Polk County Public Schools, Staff
There are two types of edits within Final Cut: an overwrite edit, which replaces whatever it lands on in the timeline, and an insert edit, which "inserts" itself into the timeline at the point of the playhead.
It's recommended to always use an Overwrite edit as your default edit, because it will give you the results you expect. However, for those occasions when you need to insert a shot, without damaging any material that is already edited, the Insert edit is your choice.
To do an Insert edit, set your In and Out on a clip in the Viewer. Then, position the playhead in the timeline where you want to insert the clip. Finally, drag the clip from the Viewer to the Canvas and drop it on top of the yellow Insert overlay menu that appears.
Your clip is automatically inserted at the position of the playhead in the Timeline and all the clips to the right of the inserted clip are shifted to the right.