Birthday photos, trip videos, that clip of everyone singing — they land here before they become a movie. Music lives in Inspector → Audio.
When the Library has items, left to right: calendar (sort), captions bubble, ⋯, and + on the trailing edge.
Drag the vertical divider on the right to resize (remembered). View → Toggle Sidebar (⌃⌘S) hides it.
Dump a folder, paste a screenshot, or use the menus:
- Toolbar or Library + → Photos & Videos…, or File → Import Media…
- Drop folders, photos, or videos onto the window
- Edit → Paste (⌘V) — Finder files or folders, an image/video from Preview, Photos, Safari, Messages, or a screenshot (⇧⌘4). Clipboard images with no file are saved under Application Support Imports. Music files join the soundtrack. A
.memorystringfile opens. - Empty Library: dashed target — Drop photos & videos here
Photos: .jpg / .jpeg / .jfif, .png, .heic / .heif, .tif / .tiff, .webp, .bmp, .gif
Videos: .mp4, .mov, .m4v, .avi, .mkv, .mpg / .mpeg, .m2v
Unsupported types are skipped. ⌘C copies selected Library or Timeline items as files. In a caption or title field, ⌘V / ⌘C stay ordinary text paste and copy.
Videos show a play badge. Multi-select shows a count.
Essential: after import, if the Library was empty or already Oldest First, MemoryString auto-sorts new stills Oldest First (Story Order). Studio does not. ⌘Z undoes it.
Cake after the drive — or shuffle and see:
- Oldest First (Story Order)
- Newest First
- Import Order
- Shuffle — randomizes photo order (intro stays first)
Same choices: Edit → Sort by Date Taken, Inspector → Motion → Timeline, or right-click empty Library space.
Date sorts use camera capture date (EXIF / recording date); file date only if neither exists. Undated files land at the end. Filenames never used. Captions, trims, and rotations stay; groups are planned fresh; intro stays first. ⌘Z undoes.
Beats hearing “wait, which trip was that?”
- Auto Caption N Untitled Slide(s) — fills empty captions only
- Auto Caption All Slides… — overwrites after confirmation
- Clear All Captions… — confirmed
See Intro and captions.
Same photos, different cuts — when motion feels stuck:
- Shuffle Transitions — keeps photo order; re-rolls single-slide cuts, group kinds, and where group windows sit. Card counts stay with the Look / Inspector. If you hand-picked Slide Transitions, it asks before clearing them.
- Reset Slide Durations — restores default slide timing
- Show Transition Names — badges on Library thumbs
Drag thumbs in the grid. Onto the Timeline photo lane: a gap inserts or moves; drop on a single or a group seat until Replace; drop on the intro tile sets the intro background.
Whole groups move together until you drill into a seat. Full story: Organizing.
On a photo or video in the Library (not empty space):
- Slide Transition — pick a single-slide cut, or Random
- Change Transition — when the clip is already in a group
- Group Transition — when two or more media clips are selected (A–Z: Carousel, Filmstrip Horizontal, Filmstrip Vertical, Perspective pair, Photo stack, Ribbon, Scatter & Settle). Illegal counts show max N / min N
- Ungroup — when the clip is in a group
- Lens Effect — Studio only; pin pooled effects on that slide or group
- Rotate Right / Rotate Left / Flip Horizontal / Flip Vertical — 90° / mirrors, project-only, original files untouched. ⌘] / ⌘[ / ⇧⌘] / ⇧⌘[. Same items on the paused preview (right-click)
- Set Duration… (⌘D)
- Videos: Mute Video Sound / Unmute Video Sound, Reset Length
- Auto Caption or Clear Caption
- Remove from Project (⌘⌫)
The Timeline photo-lane menu is the same idea — see Timeline.
On the intro: Set Intro Title, Set Background Image, Disable Intro Slide, (Studio) Lens Effect, Reset Center of Interest.
Right-click empty Library space: the same sort / shuffle / captions / Shuffle Transitions items as the header menus.
Click a thumb to select and seek. ⌘-click toggles; ⇧-click extends a range. Select in the Timeline and the Library scrolls that tile into view (and the other way around). Playback does not scroll either pane.
On import, MemoryString listens to each clip (Essential and Studio): speech stays audible; silence or noise is muted. Detection is on-device. Skip the speech prompt and mute still uses loudness only. How it decides: Auto detection.
Mute Video Sound / Unmute Video Sound — right-click, the speaker badge, or the Inspector footer. Manual mute is yours.
Videos have a 2 second minimum trim. Reset Length restores the full clip.
Grouped cards share one clip. Badges: carousel 2/5, stack 1/5, ribbon 5/5, pair 1/2, filmstrip 3/5. Selecting the group draws one champagne outline and dims the rest. Click a member to seek to that photo’s turn on stage. Timeline: click the cell for the whole window; click again to drill into one seat. See Multi-photo groups.
File → Delete Project… trashes the .memorystring file (if saved) and that project’s Imports copies, then opens an empty Untitled project. Originals outside Imports are never deleted.






