How to add a cross dissolve to every cut at once
Select the edits in Video by Zaweba and press Ctrl+D to put the default transition on all of them at once; Shift+D adds sound crossfades.
Adding a dissolve to every cut takes one key press in Video by Zaweba. Select the edits you want and press Ctrl+D, and the default transition is applied to every one of them. Shift+D adds a sound crossfade instead, and Ctrl+Shift+D does both picture and sound together. All three live in Edit > Default transition.
It's the fastest way to soften a slideshow, a montage of holiday clips or a sequence of photos, where a transition on every cut is part of the style rather than a choice made shot by shot.
Selecting the edits
Make sure the clips are where you want them first. Then select the edits. Clicking a clip's edge selects an edit point, and you can add more to the selection. Track select forward (A) picks everything from a point onwards, which is handy when you only want transitions after the opening.
Applying the transition
With the edits selected, press Ctrl+D. Every selected cut gets the default transition. Play through to check it.
Transitions need spare footage to overlap. A dissolve mixes the end of one clip with the start of the next, so each clip needs a little extra beyond its edit point. If you trimmed clips right to the very ends of their media, there's nothing to mix; trim a few frames off where needed.
Sound as well as picture
Picture dissolves often leave a hard cut in the sound, which can click or jump. Shift+D adds a sound crossfade to the selected edits, and Ctrl+Shift+D does picture and sound in one go. Sound crossfades can be constant power, constant gain or exponential; constant power usually sounds smoothest for music and ambience.
Laying out a slideshow with transitions
If you're starting from a folder of files rather than a finished timeline, there's a quicker route. Select the files in the bin, right-click and choose 'Place in order with transitions'. They're laid down in sequence with transitions already between them, which turns a set of photos into a slideshow in seconds. You can then rearrange, trim and replace individual transitions as needed.
Changing or replacing transitions
Video by Zaweba has 87 picture transitions: dissolves of several kinds (cross, additive, film, blur and others), dips to black, white or a colour, wipes, iris shapes, slides, pushes, zooms, spins and more. Each has its own settings for length, direction, softness, border and colour where they apply, and you can choose whether it sits centred on the cut, starts at it or ends at it. The Effects tab has a search to find one fast.
If you want a different transition on a few cuts, drag it over those after applying the default. One different transition at a key moment, such as a dip to black between chapters, stands out precisely because the rest are the same.
A word of restraint
Dissolves on every cut suit slideshows, memorial videos, music montages and dreamy holiday films. In a story or an interview they tend to slow things down and make every change feel significant. There, a straight cut is usually right, with transitions kept for changes of time or place. Undo (Ctrl+Z) takes them all away again in one step if you decide the film works better without.
