Classroom in a book

18
When you settle on a location, return the End slider all the way to the right. Play 
the transition.
Using A/B mode to fine-tune a transition
A/B editing is old-school, linear, film-style editing. Film editors frequently use two 
reels of film—an A-roll and a B-roll—which are usually duplicates made from the 
same original. The two-reel approach permits cross-dissolves from the A track to 
the B track.
The advantage of A/B editing in older versions of Adobe Premiere Pro was that it 
let you modify transition positioning and start and end points more easily than you 
could using single-track NLEs.
Here’s the good news for both the A/B and single-track editing camps: Adobe 
Premiere Pro includes all that functionality in its Effect Controls panel.
Working with the Effect Controls panel’s A/B feature
The Effect Controls panel’s A/B editing mode splits a single video track into two 
subtracks. What would normally be two consecutive and contiguous clips on a 
single track are now displayed as individual clips on separate subtracks, giving you 

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ADOBE PREMIERE PRO CS5 CLASSROOM IN A BOOK
107
the option to apply a transition between them, to manipulate their head and tail 
frames (or handles), and to change other transition elements.
1
Open Lesson 06-03.prproj.
2
Click the Push transition that is applied between the first and second clips to 
display its parameters in the Effect Controls panel.
3
Open the A/B timeline in the Effect Controls panel by clicking the Show/Hide 
Timeline View button in the upper-right corner.
4
Drag the border (as shown here) between the A/B timeline and the transition 
parameters section to expand the view of the A/B timeline.
Timeline View button
5
Hover the pointer over the edit line at the center of the transition rectangle 
(as shown on the left).
That’s the edit point between the two clips, and the pointer that appears there 
is the Rolling Edit tool (
)—the same Rolling Edit tool you encountered in the 
Trim panel in Lesson 5.
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 Note:
You might 
need to expand the 
width of the Effect 
Controls panel to make 
the Show/Hide Timeline 
View button available. 
Also, the Effect Controls 
Timeline may already 
be visible. Clicking the 
Show/Hide Timeline 
View button in the 
Effect Controls panel 
toggles it on and off.
#
 Note:
As was the 
case when you used 
the Rolling Edit tool in 
the Trim panel, moving 
it left or right does not 
change the overall 
length of the sequence.

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