Cropping a Media Asset

When you want to focus on a particular part of a media asset, you can use the cropping tool to select what is shown in the media placeholder.

By doing so, you can focus on a certain section of the media asset while cutting out extraneous elements that draw attention away from the main topic of interest.

The guidelines in this article apply to both a static image and to video footage.

Cropping a Media Asset

1.	Select the media asset that you want to crop.
2.	On the toolbar, click the Edit media icon.
3.	Click the Edit asset icon.
4.	In the Media Editor, click the Crop icon to display the available cropping methods. ▶ When editing a media asset for the first time, the asset is always uncropped.
5.	Depending on your requirements, use either of the following cropping methods:
	Preserve ratio Freeform With this method, the aspect ratio of the cropping window is set to match the aspect ratio of the current media placeholder. Drag the cropping window to select the part of the media asset that you want to keep and resize the asset by dragging the corner handles. This method works best with Scale media to fill. Click the Media adjustment icon on the toolbar to select this option. With this method, the aspect ratio of the cropping window is not locked, enabling you to change the height and width independently of each other. Drag the cropping window to select the part of the media asset that you want to keep and resize the asset by dragging the corner and side handles. This method works best with Scale media to fit. Click the Media adjustment icon on the toolbar to select this option.
6.	After you have finished cropping, click Apply.
	The thumbnail of the media asset is updated accordingly.
7.	Click anywhere outside the Media dialog window to close the window.
	The media asset is updated in the media placeholder.

Notes

1.	Clicking the Reset button in the upper right returns the media asset to the state it was in after you last clicked Apply.
2.	If you open the media asset in the Media Editor after a cropping action, you'll see the section you cropped within the original asset. This will enable you to crop a different section if you need to. Note that the cropping method last used is selected.
3.	If you used Preserve ratio to crop a media asset and then changed the aspect ratio of either the entire video or the media placeholder (because of a new layout), the cropping method is changed to Freeform in order to maintain the edits that were originally made. At this stage, you can crop the media asset again to match the current placeholder.
4.	When cropping the media asset, you may also want to flip it horizontally or vertically. Video footage can also be trimmed. All these editing actions are not dependent on each other and can be performed in any order.