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Overview

Open Screen’s video editor provides a professional timeline-based editing interface where you can trim, crop, and enhance your recordings with precision.

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Timeline Editor

The timeline is the central hub for all editing operations. It displays your video duration with precise time markers and supports multiple editing tracks.

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Timeline Features

  • Dynamic time scaling - Automatically adjusts markers based on video duration (0.25s to 1 hour intervals)
  • Precise playhead control - Click or drag to seek to any timestamp
  • Multi-track editing - Separate rows for zoom, trim, annotations, and speed adjustments
  • Keyframe markers - Add markers at important timestamps for quick navigation
The timeline supports videos from a few seconds to several hours in length with automatic scaling for optimal visibility.

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Timeline Navigation

  • Space - Play/Pause
  • Z - Add zoom region at playhead
  • T - Add trim region at playhead
  • A - Add annotation at playhead
  • S - Add speed region at playhead
  • Delete/Backspace - Delete selected region

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Zoom Regions

Create dynamic zoom effects to emphasize specific areas of your screen recording.
1

Add Zoom Region

Position the playhead where you want the zoom to start and press Z or click the zoom button.
2

Adjust Duration

Drag the edges of the zoom region on the timeline to control when it starts and ends.
3

Set Zoom Level

Select the zoom region and choose a depth level (1-6) in the settings panel:
  • Level 1: 1.25× magnification
  • Level 2: 1.5× magnification
  • Level 3: 1.8× magnification (default)
  • Level 4: 2.2× magnification
  • Level 5: 3.5× magnification
  • Level 6: 5.0× magnification
4

Position Focus Point

Click on the video preview to set where the zoom should focus. The green crosshair shows the current focus point.

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AI Zoom Suggestions

Click the magic wand icon to automatically generate zoom regions based on your cursor movements during recording.
Zoom suggestions analyze cursor dwell time and movement patterns to identify moments where you paused or clicked, suggesting these as natural zoom candidates.

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Trimming

Remove unwanted sections from your video without re-encoding.

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Creating Trim Regions

  1. Press T at the playhead position
  2. Drag the trim region edges to select the section to remove
  3. Multiple trim regions can exist - they’ll all be removed from the final export
Trim regions cannot overlap with each other. The editor will prevent you from creating overlapping trims.

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Trim Behavior

  • Trimmed sections are completely removed from exports
  • Timeline automatically adjusts durations after trims
  • Speed regions and other effects respect trim boundaries

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Speed Control

Adjust playback speed for specific sections of your video.

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Available Speed Options

  • 0.25× - Quarter speed (slow motion)
  • 0.5× - Half speed
  • 0.75× - Three-quarter speed
  • 1.25× - Slightly faster
  • 1.5× - Default fast forward
  • 1.75× - Faster
  • 2× - Double speed

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Adding Speed Regions

1

Create Region

Press S at the desired timestamp to create a speed region.
2

Adjust Duration

Drag the region edges to cover the section you want to speed up or slow down.
3

Select Speed

With the region selected, choose a speed multiplier from the settings panel.
Speed changes affect the final video duration. A 10-second region at 2× speed will become 5 seconds in the export.

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Cropping

Remove unwanted areas from the edges of your recording.

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Crop Control

  1. Open the Effects panel
  2. Click the Crop section
  3. Drag the crop handles (top, bottom, left, right) to define the visible area
  4. The darkened overlay shows what will be removed
Cropping is non-destructive - you can always adjust or reset the crop region before exporting.

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Aspect Ratio

Change the output aspect ratio of your video to match different platforms.

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Supported Aspect Ratios

  • 16:9 - Standard widescreen (YouTube, presentations)
  • 9:16 - Vertical (TikTok, Instagram Stories, YouTube Shorts)
  • 1:1 - Square (Instagram posts)
  • 4:3 - Classic format
  • 4:5 - Instagram portrait
  • 16:10 - Widescreen displays
  • 10:16 - Vertical widescreen
Select your aspect ratio from the dropdown in the timeline toolbar. The preview updates in real-time.

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Project Files

Save your editing progress to continue later.

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Saving Projects

  • Cmd/Ctrl + S - Save project
  • Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + S - Save as new project
  • Projects are saved as .openscreen files

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Project Contents

Project files store:
  • Video source path
  • All zoom regions with focus points and depths
  • Trim regions
  • Speed adjustments
  • Annotations and styles
  • Crop settings
  • Export preferences
Project files reference the original video by path. If you move the source video, you’ll need to relocate it when opening the project.

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Playback Controls

The playback controls at the bottom of the preview allow you to:
  • Play/Pause - Start or stop video playback
  • Seek - Drag the progress bar to jump to any position
  • Current Time - View the current timestamp
During playback, all effects (zoom, speed, annotations) are visible in real-time.

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