FCP7 and Motion 4 - lost handles on motn. clip

I'm a newbie and finding my way - films are looking and sounding good - but im stuck right now!

I've learnt to 'send' a clip to motion 4 from my fcp7 timeline, I've learnt how to add text in motion and sure enough when i 'save' in motion and return to fcp7, there is the .motn clip with its new titles. great!
However I then noticed where I had cross dissolve transitions at either end of the clip, they don't work properly anymore.
I removed the transitions to find the motn. clip is shorter.
after lots of puzzling investigation it seems that as soon as I select a clip in the fcp timeline and 'send to motion project' it then cannot be lengthened.
it is fixed to it's in and out points . so short - and there are no handles - so I cannot use transitions such as cross dissolve.
I must be missing something. you must be able to add titles but still do transitions with that clip?!
if I click on the motn. clip I can see in viewer that the in and out points are at the ends.

so how do send a clip to motion but not lose the footage either side of the in and out points.

many thanks to anyone who can help!

anyone?
please!

Hi Storme
Here's my take, been awhile since I have fired up fcp7

A cross dissolve involves 3 different clips. The main clip and the clips on either side of it. When you add a x-dissolve it uses the adjacent clips as part of the dissolve. You can only send 1 clip to Motion and the the adjacent clips for the X-dissolves do not transfer to Motion. You are sending the actual video media file of the target clip, the cross dissolve is only an opacity ramp up/down and is applied to the underlying clips.
Since Motion deals with only 1 clip and has no way of knowing what clips are currently or in the future going to be adjacent to the target clip, it cannot affect those potential clips. Cross dissolve is only a automated opacity slider 0-100% / 100-0% and timing length.
You can apply a fade in and fade out behavior in Motion to the target clip, but then you may create conflicts when you apply a X-cross transition; you would have 2 opacity control transitions to deal with on each side of the clip. Not something I would do.
Do your edits, then apply the transition, easy to do and control in the timeline. You can change the default behaviors/parameters of the cross-dissolve, like duration, ramping curves, and 0 point of cross over, then you can apply that as default transition.
Titles are "burned" in Motion and you can use all the tools in Motion and when you "publish" send to FCP, the title has been added and you can change parameters according to what you set up in Motion.
A cross dissolve transition cannot be "burned" in because the adjacent clips will change each time. Motion has no way of knowing what the adjacent clips are/will be, and a cross dissolve is only an opacity slider that is applied to the 3 clips involved; target clip and the clips on either side.
FCP7 and Motion4 are very different beasts from current FCPX and Motion5 in how they work internally and now FCPX uses hard and soft links and not "copying" the files each time.
Hope this makes sense and help.
Happy Editing
Greg