I click on 1GB AVI files to place them on my time-line. If I zoom in there are very small gaps between each clip, maybe a frame or two but it causes a black flash at those points in the rendered video. Especially when rendering to wmv.

Are you talking about multiple 1G AVI files, or a single file? In other words is the "gap" only between those 1G files or are there multiple gaps in *each* 1G file?

Next question .. how did you get those files?

I have multiple AVI files. I click on each one in media manager window and they are inserted on the time-line. If I zoom way in they have been placed on the time-line with about a 2 frame gap between each file. I can drag them to touch but it takes a few minutes. I am wondering why they don't touch on the time-line.
Playing the rendered video results in a black flash as the blank frame or gap goes by. Unless I fix them first as above.
I was hoping this might be a well known problem. If not it could be the software that records the files.
What I am doing exactly is making a time-lapse for the local TV weather report. The software grabs a frame every 20sec and adds it to the avi file. When the avi file gets to 1GB it starts a new file. I have about 5 files for a day. These are the files I try to put on the time-line and they don't merge but have a gap between each one.
BTW I also have another program that converts the files to SWF and displays them as time-lapses on my webcam page with one hour updates. http://www.drdale.com/cam

I believe that either Excaliber or Ultimate S has a script that will look for and close all of those small gaps for you.

oops, right

Scripts don't work in Movie Studio.

If I zoom way in they have been placed on the time-line with about a 2 frame gap between each file. I can drag them to touch but it takes a few minutes.

I don't understand why it takes "a few minutes" to fix those gaps.

Zoom in *first* and stay zoomed in until all the clips are added. As you add each one just slide it over to remove the gap. Then click on the "go to the end" icon and you are ready to add the next clip.

Did you enable snapping before adding (or before moving) those clips? When you add (or move them), did a fuzzy colored vertical bar appear when the start of one clip was near the end of the previous clip? You enable snapping by clicking Options, and then clicking Enable Snapping (it is enabled if there is a box drawn around the snapping icon, and disabled if no box is drawn around it).

Also, if your cursor is already at the end of the last clip, double clicking the next clip in the explorer window or the project media window should add it at the cursor position with no gap. This also moves the cursor to the end of the new clip, ready for the next double-click. Following this pattern *should* result in a gapless timeline.

In addition to Snapping, Quantize to Frames should be enabled too, before adding clips.

The end of each clip must be snapped to a frame boundary, just as the beginning. Sometimes captured material shows a partial frame at the end of a clip, or audio that extends slightly beyond the last video frame.

Exactly what is "Quantize to frames"? I've seen it and haven't figured out how and why to use it?

Quantize to Frames assures that your cursor will always be on a frame boundry, that any new media you add to the timeline starts at a frame boundry, that whenever you move something around on the timeline it will end up starting on a frame boundry, etc.

It's a very useful tool and generally should always be enabled except when you're making fine audio timing adjustments.

On the other hand, if your source and project frame rates don't match, it doesn't make much difference.

Thanks, that makes a lot more sense than the help dialog.

This seems to be one of those classic cases where the simple shortcut keys do the trick.

select one event. press the "[" or "]" key, which will line the timeline marker up with the left or right edge of the event (respectively). Then slide the other event over until it snaps to the timeline marker. Gap removed, problem solved. Using that approach after you're familiar with it, you will easily be able to line up 20 events in under a minute.