Thanks so much. Learned a lot from your response...most importantly that "file in a bin...is not 'open' as such." Without that bit of info, I never would have considered DELETE as an option.
However, if the video file is not "open," how do edits that are saved in .vpj get married to the video file. Instinctively, I had already begun, as you suggested, incrementally numbering the progressing .vpi project. And just now I was horrified because I spent two hours on edit #2 that I was celebrating because I completed a fairly complicated segment, saved the project-2.vpj -- and the video clip doesn't have the new material.
How do I view my newly edited project?.
Thanks, again.