Photos in, Play, Export — a finished movie in a few minutes. Prefer a guided tour? Help → Show Walkthrough, or watch the demos.
Blank stage or an old .memorystring — either way you’re editing a real project file.
- File → New (⌘N), or ⌘W to clear the current document (the traffic-light close does not quit — reopen from the Dock).
- File → Open… (⌘O), Open Recent, or drop a
.memorystringfile onto the window. - Autosave runs once a file exists. ⌘S / ⇧⌘S anytime. ⌘Q prompts to save untitled work.
Fill the Library on the left — the cast of the movie.
- Toolbar + → Photos & Videos…, or File → Import Media…
- Or drop folders, photos, or videos onto the window.
Photos: .jpg / .jpeg / .jfif, .png, .heic / .heif, .tif / .tiff, .webp, .bmp, .gif
Videos: .mp4, .mov, .m4v, .avi, .mkv, .mpg / .mpeg, .m2v
Other types are skipped.
Drag Library thumbnails or Timeline clips until the order feels like the day you lived. The Intro slide stays first when it is on.
Library calendar menu (or Edit → Sort by Date Taken): Oldest First (Story Order), Newest First, Import Order, or Shuffle. In Essential, a first import auto-sorts Oldest First when the Library was empty.
Full detail — including Shuffle Transitions, replacing a seat, and reordering inside a group: Organizing.
Space (or the toolbar Play/Pause). Click or drag the playhead to scrub. See Preview.
Soundtrack lives in Inspector → Audio, not the Library.
After the first photos land, Match Look Soundtrack (on by default) soft-seeds bundled tracks. Toolbar + → Music… or Royalty-Free Library…. See Music.
Inspector (⌥⌘I) when you want more than the defaults:
- Style — Look, Energy, Stage, Photo Size, Captions, Customize… (Studio)
- Intro — opening card
- Motion — Studio only: Transitions Mix and multi-photo groups
- Audio — playlist
- Format — aspect / Social Safe
Toolbar Export or File → Export Movie… (⌘E). Confirm format, frame rate, and (Studio) quality, then Export. Wait for Creating memory….
You get an H.264 MP4.