I've gone through my movie and deleted all the sections where nothing happens, leaving a bunch of isolated clips separated by dead spaces. Is there a command to "delete all dead space and bring all clips together"?
The easy way is to select the second clip transition button and set its transition to Cut.
Then right click this transition button [A|B] and select Apply to all of the following objects on the track.
Note this will reset any transitions you have where there is no gap.
When editing and removing section you can automatically close the gap as you make the cuts by using different key combinations - if you are using the standard keyboard shortcuts as installed, position the timeline cursor where you want to make the cut - the following keys perform these actions:-
Z Cuts of the beginning of the object and closes the gap
U Cuts off the end of the object and closes the gap
You can use the T key ( Cut) in the middle of a clip to make a cut and then use move the cursor to the nect point in the clip where you want to make the next cut and use the Z key to remove the section from the first cut to the current position.
Also Alt + Del will delete a selected section or clip and close up the gap.
For more info on the cut modes lok in the installed pdf manual.
I don't know any way to delete all "dead spaces" in one operation. But starting at the beginning, pressing "<" will bring you to the next gap. ( Click at Edit > Move view to find it ).
Holding down CTRL while pressing Del to delete a clip will close the gap in one operation, but this is too late for your project now. Also experiment with the function of "U" and "Z" ( Click the triangle at the razorblade)
asoeli: I found that the shortcuts for those commands were unset on my system so I reinstated them as comma and period to perform those functions (unshifted < and >). They'll come in handy to find any remaining empty space in the project.
johnebaker: Thanks for the transition solution - very ingenious!