How to set up your PC to edit home movies?

I recently bought a portable video camera recorder (or camcorder) and used it for the first time to record the places I visited on my last summer holiday.
If you use a camcorder, today's movie-editing software offers you more control than ever over the final look of your home movies. You can cut, edit and add effects to your home movies to share with family and friends as a reminder of special occasions like birthday parties or holidays.
When I returned from my summer break, I wanted to transfer the movie to my PC and edit together the best moments. Here's what I did:
Step by step
1. First I had to make sure I could transfer the movie I wanted to edit from my camcorder to my PC. I connected the camcorder for the first time to the PC using a compatible cable and then switched both pieces of equipment on.
2. When my PC started up it displayed a message saying it had detected new hardware. The window containing the message also asked if I wanted to load the relevant software and I clicked 'yes'.
Most camcorders are sold with a CD that contains the software needed for the computer to recognize and control the camcorder. Your PC will already have some camcorder manufacturers' software pre-loaded, so you might not need to use the CD provided.
The "New Hardware" wizard prompted me to insert the CD containing the camcorder software into the CD-ROM drive. I loaded the software onto the system following the prompts in the New Hardware wizard.
3. The wizard told me I had successfully installed the software and automatically opened a 'My Computer' window (also found in the 'Start' menu for Microsoft Windows*-based systems) which showed all the drives connected to the PC's system. I knew my PC had recognized the camcorder because an icon with the camcorder's name appeared alongside the other icons in this window.
4. Next I needed some movie editing software, so I searched on the Internet. I decided to use Adobe Premier Elements* because it is designed for beginners and comes with tutorial-based help. I then paid for and downloaded the software, and learned the basic editing techniques by watching the tutorials.
5. I launched the editing software on my PC and opened the file that contained my raw footage.
6. I used the editing tool in the software to cut the footage into scenes. The software also allows you to view individual frames. I then selected the scenes and frames I wanted to remove, and deleted them using the backspace key.
Next I added a title, scene transition effects and closing credits using the 'insert' and formatting tools. I found the 'undo' command was a real help in avoiding errors in the final edit, and the 'zoom' control was particularly useful for checking aspects of an individual frame.
I didn't add background music, even though the software makes it easy to do. That's because I want to share the movie by putting it on a public Web site, and I did not want to breach the copyright restrictions on the tracks in my music collection.
If you want to add music to a publicly shared movie, try an Internet search for 'royalty-free music'.
7. Finally, I decided to save an electronic copy of the film as well as burn it onto DVD so I could play it anywhere with a compatible player.
After I finished editing, the editing software prompted me to save the finished movie, and it asked me which format I wanted to save it in. First I saved it as an 'MPEG' (or electronic movie file) and then chose the option to write the file to DVD. When I did this, the software prompted me to insert a blank DVD into my DVD-R drive. Once I had done both, I was ready to share the best parts of my trip in whichever format was easiest for my friends and family.