Your first video

This page walks through a first video by hand: a workspace, a media folder, a new video, one clip trimmed and split, a title, a short voiceover, and the export. Nothing here needs an account. Every step names the page that says more.

1. Make a workspace

Install the app and open it. Leave the welcome tour with Continue without Pro; the workspace window opens.

Click New Workspace…. The sheet asks for a name and a place; the place is under ~/Movies/BetterEdits unless you pick another. The app makes one document, <name>.betteredits, and opens it. Every video you make lives inside it. See Workspaces.

2. Point it at your footage

In the sidebar, under Media Folders, click Add another and choose the folder you shoot into. Files in a media folder are used where they are, never copied. A file from anywhere else is copied into the video that uses it, so a one-off from the Desktop travels with its video. See Media folders.

3. Start a video

Press ⌘N. Give the video a name, leave the canvas at 9:16 and the start at Blank, and click Create. The video's window opens: the viewer on top, the Sources sidebar on the left, the timeline below. See Videos.

4. Put a clip on the timeline

In the Sources sidebar, click Libraries, then your folder. Every file shows as a thumbnail with its length. Click a tile once and it plays in the main player, so you can find the take. Then drag the tile onto the timeline, or double-click it: it lands on Video 1 at the playhead. See Sources.

Press Space to play. Click or drag in the ruler to scrub. ← and → step a frame.

5. Trim and split

Drag either edge of the clip to trim it. While you drag, the viewer shows the exact frame at that edge. Video 1 is magnetic: the clips after a trim move to close the gap.

To cut a piece out of the middle, put the playhead where the cut starts and press S. Move the playhead to where it ends and press S again. Click the clip between the two cuts and press ⌫. The clips on either side close up. See Timeline.

6. Fit the picture

Footage shot wide sits in the middle of a 9:16 canvas with black above and below. Click the clip and, in the sidebar, click Fill: the picture grows to cover the canvas. Drag the picture in the viewer to choose what stays in frame. See Framing.

7. Add a title

Press ⌘T. A text lands at the playhead on a Text track at the top of the timeline, and the words field in the sidebar takes focus. Type the title. Under Favorites, open the Apply menu and pick a look; every favorite's name is drawn in its own look, so choose by eye. Drag the text on the canvas to place it; it snaps to the centre. Drag its edges on the timeline to set how long it stays. See Text.

8. Record a voiceover

Put the playhead where the take should start and press ⌘R. In the sheet, leave Record to on New audio track, pick your microphone, and click Record. The first time, macOS asks for microphone access. The viewer counts 3, 2, 1, the timeline plays from the playhead, and the take draws live on a new Voiceover track. Press ⌘R again to stop. The take is a clip like any other: trim its ends, drag it into place. See Voiceover and music.

Music goes the same way: press ⌘I and choose a sound file. It lands on Audio 1, which ducks under the voiceover on its own.

9. Export

Press ⌘E. The sheet offers HD, 2K or 4K, a frame rate, and HDR when the footage is HDR; the defaults follow the footage. Click Export…, choose where to save (the panel opens on your Movies folder), and the app renders with a progress sheet. The first export in a workspace ends in a sheet that says where the file went and reveals it. See Export.

What you have

The video saved itself after every change; there is nothing to save. Press ⌘W to close its window; the workspace window is still there, with the video as a card with its thumbnail, length and size. Open it any time and carry on.

An agent adds the part a person cannot do by hand quickly: it reads the words in your footage, cuts by what was said, captions it, and exports, every change landing in this same window as one undo step. That is Pro; see Pro.