There's no "extract" function that carries over to other projects because PD doesn't ever change your source clips. However, there are many, many ways to work with only the desired sections of a clip, and the main question is: what will you do with them next?

If you simply want to produce it (which can be exactly like extracting it), then just trim the clip to show the desired section, place it at the start of your timeline with no other objects present, then produce it.

Depending on the specifics of the clip, PD can give you a more or less exact copy very quickly (using SVRT), or it will fully produce (or transcode) the clip which can give you a slight quality loss. This mostly only matters if you're going to use the produced clip in other projects where it may be produced again. If that's the case, use the Precut tool as described in a minute.

If you have other content on the timeline and want to produce only a section of it, use the range select tool then click on Produce Range.

If you have a clip with sections you'd like to use in other projects, you're better off using the Precut tool from the Media Library, and some level of the workflow described here.

No right/wrong way to do this so use whichever way is easiest or makes the most sense for your needs.

If you have other content on the timeline and want to produce only a section of it, use the range select tool then click on Produce Range.

THANK YOU! This was most helpful. It took a bit to get the orange markers to appear with the cursor being so small and jumpy on my screen, but since I finally knew what I was to look for, I got it done. And it helps to understand the lingo better. I also didn't understand the obvious need to produce a range to make it a clip.

That being said, it seems to me that the need to extract clips to be an obvious function in certain kinds of video production. All the tutorials are based on using clips. Not all clips come from video production shoots in neat precise pieces. I have many video files that I had digitized from a recently discovered stash of 35-year-old Video8 tapes and a lot of the footage is random, as one would get from taping your kids at different times while filling a tape. And time and/or the transfer were not always kind. I have to cut up all tapes into various clips. I did use the Precut function, but I didn't see how to use that to get to individual clips I can use to make new videos that are coherent.

Am I missing something basic?

I really do appreciate your speedy response. I am a 72-year-old who has been going nuts looking at tutorials galore and asking lord google a lot of questions with the wrong verbiage. In my early career days, I worked and taught video production and edited hundreds of hours of 3/4 inch tape. Copying clips from one tape or another onto a master. Didn't prepare me for today...

I've been thru 5 different editing apps, and settled on PD because it had the most support that worked for me. You have further confirmed the wisdom in that choice1

Thank you again!
Best regards,
Ken

Quote I have to cut up all tapes into various clips. I did use the Precut function, but I didn't see how to use that to get to individual clips I can use to make new videos that are coherent.

Am I missing something basic?

Yes

Once you've precut the clips, you can pick and choose which one(s) to bring down onto the timeline in any order you want. Like the person in the linked thread, you've got a wide range of topics on each source clip and only a few of them will likely be relevent to any one project. You can safely ignore all unused precuts.

If you take the "master project" approach I suggested for that poster, you'll be able to pull only the content you want from the precut selections. You can then use the same precut library for other projects needing content from that source clip.

Another approach is to simply place the entire clip on the timeline and use the Trim tool to literally cut the clip at whatever points you want. You're then free to casually delete all the other sections from that timeline - which you couldn't do in a traditional tape editing session - since you haven't done anything at all to the source clip.

As a bonus, withe digital editing there's no need to sweep up all the cut sections off the floor and make sure you won't ever need them before tossing them out . A major time saver I'd guess