How to Freeze a Frame

In ActivePresenter 7, the Freeze-Frame feature is used to freeze a frame of videos or audio tracks. In other words, it’s used to pause a video and insert silence in an audio.

Not only in editing inserted videos, you can also use this feature in editing your captured ones such as video demos. For example, when the video scene is over and you need more time to explain a particular step or frame, use this feature. Pause a video for a certain amount of time, extend the duration as long as you want and add annotations to make it clear.

Insert Freeze-Frame

In a word, the Freeze-Frame control works on both audio and video objects:

• With a video track, the control pauses the video for any desired period.
• With an audio track, the control inserts an interval of silence.

Take the following steps to insert a freeze-frame:

Step 1: Select the audio/video object. Hold CTRL while clicking to select multiple of them.

Step 2: Seek the Playhead (1) along the Timeline Ruler to the position where you want to pause the track.

Step 3: Click the Insert Time button (2) on the Timeline pane. This opens the Insert Time dialog:

Tip:

• You can use the default value in the Insert Time dialog (2000 ms) and change the duration later as shown in the next part of this article.
• You can also specify the freezing time by dragging the Start marker (in green) and End marker (in orange) of the Playhead along the Timeline Ruler. Place the Playhead at the Start marker position and click Insert Time (2). Time will be inserted exactly between the two markers.

Step 4: Specify the duration of the control and click OK.

After that, ActivePresenter will insert time at the Playhead position. You will see a yellow bar (3) get superimposed on the audio/video object Time Bar. The yellow diamond (4) specifies the point that the track starts to pause. The duration of the bar is the freezing time of the track.

When previewing or exporting the slide containing that video/audio track, the host video is paused for the duration of the Freeze-Frame control. The rest of the video/audio, as well as other objects of the slide, display normally.

Note:

• The Freeze-Frame control also works on other types of objects in ActivePresenter. If you don’t select any video/audio object, ActivePresenter will insert time in the entire slide. If there is any object in the selected range or at the Playhead position, time is also inserted in that object. Other objects will not be affected.
• Each Freeze-Frame control extends the host track by its added time. In other words, if you insert an n-second pause in an audio/video track, its total duration will be increased by n seconds.
• You can insert any number of Freeze-Frame in a track.

Change Start Time and Duration of Freeze-Frame

The length of the yellow bar is adjusted to the duration you have defined in step 4. However, the usual practices are:

• Drag the whole bar or the yellow diamond along the Timeline Ruler to change the control start time:

• Drag the end edge of the yellow bar to the right or left to increase or decrease the duration of the control respectively:

Tip: In order to drag the Freeze-Frame control Time Bar and select timestamp more precisely, you should turn the Timeline Snapping mode on. To do that, open the View tab and click Timeline Snapping .

Delete Freeze-Frame

To remove a Freeze-Frame, do one of the following ways:

• Drag the yellow bar (3) of the Freeze-Frame downward. Keep dragging until the bar turns gray and release the mouse button:

• Drag the end edge of the yellow bar toward the diamond. Keep dragging until two of them meet and release the mouse button:

After that, the pause will disappear and the duration of the host track will be reduced by the duration of the pause. The video/audio track will go back to its original properties.

That’s enough to know how to use the Freeze-Frame control in ActivePresenter 7. Don’t hesitate to use and master this feature. Together with other video editing tools, you will have the best videos possible.