Gene, it appears we're kind of talking past each other. Jeff and I are trying to understand what's happening on your system but what we're saying only seems to make the situation muddier.
Dragging source clips from the media library to the timeline is the normal approach, and that has nothing to do with PDS files or edited frames.
All you're doing is telling PD that you want to do include that clip in your finished video. Once you make edits to it, PD does store them in the project (PDS) file, but nothing is ever done to your original (source) clips and there isn't any extra work you'll need to do. Simply reopen the project in PD and everything should show up exactly as you last saved the project.
Next, you may or may not see the full duration of the clip(s) when you first place on your timeline, but if you simply click on the icon shown below you'll force PD to show the full duration of your project so you won't need to scroll left or right to see everything:
As an example, if you have a single 40 minute clip on the timeline, clicking the
View entire video icon will show the full 40 minutes from left to right.
The preview window counter will show 00:00:00:00 when the scrubber (playhead) is at the start of the clip, and it will show something close to 00:40:00:00 if you hit the
End key or manually place the scrubber/playhead at the end of the clip. There is no forced limit to the counter other than the full duration of each selected clip.
Maybe you can try creating a new project and placing one of your 40-minute clips on the timeline and see if everything works as I've described. If not, please let us know what doesn't seem to be working and try again to take and attach a screenshot.
Follow the simple steps I wrote at the end of my last post, then open the Paint app and use the
Ctrl+V keys to paste the image there. Next, use
File >
Save As >
PNG picture or
JPEG picture to save the file someplace you can easily find it, like your desktop.
Finally, click on the Attachments button directly underneath the text reply box and locate the screenshot to share it with us: