leaving spaces between them. Just guessing, but that may be why transitions cannot be added.

If you prefer the cross-dissolve transition rather than the fade, you can do a workaround. Create a separate project. Then place the clips into it in the lower timeline that you intend to place in the upper timeline of your initial project. Add whatever transitions that you want. Then share it as a movie file to your desktop. Drag the shared movie into your initial project and place it in the upper timeline. It will now play with the transitions that you added. You can do a Modify/Split clip at different points to create segments that you can freely move move around.

Agreed that it is a bit awkward, but it will work.

-- Rich

Hi,

Transitions cannot be added in the upper timeline. However, when you move your cursor over a clip in the upper timeline you will see slider fade handles appear in the upper left and right corners of the clip. Slide them back and forth to create fade-outs and fade-ins that pretty closely simulate the cross-dissolve transition. When you move one slider, the slider at the opposite corner also will engage. To operate the sliders independently of one another, hold down the Option key while moving the slider.

Edit/Add Cross Dissolve will be grayed out when the playhead is place past the last clip in the lower timeline. Instead of using the Edit/Add Cross Dissolve feature, click on the transitions button above the media browser pane and drag the transition into the timeline.

-- Rich

--- Rich