Trim a video and cut out the parts you don't need
Keep the part of a video you need, cut parts out of the middle, and export it as a new file while the original stays as it was.
01Open the video
Go to Studio, or the Edit a file tile on Home, and click Choose files or drop the video onto it. From Completed, the button in a file's row that says Open this file in the Studio does the same. The video lies on the Video row of the timeline under the preview.
02Find the place
Click or drag on the ruler at the top of the timeline and the preview shows the frame there without pressing Play; the -5s and +5s buttons move five seconds. On the keyboard, Space or K plays and pauses, the left and right arrows step one frame and with Shift one second, and Home and End go to the start and the end. L plays and runs faster with each press, J runs back, K stops, and the up and down arrows jump to the previous or next edit. The + button beside the timeline, or Cmd or Ctrl and the mouse wheel, shows more detail, and Fit shows the whole video again.
03Set start and Set end
The tools under the preview start with Set start and Set end: they put the beginning and the end of what you keep at the play position, and the I and O keys do the same. Reset keeps the whole video. On a single video the Video row is a bar with a handle at each end, and dragging a handle moves the start or the end in whole seconds. What you keep is at least a second long.
04Trim each clip on the Video row
With several videos or pictures on the Video row, each clip is trimmed on its own: drag its edge to take less of it, or more, as far as its file goes. Whole clip on the clip's card on the right takes the whole video again. After a change of the clips the Studio shows Updating the video with how far it is, and Cancel there takes the change back.
05Cut a part out of the middle
Start a cut here, next to Split, marks where the part starts. Press it again where the part ends (it then reads End the cut here), or press X twice while the video plays; Esc cancels a cut you started. The parts you cut are listed in CUT OUT A PART on the Cuts and pauses page, which opens from its row on the Whole video page on the right. Each shows its length, Keep brings one back and Keep all brings them all back, and the preview skips them. Up to 1.7.7 the Studio was called the Editor and this card was in its Cut tab.
06Or split the video and delete a part
S, or the Split button, splits the video part of the Video row at the play position into two parts. Split where the unwanted stretch starts and again where it ends, click the part between them and press Delete: the row closes up. Undo at the top (Cmd or Ctrl and Z) takes a step back, and Redo next to it brings it back.
07Open the Export window
Export… at the top opens the Export window. FORMAT offers mp4, mkv, mov, and webm, or gif (animated), and mp3, wav, m4a, flac, or ogg when you only need a GIF or the sound. QUALITY offers Fast (smaller file), Balanced, and Best quality. For mp4, mkv, and mov, VIDEO CODEC has H.264, which plays everywhere, and H.265, for a smaller file at about the same quality that some older players, TVs, and editors cannot play.
08Or copy it without re-encoding
For a long recording where only the start and the end change, tick Fast trim without re-encoding in the Export window. The file is copied, so it keeps its format and quality and is ready in seconds. A copy can only start at a key frame, so the note says how far before your start it begins, for example 0.53 s. The switch is greyed out once anything else changes, such as a cut, a crop, captions, text, or a sound setting, for more than one file, and for clips on the Video row, so also after a split.
09Check it and export to Queue
WHAT THE EXPORT WILL DO lists the source, the name the result is saved as (the file name with -edited added, or your own pattern from Settings), the length after the trim and the cuts, the picture, the sound, what happens to subtitle tracks, and a size estimate. The export re-encodes the video, so it starts and ends exactly at your marks. Export to Queue sends the job to the Queue and the new file lands in your output folder and in Completed; Cancel closes the window without exporting. The source file is never overwritten.
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