Getting started: your first edit

This walks through a first edit on the Mac or Windows app. Everything here is manual editing in a Local project, so it is free and needs no account and no connection. Keys below are the defaults; on Windows, ⌘ is Ctrl and ⌥ is Alt. If a key does nothing, find the command by name in the command palette (⌘K).

1. Start a project

On the start screen, where your recent projects are listed, choose New project.
The screen asks What are we making? You can type an idea for the Director, which needs a free account — or skip it: choose Just start editing. That opens an empty Local project in the editor and never asks you to sign in.

2. Bring in your footage

In the panel on the left, under FOOTAGE, choose Import footage, or press ⌘O (Import media). You can also drop files from Finder or File Explorer onto that panel.
Your files are decoded on your computer; nothing is uploaded. Each one appears as a row under FOOTAGE and lands as a clip at the end of the timeline, in the order you picked them. The one exception is a file your computer can’t play as it is: Horoptic makes an H.264 copy of it on your computer (your file is unchanged) and adds that copy after the rest, one file at a time. Activity shows each copy’s progress.

3. Put clips on the timeline

Your footage is already on the timeline at the bottom of the window. To use a shot again, drag its row from FOOTAGE onto the timeline; that adds another copy.
Press Space (Play / pause) to watch what you have.

4. Make your cuts

Select a clip, park the playhead where you want the cut, and press S (Split clip at playhead).
To remove a piece and close the gap it leaves, select it and press ⇧⌫ (Ripple delete).
Drag a clip’s left or right edge to trim it shorter or longer.
Made a mistake? ⌘Z undoes any edit, as many times as you need.

For rolls, slips, slides and frame-exact trims, see trim with the pro edit grammar.

5. Export

Choose Export at the top right, or press ⌘E (Export master).
Under SAVE TO, choose Choose… and pick a folder.
Pick a format, then choose Export. The file renders on your computer — nothing is uploaded and nothing is charged — and you can close the panel while it runs.

Where to go next

The Director and generation need a free account, and then credits: sign in from the editor’s top bar to make the project a Cloud project. How the Director works · credits and billing
Your project stays on this computer until you choose otherwise. Local-first and accounts