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"How can I open a mswmm file so that I can watch the video?"

The short answer is you can't just open an mswmm file and watch video because mswmm files are project files not video files. MSWMM is the project file format used by Windows Movie Maker to store information about which video clips, music, and photos are used in a video editing project. If you don't have all those clips on your computer and you go to open the MSWMM file, the file won't properly reference the elements of your video.

"I have a Sony Handycam with a hard disk drive / Memory Stick Pro Duo. I can upload videos from either onto my computer and they will play. The problem I am having is that when I try to import them to Windows Movie Maker, I get this warning: 20090731112533.mpg could not be imported. An interface has too many methods to fire events from. How can i remedy this?"

Windows Movie Maker is notorious for only working well with DV-AVI camcorder files and WMV files. Any other file format that works was a stroke of good luck. Your best bet for editing the file would be to use some other software, but if that's not an option here are a few suggestions for getting past the error message and on to editing your movie.

"I seem to be only able to have audio or video for the entire movie, no trouble editing just can't seem to have both. I would like to hear my daughter talking, but not all the time. Music as well."

You can segment your video so that audio only plays some of the time, but that requires splitting the video on the editing timeline each time you want to mute the audio to create clips from your larger video segment. Follow the steps here to customize your audio track.

"Can you send a Windows Movie Maker video using send a file on MSN Messenger?"

If you want to send the Windows Movie Maker project file (the ones with file extension MSWMM) using the Send a file feature of MSN Messenger, it can be done, but the person at the other end will have a hard time knowing what to do with it. The Movie Maker project files are meant for creating movies, not for playing back on another computer. If you want to send your finished movie to someone using the Send a file feature of MSN, you should have no problem. Before you send the movie, make sure you publish your edited movie from the timeline first, following some basic steps.

"Is it possible to digitally record just the sound track from a movie captured in Windows Movie Maker?"

The Windows Movie Maker team anticipated this type of request and included a feature to export only the audio portion of your video as a WMA file. Instead of placing the movie clip on the Video portion of the timeline, drag it to the Audio/Music section of the timeline. When you go to publish your movie, Windows Movie Maker will ask you about audio quality settings and create a WMA, instead of allowing you to choose a video format.

Several questions came through this week (for both Mac and PC users) on how to rotate video clips shot with digital cameras. Apparently there's a whole crowd of people titling their digital cameras sideways this week. :)

For anyone with a Windows computer, rotating movies is easily done using Windows Movie Maker. This is one case where the defacto video editor for Windows outshines Apple's iMovie. Mac users will need to install an additional effect before rotating video clips in iMovie. For Movie Maker users, simply add your video to the Movie Maker timeline and apply a Rotate effect to turn the video right side up. Watch the video to see this in action.

"Is there a way to add two audio clips to a Windows Movie Maker video which overlap each other?"

Windows Movie Maker only supports two audio tracks: the audio track recorded with the video is one of the tracks; the other movie maker audio track is the Audio/Music track. In your case you need an additional audio track, so that you can layer your two audio files on top of each other. If you plan to do this regularly , the easiest thing to do is graduate to a more complete video editing suite, like Pinnacle Studio, Roxio Creator, or Sony Vegas. If you're on a tight budget or you'll only do this one time, you can combine the two tracks in another application, save out a single audio file, and import the combined audio file into Windows Movie Maker.

"How do I get Flip camcorder videos in Microsoft Movie Maker? I tried adding a video to Movie Maker by dragging and dropping the file, but it shows up as an MP3."

Flip makes it insanely simple to record and edit movies on your computer, as long as you use the Flip Video application. Things get a little more complicated if you want to use other applications, like Windows Movie Maker, Roxio Easy Media Creator, Nero Vision Express, etc. The best way to insure success, is to first launch the Flip Video software from your Flip camcorder, which makes sure their video codec installs on your computer before you save the videos to your hard drive. After you step through the Flip Video software for the first time, follow these steps each time you want to edit your Flip videos with Windows Movie Maker.

Rosa writes, "Students recorded a movie project at home with camera using a DVD as a recording. Now they want to edit at school in Windows Movie Maker. They cannot import their movie to Movie Maker."

There's no guaranteed method for importing DVD camcorder movies into the Windows XP version Windows Movie Maker and editing them. Windows XP doesn't include the required DVD decoder software by default. Many of the consumer DVD software solutions available don't consistently work with every camcorder because some of the software packages don't include both the necessary video and audio decoders. The most reliable solution I've found for editing the files created with DVD camcorders in Windows Movie Maker is Elecard MPEG Player. Even if you already have another DVD playback solution on the computer, this method may fail without installing the Elecard software.

"How do I convert mswmm files to a Mac compatible file?"

mswmm files are the project format for Windows Movie Maker. The files tell Windows Movie Maker things about your video editing project like what video clips are used, which audio files you imported, which transitions go between which clips, and which effects are used. These files are essentially readable only in Windows Movie Maker and will definitely not work on a Mac. The two options for saving out a video file from Movie Maker are either DV-AVI or WMV. To create a Mac-compatible video file, open the mswmm file in Windows Movie Maker, save the movie at the highest quality setting WMV or preferably as a DV-AVI format file. Import this finished AVI or WMV file into iMovie or other Mac video editing application.