Convert letterboxed video to widescreen in Corel VideoStudio X5

There is a great web page by Trevor Andrew about working with 16:9 video in Corel VideoStudio 10. In particular I needed to use the section about 3/4 of the way down the page titled “Ok let’s change a 4:3 aspect ratio to 16:9“. I wanted to crop a 16:9 video that was captured in letterboxed 4:3 format and I’m using Corel VideoStudio X5, so the screen shots and some option locations are different. Here are screen shots and modified steps to make Trevor’s page match X5 exactly.

Differences are in parenthesis, my VSP X5 changes are in bold italics

1. Change the project properties to use 16:9 aspect (File – Project Properties-Edit-General tab) (Settings – Enable Widescreen)
2. With the 4:3 video in the top track select the (‘Attributes Tab’. Select the “Distort” button.) (Open the Options panel, Select the Attributes Tab and check the Distort Clip checkbox)
3. Right click the preview screen and select “Fit to screen”
4. Right click the preview screen and select “Keep aspect ratio”