Workspaces

A workspace is where your videos live: one document in Finder, plain files inside. This page covers what it holds, how to create or open one, how media folders decide which files are copied, the Video panel, and .be files. The media sidebar is on Sources; making and managing videos is on Videos.

What a workspace is

A workspace is a .betteredits package with the app's icon. Double-click it and it opens in BetterEdits; drop it on the Dock icon and the same happens. Inside (right-click › Show Package Contents) it is plain files: every video in its own folder, the settings beside them.

Reels.betteredits/
  workspace.json                what gets made here, the canvas, the media folders
  settings/                     captions.json, caption-styles.json, text-styles.json
  projects/<Name>/project.json  the canvas, the brief, notes, and the media the video uses
  projects/<Name>/timeline.json the edit: tracks, clips, texts and caption bars
  projects/<Name>/styles.json   the looks the video uses
  projects/<Name>/media/        copied files; template.json for a video started from one
  cache/

The three files of a video are JSON written for reading: one clip per line, keys in order, defaults left out, and an id on every clip and caption bar so an agent can point at one. The app writes them after every change and is the only thing that writes them; an agent asks the app for the video as one document and hands it back, never touching the files. See How an agent edits. Exports never land inside the workspace; see Where files land.

One workspace is open at a time. Opening another one closes this one first, every video window included, and opens that.

Create or open one

• New Workspace… (the workspace window, or File › New Workspace…) asks for a name and a place, under ~/Movies/BetterEdits unless you pick, and makes the document.
• Open Existing… in the workspace window, or File › Open Workspace…, opens an existing one. A plain folder is offered to become a workspace, never converted silently. A workspace made before the app used packages is renamed to one the next time it opens.
• Recent Workspaces lists the workspaces opened before when none is open; a workspace can also be dropped on the window.
• Close (top of the sidebar, or File › Close Workspace) forgets the workspace and shows the empty state. Nothing is deleted.
• Show Workspace (⇧⌘W) brings the workspace window to the front, or back if you closed it. Opening a video never hides it: the workspace window and the video windows are peers, and it comes back by itself when the last video window closes.
• Reveal Workspace in Finder selects the document.

Media folders

Media folders decide which files are copied.

• A file inside one of the workspace's media folders, or inside the workspace itself, is used where it is.
• A file imported from anywhere else is copied into the video's media/ folder first, once per video, with its analysis file if it has one, and stored by relative path. The video's folder then moves as one piece.

Add a media folder from the sidebar's Media Folders list, from File › Add Media Folder…, or with media-folders --add on the command line. Each video card shows its size on disk, copied media included. In the Sources sidebar a media folder is a library; see Sources.

To stop using a folder, click the × beside it. If videos still use files from it the app asks: Consolidate into Videos copies those files into each video's own media/ folder first, Remove Anyway leaves the references pointing at the folder, Cancel keeps it.

The Video panel

The Video button in the project toolbar (the info icon) opens a panel with the video's name, the workspace's location, its media folders, and the media the video uses. Change the name there and press Return to rename the video; its folder moves with it. Each file shows its length, how many clips use it, and whether it was copied into the video. Open, Reveal in Finder and Export… are in each row's menu; Export All… copies every file somewhere else.

A video from another workspace

A video is its folder and nothing else, so it travels as one: copy projects/<Name> out of one workspace and drop it on another's workspace window, or choose Import Video Folder… (⌘O). The folder is copied in as a video of its own (numbered when the name is taken) and opened. Media copied into the video comes with it; files it uses from a media folder are found again only where the new workspace sees that folder too, so Consolidate into Videos first when that matters (see Media folders). For a snapshot inside the same workspace, Duplicate the card.

Settings in the workspace

The subtitle bar rules, the caption styles and the text favorites are saved in the open workspace as settings/captions.json, settings/caption-styles.json and settings/text-styles.json, so a workspace carries its looks. Edits to those files are picked up while the app runs. Without a workspace they live in this Mac's preferences. See Settings.

Analysed footage

Next to a media file there may be its analysis, written when the footage was analysed: every spoken word with its timing, and more. It is a hidden file (.<file>.bettereditsanalysis), so your folders show only your media. On Pro the app analyses every file in the workspace by itself, and shows where each stands as a dot on its tile and a queue behind the analysis pill. The app reads the file for captions and moves it with the media. See Analysing footage.