I can't quite justify the cost of Vegas Pro, just for home/hobby stuff... No other way?

Pretty much manually - one at a time.

There are a few things that can make this easier for you.

First of all, you can set the length of new crossfades (and the "snap" value when creating them manually by overlapping events) by clicking on Options >> Preferences >> Editing. In the lower half of the editing tab is a setting for "Cut to Overlap Conversion". You can specify the duration you want (1 second, 0.5 second, 2 seconds, etc.), and typically you would select "centered on cut". Close the tabs and go back to editing.

Next, there are keys by the numeric keypad that can be used to automatically create crossfades, wipes, etc. If you have two events butted up against each other (i.e. a "cut", with no overlap), you can click the cursor on that cut, then press "/" near the numeric keypad and it will convert that cut to an overlap -- which is a crossfade -- using the default time you specified. Likewise, the "*" key near the keypad can create a dissolve, and the "-" creates a linear wipe.

If you already have crossfades but they are the wrong length, you can convert them back to cuts by clicking on the overlap and then pressing Ctrl-/ (by the keypad). You could then immediately press "/" to convert back to a crossfade with the default length you have specified.

If you are trying to time transitions to music, it is usually easiest to put the crossfades in last. Set markers with the beat, put the photos in between the markers (so they butt up against each other), then go to each transition point, click on it, and press "/" to make a crossfade.

Tim L

And here's another useful tip: you can apply the same transition to a bunch of events by selecting all the events on the timeline (a long string of photos, for example) then dragging and dropping a transition (one of the presets from the Transitions tab) onto one of the cuts between any of those photos. The selected transition will be applied in between all the selected photos. If no transition existed previously, the cut will be replaced with a transition of the default length (from the Options >> Preferences >> Editing settings). However, for any photo pair that already had a transition between them, the new transition is applied using the existing transition length. (So if it was the "wrong" length it stays the wrong length...)

This works well for any of the transition presets (wipe, 3D blinds, page roll, etc.), but what if you want all the photos to have a simple crossfade? There's no way to drag and drop a simple crossfade, right?

Well, you can actually create a crossfade preset from one of the transitions. Put a couple of photos on the timeline, overlap them, and then drag and drop the "Cross Effect" transition on the overlap. This transition is normally used for a zoom transition or blur, etc., but we can make a simple crossfade transition as well.

In the dialogue box that pops up for the Cross Effect, set "Effect" = none, and set "Fade Range" = 1.000. Now click in the box that says "Preset: (Untitled)" and type "Crossfade", then click the floppy disc "save" icon. You will now have an event preset called "Crossfade" in the Cross Effect section of the Transitions tab.

Now, you can select a range of photos that have simple cuts between then, then select the Transitions tab, select Cross Effect, locate the "Crossfade" preset, and drag and drop it on any of the cuts in the selected range of photos. A simple crossfade will be applied to each, though on the timeline it looks like a transition rather than the simple overlapping crossfade.

Tim L