fade icon...
 

You have a couple of clips side by side and want to fade, for example, TO black in the first and FROM black in the second. So...you go to the top of the clip at the end (or beginning) and bring up then fade icon by moving the cursor around the correct spot, click on it, then drag the length of your fade.

However that fade icon sometimes is incredibly hard to bring up, and sometimes - oft-times - it disappears before you can click on it. Most frustrating!!!

Is there any way with predictable certainty, to get that icon up - easily?

generally if you have a hard time seeing the icon it means the followingclips is overlapped. It might be almost impossible to see it so in this instance try the "snapping" tool or just pull the clip to the right a little further back down the timeline to expose the edge of the clip to the left and I'll bet you see the corner.

Don

Try either or both of the following: zoom in more on the timeline or make the track larger in height.

Thanks guys. Actually I've used all of those methods at times, especially zooming in or increasing the height of the track. It would be nice not to have to do either.

You could just use the "fade through black" transition.