Problems setting duration for still photos and transitions in iMovie '11

Question

I downloaded iMovie 11 from the Apps Store last night and am trying to make my first movie with it today. I use still photos exclusively.
For most - but not all - I like 5 seconds for photos and for transitions 2 seconds. I do vary this on occasion and so do not check "for all photos' or "for all transitions".
I can't get these settings to work with this version of iMovie. For example, I added a photo (5 sec) then a transition (2 sec) which changed the duration time of the photo - as it should. But when I double clicked the photo, to bring up the inspector window to change the duration of the photo, nothing happened. Then I added another photo. The duration of the first photo increased to 7 seconds and nothing I do seemed to change that.
The time increases seem random: for example, sometimes the time on the still photo increases to 6:29 sec, sometimes to 7 sec.
The duration for the transitions always remains the same - 2 sec; it's the time for the photos that jumps around. And I haven't been able to find a way to get back to 5 sec.
Before posting this, I researched and found an number of earlier posts detailing the same issues.
However, none of these posts had stars to indicate the problem was solved.
Has anyone found a solution or is this a bug that should be reported to Apple?

Answer 1

Interesting!!
I've spent a lot of hours on this too, but I have come up with a different solution perhaps because I like to vary both the image duration and the transition duration in my movies.
Here's my process:
-> Knowing that (a) I want most of the photos to be visible for 5 seconds and most transitions for 2 seconds and (b) that a transition takes half from the photo before and half from the photo after, under File>Project Properties>Photo Duration I chose 7 seconds - each photo will 'lose' a total of 2 seconds from the transitions in front and behind. I did not check either "Applies to all transitions." or "Applies to all photos." - See below for why.
-> I discovered, as you have, that all the photos have to go in before I add any transitions. This was new to me. With all previous versions of iMovie I simply added a photo then a transition then another photo one at a time. I had to fiddle with the timing adjustments, but at least I could fiddle. With this new version of iMovie I can't. Once the transition is in place, I cannot change the duration of the photo.
-> Sometimes, I want a longer or shorter duration for a photo. For example, on photos to which I apply the Ken Burns effect, I often want the image on the screen for a slightly longer time. In this case, I have to use the inspector to change the duration before I add the transitions. So I might set the time for 8 seconds; when both transitions are added, the time for this photo becomes 6 seconds, which is what I want.
-> The same applies if I want a transition to be shorter or longer than 2 seconds. If, for example, I want the duration for a transition to be 1 second, then I have to change the duration on the two linked photos to 5 1/2 seconds.
All of this requires much more prior planning than I am used to with iMovie. Right now, I working with batches of 5 or 6 photos at a time. I don't put a transition on the last photo in the batch until I have added the next group of photos. And things get really tricky if I don't like my original design. If I want to change anything, I have to take out all of the transitions linking the photos I want to work on, do the math, make the changes in the photo durations, then put the transitions back.
Perhaps I am trying to make iMovie do more than it was intended to do, I don't know. Perhaps this problem stems from the fact that I bought just iMovie 11 from the Mac Apps Store and not the entire iLife 11. Don't know that either. But at least I have found a way to make the movie look the way I want it to look.
Thanks for sharing your process. I will use it when the circumstances are right.