A major problem that beginning video editors face is figuring out the various features within a video editing program. Most video editing programs promise a steep learning curve. Beginners can’t proceed without a detailed how-to manual, which usually disappoints.

So, if you are looking for a video editing program that could be mastered without much headache, VideoThang is an obvious choice. The name doesn’t suggest that it could really offer you digital video solutions. However, as you start using it, you will be proven wrong.

Although VideoThang is simple to use, a major drawback is its inability to capture video directly from your camcorder. With VideoThang you can only import video clips that have already been captured and stored.

Anyway, this is not really a major shortcoming. There are countless freeware programs that could easily capture video from your camcorder. One of them is AVCutty.

You start by importing video from your hard disk. To add a clip to the storyboard, you click on it. At the same time, your video appears on the preview screen. In case you need to trim the clip, you can do it easily by moving the Start slider to your desired start frame. Then you drag the End slider to the end frame.

If you find a clip’s audio volume a little high, you can adjust it to match that of other clips in your storyboard. The same doesn’t apply to your video, however. If your video is a little dark, then it has to stay that way. There’s no facility for colour correction in VideoThang. If you are looking for video effects, you will be given nothing more than three – negative, sepia and black-and-white.

That said, VideoThang can import formats ranging from MOV, AVI, MPG, WMV FLV, 3GP, MP4, MV4 and DV. So you don’t really have to worry about format compatibility if you’re going to do some serious video editing work with VideoThang.

If you handle a lot of FLV files, VideoThang may just be the program for you. Editing FLV files is a breeze and you may not enjoy the same ease with other video editors which tend to concentrate on the mainstream formats like AVI or MPG.

Thinking of creating a slide show with your favourite images? You would have no problem doing so with VideoThang. The program can import JPG and PNG formats. You can pan and zoom to position the images to eliminate unwanted borders. However, your images will be static in your video. You can’t have motion effects for your stills.

Output Quality may not match that of top-end video editors. However, if you’re doing a web video it’s not going to matter that much.

As VideoThang supports 3GP, you can import clips from your mobile telephone and start adding sound and effects to it and your video will ready to be uploaded to MySpace or Facebook. To get an idea of VideoThang’s output quality, you could visit the VideoThang channel at YouTube.

VideoThang may not match the features of top-notch video editing program. However, if you want to create video quickly and easily, this may be the program for you. And if you’re creating video for the web, you should try VideoThang first.