Main Window

OpenShot Video Editor has one main window which contains most of the information, buttons, and menus needed to edit your video project.

Overview

_images/main-window.jpg
# Name Description
1 Main Toolbar Contains buttons to open, save, and export your video project.
2 Function Tabs Switch between Project Files, Transitions, Effects, and Emojis.
3 Project Files All audio, video, and image files that have been imported into your project.
4 Preview Window This is the area that the video will playback on the screen.
5 Edit Toolbar This toolbar contains buttons used for snapping, inserting markers, slicing razor, and jumping between markers.
6 Zoom Slider This slider will adjust the time-scale of your timeline. Drag the left or right edge to zoom in or out. Drag the blue area to scroll the timeline left or right. Clips and transitions are displayed as simple rectangles, to give you context for adjusting the zoom to specific clips.
7 Play-head / Ruler The ruler shows the time-scale, and the red line is the play-head. The play-head represents the current playback position. Hold Shift key while dragging the playhead to snap to nearby clips.
8 Timeline The timeline visualizes your video project, and each clip and transition in your project. You can drag the mouse to select, move, or delete multiple items.
9 Filter Filter the list of items shown (project files, transitions, effects, and emojis) by using these buttons and filter textbox. Enter a few letters of what you are looking for, and the results will be shown.
10 Playback Left to Right: Jump to Start, Rewind, Play/Pause, Fast Forward, and Jump to End

For step-by-step instructions on the basic usage of OpenShot, be sure to read the Quick Tutorial.

Built-in Tutorial

When you first launch OpenShot, you will be presented with a friendly built-in tutorial. It will demonstrate and explain the basics. Clicking Next will jump to the next topic. You can always view this tutorial again from the Help→Tutorial menu.

_images/built-in-tutorial.jpg

Tracks & Layers

OpenShot uses tracks to layer videos and images. The top most track is the top layer, and the bottom track is the bottom layer. If you are familiar with layers in a photo editing application, then you should be quite familiar with this concept. OpenShot will stack the layers and mix each one together, just like a photo editing application. You can have an unlimited number of tracks, but typically a simple video project will not need more than 5 tracks.

For example, imagine a 3 track video project

_images/tracks.jpg
# Name Description
1 Top Track Clips on this track will always be on top and visible. Often watermarks and titles are placed on higher tracks.
2 Middle Track Clips in the middle (might or might not be visible, depending on what is above them)
3 Bottom Track Clips on this track will always be on the bottom. Often audio clips are placed on lower tracks.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Here is a list of the default keyboard shortcuts supported by OpenShot. You can configure these shortcuts in the Preferences window, which is opened by selecting Edit→Preferences from the OpenShot menu bar. (On macOS, choose OpenShot Video Editor→Preferences.) Learning a few of these shortcuts can save you a bunch of time!

Shortcut Action
Ctrl+H About OpenShot
Ctrl+M Add Marker
Ctrl+Shift+T Add Track
Ctrl+W Add to Timeline
Ctrl+B Animated Title
Ctrl+Up Center on Playhead
Ctrl+P Choose Profile
Ctrl+Shift+ESC Clear All Cache
Ctrl+C Copy
Delete Delete Item
Backspace Delete Item (Alternate 1)
Ctrl+D Details View
Ctrl+Shift+C Duplicate Title
Not Set Edit Title
Ctrl+E Export Video
L Fast Forward
F11 Fullscreen
Ctrl+F Import Files…
Ctrl+Shift+E Insert Keyframe
Ctrl+End Jump To End
Ctrl+Home Jump To Start
Ctrl+N New Project
Right Next Frame
Ctrl+Right Next Marker
Shift+Left Nudge left
Shift+Right Nudge right
Ctrl+O Open Project…
Ctrl+V Paste
Space Play/Pause Toggle
Up Play/Pause Toggle (Alternate 1)
Down Play/Pause Toggle (Alternate 2)
K Play/Pause Toggle (Alternate 3)
Ctrl+Shift+P Preferences
Left Previous Frame
Ctrl+Left Previous Marker
Ctrl+I Properties
Ctrl+Q Quit
Ctrl+Y Redo
J Rewind
Not Set Save Current Frame
Ctrl+S Save Project
Ctrl+Shift+S Save Project As…
Ctrl+A Select All
Ctrl+Shift+A Select None
Ctrl+K Slice All: Keep Both Sides
Ctrl+L Slice All: Keep Left Side
Ctrl+J Slice All: Keep Right Side
s Slice Selected: Keep Both Sides
d Slice Selected: Keep Left Side
a Slice Selected: Keep Right Side
Ctrl+G Snapping Enabled
Ctrl+X Split Clip…
Ctrl+Shift+D Thumbnail View
Ctrl+T Title
R Toggle Razor
Ctrl+R Transform
Ctrl+Z Undo
= Zoom In
- Zoom Out
Ctrl+Middle Button Scroll Timeline