Cannot View Video in Canvas AFTER edits are made. Why?

Question

so i just received Final Cut Pro for my birthday because i have been craving an amazing video editing system. I use this for comedic videos with my friends and to create Halo 3 Montages.
I have already saved clips in iMovie '08, i am able to import those clips and play them in canvas and the preview or whatever the one on left is, but when i insert file transitions or any effects for that matter, the section where i put the effect has a red line on the timeline of the sequence. When i try to play it in canvas that particular part has the blue/black screen and reads "undrendered!"
How can I fix this? please help...
Also, like many people, i love music in my videos, but I try importing an MP3 from iTunes and when it imports it can play in the left side player/preview player (whatever its called) but once again if I insert the MP3 into the sequence to play along with my video, all i get is the "beeping" sound instead of the the actual song.

Answer 1

Hi Voltaic,
Congatulations!
I think, now that you played a little bit with FCP, it's time read a little in tha manual. Rendering is explained in there.
The red line you are talking about tells you you need to render. That is to process the effect into a movie-file (AKA Render file).
The easy answer is: Select everything under the red line and hit Command-R (or menu: Sequence > Render Selection)
As said: More about rendering in the manual.
Actually the same applies to audio. The beeping sound means the audio needs to be rendered. Select and use Command R. But with every cut you make you'll need to render again, so it wuld be better to convert your 44.1 kHz mp3 file to 48 kHz AIFF. That doesn't need a render....
By the way: The left video screen is called Viewer, the right one is the Canvas. You can see those names in the top of those windows.
Rienk