You can also apply it at the event level -- as you probably did before -- and then toggle the "pre-post" triangle so that the border is applied *before* the pan/crop action. (I am assuming you are using pan/crop to zoom out on the picture, or maybe to put it in motion.)

The pre-post feature is a nearly hidden item in the Video FX settings. At the bottom of the Video Event FX window -- to the left of the mini-timeline at the bottom -- you will see a tiny triangle just to the left of the word "Border". By default this points to the right, meaning the border effect will be applied *after* the event pan/crop adjustments. If you click on this arrow so that it flips to the left, the border effect will now be applied *before* pan crop -- doing just what you want.

Musicvid's idea of applying it to the media is very clever. I never thought of that. The only drawback would be if you used the same photo multiple times in the same project, and sometimes you want the border and sometimes you don't. But in general this seems unlikely, as photos used in a montage or slideshow generally appear only once.

The pre-post toggle can be used for other effects as well, particularly if you are using pan/crop to zoom in on an image. For example, light rays, lens flare, etc. can look very different depending on whether you apply them before the pan/crop or after.

Tim L