Keyboard shortcuts for faster editing in DepCut

The DepCut editor listens for the keys below whenever your cursor is not inside a text field and no dialog is open. In this list, ⌘ is the Command key on a Mac. On Windows and Linux, use Ctrl in its place, except for multi-select clicks, which use Shift.

Hover over a toolbar button and its tooltip names the same key, as in "Text (T)" and "Play/Pause (Space)". When a slider or switch has the focus, Space and the arrow keys are left to that control.

Playback and the playhead

• Space plays and pauses. If the playhead sits at the end of the project, playback starts again from the beginning.
• Left arrow and Right arrow step one frame back or forward while paused. Add Shift to step one second. During playback, the arrows jump one second and playback keeps running.
• Up arrow and Down arrow jump to the previous or next clip boundary on any video or audio track. These are the edit points of your timeline, which makes them quick for checking every cut.
• Home and End move to the start and the end of the project.
• Esc stops playback and clears the selection.

Cutting and adding

• S or ⌘B splits at the line that follows your mouse over the timeline, or at the playhead when the mouse is elsewhere.
• T adds a title at the playhead.
• Delete or Backspace removes the selected items. When the main track is the only video track, deleting a main-track clip closes the gap it leaves.

Copy, paste, and undo

• ⌘C copies the selected clips, audio clips, or elements. ⌘V pastes them at the playhead. If something already occupies that spot on the same row, the paste slides to the next free space.
• ⌘X cuts the selection.
• ⌘D duplicates the selection in one step. It copies and pastes at the playhead.
• ⌘Z undoes. ⇧⌘Z redoes.

Hold Shift (or ⌘ on a Mac) while clicking items on the timeline to select several at once, then copy, delete, or group the whole set.

Group, export, and the assistant

• ⌘G groups two or more selected elements, such as a title and a shape. Selecting one member then selects the group, and moving or timing acts on all of them.
• ⇧⌘G ungroups.
• ⌘E opens the Export dialog. It works once the timeline has at least one clip.
• ⌘J opens and closes the AI assistant.
• ⌘S does nothing you can see. The project saves itself continuously, and the shortcut only stops the browser's own save-page dialog from opening.

Zoom the timeline

• = or + zooms in, and - zooms out. Both zoom around the playhead.
• Hold ⌘ and scroll, or pinch on a trackpad, to zoom at the pointer.
• Scroll the wheel to pan sideways along the timeline when all the tracks fit on screen.

A few combinations make a fast rhythm. Press Space to watch and pause when you spot a problem, use the arrow keys to land on the frame, press S to cut, and press Delete to remove what you do not want. If a cut goes wrong, ⌘Z brings it back.

Give it a go

Open a project in DepCut and run through the playback keys first: Space, the arrows, Home, and End.