I am trying to create a video of still pictures set to music In Premiere Element 13. I've made several of these but always deal with this same time consuming problem that probably takes up more time and trouble than ANYTHING else. I really like my images to transition with the music so I end up editing the duration of both the images and the transitions to get things to flow closely with the music.
The problem is that if I make a change in timing to an earlier image, everything else changes as well. Instead of everything that follows readjusting to the new timing, Premiere adds a break in the music and the images. When I try to move things over to re-attach to the piece I've just adjusted, the timing on everything else (that I've worked so hard to get right) changes as well. The duration of images gets longer and the transitions disappear. It is so INCREDIBLY frustrating. I'm surprised that the rest of my images and transitions don't just automatically scoot over. The lack of this function seems enormously archaic.
I'm hoping there's a setting I just don't know about that tells Premiere not to add a break. PLEASE HELP! This is making something that should be so simple, so frustrating. Basic movie editing programs like a Windows 2003 Moviemaker can handle this simple adjustment, I just don't understand why this step needs to be so complicated in Premier -- so I must be missing something. Thank you SO MUCH for your help! 
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Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I so appreciate your taking the time out of your day to write a reply. This is a helpful video. But ripple editing does not seem to be working and that is my problem. If I try to shorten the duration of time on an image then a hole develops between my images and my transition disappears. It is so aggravating as it is making everything take ten times longer than it should. Is there a way to turn on the ripple effect by default? Or what do you mean by it's all in how you use the alt key?
Just now I tried to add some time to an image and then take away a little time on another. The result is what the first image below shows, the transition disappeared and a gap between my images was created (instead of the next group just moving over and taking up the gap). Then when I tried to just move the next group of pictures over, things really turned into a mess. The next picture had a ton of time added to it (3:30 to 13:00), another gap is added and the music splits apart. I'm pulling my hair out and realize I must be missing a VERY BASIC (but not very intuitive) step. By the way, I did not pull the image over by it's left side because I didn't want to stretch out the time. I tried to move it over by putting my cursor over the top and just moving it to the left. Is there some special technique involved? But still, why wouldn't the ripple editing effect just move it over in the first place?
Thank you so much for ANY help you can provide! Here are a few screen shots to show what happened. Sorry for the penmanship, I cannot write with a mouse!
-Sharon
Thank you, I didn't even realize I could close a gap in that way. However when I closed the gap between images then a new gap opened in the soundtrack but the "delete and close gap" option was greyed out for the soundtrack, I'm assuming I can just pull it over without too much of a problem though.
I'll just keep muddling along, it's frustrating to have such a powerful program yet such a basic editing step so difficult to work with. Thank you for taking your time to help and offer suggestions.
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