Part 01 · Follow the steps

Edit, reframe, save and export your Short

1. Trim and frame

   01Open a generated Short

   In the Shorts workspace, open a completed generation, choose a clip from Main, and select Edit. Watch the video once, noting where the opening, transitions, framing, subtitles or ending need work. The editor initially labels an unsaved edit as Draft; changing things on screen does not by itself create a saved Modified version.

   Need a clip first? Generate a Short

2. 02Set the clip's beginning and ending

   On desktop or a wide tablet, select Timeline below the video player if the trimming controls are hidden. The orange-outlined section of the timeline is the footage that will remain in your Short. You can change its beginning (In) and ending (Out) in either of the two ways below; both adjust the same trim boundaries.

   A little extra footage for flexibility: TrendyTube normally includes a small amount of footage before and after the extracted moment, when available. If the Short begins too abruptly or its ending cuts off a word, you can move In earlier or Out later to include more of that footage. You can also move them inward to make the Short tighter. Replay the beginning and ending before saving.

   Use Zoom to see the timeline more precisely; it does not change video playback speed. The full timeline and Cut/Delete controls are best accessed on a desktop or wide tablet.

   Two ways to set the In and Out points

   Type exact In and Out times

   Find the In and Out time values beside the player controls. Click either value, type the precise timestamp in M:SS.ss format (for example 0:03.50), then press Enter or click away to apply it. Use In for where the Short starts and Out for where it ends.

   Drag the orange start and end handles

   Open Timeline and locate the orange-outlined clip range. Drag the left orange handle to set the start (In), or the right orange handle to set the end (Out). Move a handle outward to include more of the available footage or inward to remove unwanted material. The In/Out times update with your changes.

   Cut, Delete and Zoom

   

   Timeline and trim times

   

3. 03Select, split and remove timeline segments

   The thin colored segment strip above the timeline thumbnails represents the separate scenes. Click a colored segment to select it; click that same segment again, or click the timeline ruler outside the segment, to deselect it. Look for the stronger highlight and end handles to confirm your selection.

   To remove a passage from the middle, move the playhead to the start of the unwanted material and choose Cut. Move to its end and choose Cut again. Click the resulting unwanted colored segment, then choose Delete. Cutting creates segment boundaries; Delete removes the selected segment. At least one other segment must remain. Use Undo or Redo, and play across the join to check that the speech and motion still flow naturally.

   No segment selected

   

   

   The aspect-ratio control applies to the whole Short.

   Segment selected

   

   

   The control uses the selected segment's color and edits that segment's framing.

4. 04Choose the aspect ratio for the entire Short

   First deselect every timeline segment. Select Change Aspect Ratio from the player controls. In the crop dialog, choose the output shape and move the crop box to establish the default camera framing across the Short, then select Apply. The aspect-ratio choices appear only when no segment is selected. A typical YouTube Short uses 9:16, but you can also select another format for a different destination.

   Available video shapes

   9:16

   Vertical framing for a YouTube Short.

   16:9

   Horizontal widescreen framing.

   1:1

   Square framing.

   4:3

   A more compact rectangular frame.

5. 05Adjust the framing for each segment

   After choosing the overall aspect ratio, click a particular colored segment in the timeline. Select the same Change Aspect Ratio button again. With a segment selected, the dialog keeps the overall ratio locked and lets you reposition the crop for that segment only. Drag the crop box toward the person or subject who should be visible, then choose Apply. Repeat for other scenes as needed.

   Example: two speakers side by side. Keep the entire Short at 9:16. Select the segment where the person on the right speaks and position the crop over the right side. Then select the segment where the person on the left replies and position its crop over the left side. Each segment keeps its own camera position while sharing the same vertical output format. Play through their transition to check the framing. Deselect the segment if you need to change the overall aspect ratio later.

   Framing two speakers: an illustration

   Keep the same vertical output shape, then move the crop for each selected segment.

   First segment

   Frame the speaker on the left.

   Second segment

   Move the frame to the speaker on the right.

   

6. Captions and appearance

   06Correct subtitle text and timing

   Open Subtitles and compare the transcription with the audio. Correct any misheard words or timing mistakes. Open Splitter Settings to choose how individual words form on-screen caption groups, then replay the section to check that the text appears and disappears naturally. Subtitle content and timings are separate from the visual styling you choose in the next step.

   Choose how subtitles are grouped

   Punctuation

   Split at sentence or phrase punctuation.

   Pauses

   Use breaks in speech to form groups.

   Character length

   Keep groups below a chosen character count.

   Word count

   Keep each group to a selected number of words.

   Fixed duration

   Split according to a consistent time interval.

   

7. 07Choose how captions look

   Open Caption Styles on desktop or Captions on a smaller layout. Turn on Show captions if the words are hidden. Preview a style over different frames and make sure the text remains readable. Choose Edit template to customize supported fonts, sizes and animations, then save the look to reuse later. These appearance controls do not replace the subtitle transcript.

   Caption style libraries

   Predefined

   Apply and preview ready-made caption templates.

   My templates

   Find caption styles you have customized and saved for reuse.

8. 08Choose a video color filter

   Open Filters in the editor sidebar and stay on its Filters tab. Browse the preview thumbnails to choose a color treatment for the footage. Try a filter that improves contrast or gives the video a consistent look, and preview it across different shots before keeping it. This changes the video's color appearance; it is separate from the overlaid Effects tab and the motion settings in Animation.

9. 09Add a visual effect when useful

   Within the same Filters panel, switch to the Effects tab. Choose an optional overlay, such as Vignette, Old Film Grain, Snow, Film, Stars or an Audio Wave treatment. Preview it on the video, especially over captions and faces. The panel selects one effect at a time; choosing another replaces the previous effect, while your color filter remains separate. Choose None to clear the effect without undoing the color filter.

10. 10Set entrance and exit animations

    Open Animation from the sidebar. In the In tab, choose the motion used when the clip begins; in Out, choose what happens as it finishes. Each side can have its own choice. Select an available animation, adjust Duration and, for styles that support it, Direction. Use None when you want no animation at that point. Preview the beginning and ending rather than choosing motion from the thumbnail alone.

11. Save and export

    11Save your Draft as a Modified version

    The header shows Draft while you are editing the original generated clip and have not yet saved a modified version. Clicking Save for the first time creates a numbered version (for example, Version 1) that appears in the Shorts workspace under Modified. If you simply leave an unsaved Draft, your editing changes are not preserved. Reopen a saved version through Modified when you want to continue working on it.

    When editing an existing Modified version, later clicks on Save update that same version; they do not automatically create a new version every time. The button may briefly show a save countdown (currently 30 seconds) before another save is available. Wait for the saved confirmation. Export also calls Save first, so a successful export request records your current editing settings even when you did not click Save separately.

12. 12Use your free exports and download the finished clip

    Each Shorts generation project receives free export requests equal to 20% of the number of originally generated Shorts, rounded up. For example, a batch of 10 generated Shorts includes 2 free exports; a batch of 3 includes 1, and a batch of 11 includes 3. The free allowance belongs to the whole generation batch, not to each Short individually. Each new export request counts toward that shared allowance, including exporting a different clip or another edited version.

    Select Export to open the confirmation dialog. It shows the project's remaining free exports, or the applicable credit cost once those free exports are used. Free exports do not use generation credits, but account export frequency, monthly allowances, concurrency and quality limits still apply. Confirm to save current edits and start rendering. Return to Exports in the Shorts workspace, download the completed file, and watch it to verify framing, subtitles, effects, animation and audio before uploading.

    Review the Shorts workflow from extraction to export

Help · Common questions

Common questions