First, I'm still very basic in Vegas Pro 9. I have just run into a situation where I hope I can learn from the expertise here. Finished a job with a lot of tracks, including audio which I had to sync up to unrelated video, still inserts, etc, which is pretty much the most complex thing I have done. The client loved it. Now, he asked if I could just make "a few changes" to the first several minutes so he can use that versio for a different purpose. The rest he wants to keep. The idea of messing up the timing (particularly the various audio tracks) has me pulling my hair out.

Is there a way to "freeze" everything else, insert the changes which are shorter than the scenes being deleted, and drag all the tracks forward without having to move them one by one and resync all of them? Please, can some guru save me? Thank you!

First make a duplicate of your project file and work on that.

Here are some tools that will be useful:
a. Auto-Ripple - this tool allows you to work with events on the timeline and keep associated events in sync. There are 3 settings - look it up in the Help and see which one works best for you. I think you probably want the most comprehensive setting which auto-ripples every event on every track.

b. Group/Ungroup function (G, U keys) - Allows you to group events together. Select the events you want by lassoing, SHIFT or CTRL clicking and then press G to group and U to un-group.

Michael, thank you very much. I will educate myself and try these tips. I did not understand the grouping aspect at all.

The grouping function allows you to move/manipulate several events together as though they were one event. It is similar to a video clip with audio - they are on different tracks but you can move them together, delete or trim them together or make various other changes to both of them simultaneously.

Using the Group/Ungroup funtion allows you to select as many events as you want and group them together in the same way that audio is attached to its associated video clip on the timeline. You can also select consecutive events on a track and group them so they will behave like one single continuous clip.

Most importanly, as Michael points out, you will want to save a second version of your project!

A couple other options:

Render out that section to a new file and then just drop it into the new project with new intro.

Drop this VEG file into the new project after the new intro. Nested VEG files can be trimmed just like any other event so you can then just trim off the old beginning.

Great guidance, thank you all so much! You have saved my sanity and a huge amount of time. I was able to get it done today thanks to each of you.