Effects vs. transitions

The Effects panel has two kinds of items.

Effects — change the whole clip

Color looks (Black & White, Sepia, Vintage, Vivid, Cool/Warm Tone, Brighten, Darken, Invert), Gaussian Blur, Slow Zoom In/Out (Ken Burns), Picture in Picture, fades and audio levels. The change is visible at any point in the clip.

Transitions — change only the start or end

Video Transitions (Cross Dissolve, Dip to Black, Dip to White, Push, Slide, Wipe, Iris Round, Cross Zoom) animate the first or last second of a clip, or the cut between two clips. You only see them while the playhead passes that moment — this is why a transition can look like "nothing happened" if the playhead is in the middle of the clip.

Click any item in the Effects panel to see how to use it and an Apply button.

See Applying effects and Transitions.

Shortcuts show the Mac keys: on Windows and Linux use Ctrl for ⌘ and Alt for ⌥.