Premiere Pro Markers and Sequence Shortcuts
Beyond moment-to-moment editing, Premiere's marker and sequence-level shortcuts cover the structural work of flagging important points in a timeline and setting up the source/sequence range definitions that drive precise three-point editing. Beyond adding markers and setting In/Out points, this category also covers navigating directly between existing markers, clearing a marked range in one action, and nesting a group of clips into a manageable single sequence.
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Add marker at playhead | M | M | Plants a marker exactly where the playhead currently sits, a lightweight way to flag a sync point, leave yourself a note to revisit, or mark where a chapter should begin without disturbing anything on the timeline itself. |
| Create new sequence | Ctrl+N | Cmd+N | Opens the new sequence dialog, prompting for settings (resolution, frame rate) before creating an empty timeline to begin editing into. |
| Set In point | I | I | Marks the current playhead position as the In point for the active clip or sequence, defining the start of a range used for trimming or three-point editing. |
| Set Out point | O | O | Marks the current playhead position as the Out point, defining the end of a marked range, paired with In point to define exactly what portion of a clip gets used in an edit. |
| Jump to next/previous marker | Shift+M / Ctrl+Shift+M | Shift+M / Cmd+Shift+M | Sends the playhead straight to the nearest marker in either direction, hopping between flagged points of interest without having to squint at the timeline hunting for tiny marker icons. |
| Clear In/Out points | Ctrl+Shift+X | Cmd+Shift+X | Removes both the currently set In and Out points on the active clip or sequence at once, resetting the marked range entirely and letting you start fresh with a new selection rather than manually clearing each point individually. |
| Nest selected clips into a new sequence | No default — right-click > Nest | Same | Wraps selected clips into a new nested sequence that appears as a single clip on the parent timeline, useful for grouping a complex multi-clip section (like a title sequence) into one manageable unit while preserving the original clips' arrangement inside. |
Adding a marker (M) at the playhead drops a visual flag on the timeline, useful for noting a sync point between audio and video, flagging a section that needs revision, or marking chapter points for later export — markers carry no functional editing weight on their own but serve as visual breadcrumbs that make navigating a long, complex timeline far easier during a multi-session edit.
Setting In and Out points (I and O) defines a range, used both for trimming a clip in the Source Monitor before placing it on the timeline and for defining a target range directly on the sequence. This pairing is the foundation of three-point editing: by marking an In and Out on the source clip and just one additional point (In, Out, or the playhead) on the sequence, Premiere has enough information to calculate exactly where the new edit should land and how long it should run, without you needing to manually drag and trim afterward.
Creating a new sequence (Ctrl+N / Cmd+N) opens a dialog for choosing frame rate, resolution, and other format settings before generating an empty timeline. A frequently overlooked but important detail: dragging a clip directly from the Project panel onto an empty area outside any existing sequence also automatically creates a new sequence matching that clip's exact settings, a faster shortcut-adjacent workflow for starting a sequence that exactly matches your source footage without manually configuring settings in the New Sequence dialog.
Jumping between markers (Shift+M for next, Ctrl+Shift+M / Cmd+Shift+M for previous) lets you navigate directly from one flagged point to the next without visually hunting for small marker icons along a potentially long and busy timeline — especially useful in a collaborative editing workflow where markers are used to leave notes or flag review points for another editor to address in sequence.
Clearing In and Out points (Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X) resets a marked range in a single action, useful when a previous three-point editing setup no longer applies and you want to start fresh with a new range rather than manually clearing the In point and then separately clearing the Out point.
Nesting selected clips into a new sequence (via right-click, since there's no universal default keyboard shortcut) bundles a group of clips into what appears on the parent timeline as a single clip, while preserving their original internal arrangement inside the nested sequence itself. This is commonly used to keep a complex, multi-element section — an opening title sequence built from several layered clips and graphics, for instance — organized as one manageable unit on the main timeline, cutting down the visual clutter of the outer sequence, and a double-click into the nest still opens it up for editing its internal contents any time that's needed. Nested sequences remain fully editable at any point later on.
Color-coding markers is another detail worth knowing: right-clicking an existing marker offers several preset colors, letting an editor build a simple visual convention across a long project — red for problems needing another pass, green for confirmed-final sections, for instance — that becomes instantly scannable along the timeline without needing to open each marker individually to recall what it was for.