Split a clip at the pointer and drop one side

One long clip often holds two or three moments you want to treat differently. Splitting divides it into separate pieces you can move, trim, speed up, or delete on their own. DepCut gives you three ways to cut: split, split and drop the left side, and split and drop the right side.

Choose where the cut lands

When your mouse is over the timeline, a thin line follows it. That line marks where the cut will happen. While the project is paused, the preview shows the frame under the line, so you can find the right moment by moving the mouse along the clip.

1. Hover over the timeline until the line sits on the frame you want.
2. Press S (or ⌘B, Ctrl+B on Windows and Linux).
3. The clip divides at the line and the right half is selected.

If your mouse is not over the timeline, the cut lands at the playhead. The scissors button in the timeline toolbar does the same thing. Its tooltip reads "Split at pointer, or at playhead (⌘B or S)".

Know what Split acts on

Split cuts the thing you have selected when the cut point falls inside it:

• a soundtrack clip
• a video clip on an upper track
• a title, shape, or sticker, where both halves keep the same content and style
• a caption, where each half keeps the words it covers

With none of those selected, Split cuts the main-track clip under the cut point. A cut that lands right on a clip's edge does nothing, because there is nothing to divide.

A split does not change how anything plays. A clip with a speed change, a speed curve, or keyframes divides at the cut, and each half keeps playing exactly what was on screen before. Once a clip is selected, the right panel also shows a Split button. Your mouse is on the rail when you click it, so it cuts at the playhead.

Split and drop

Two more buttons sit beside the scissors in the timeline toolbar: Split and drop the left side and Split and drop the right side. Each one cuts at the same spot and then deletes one half, all as a single undo step. They work as a quick "trim to here".

If the main track is the only video track, the deleted half closes up and everything after it, including titles, captions, and soundtrack, slides left. When video sits on upper tracks, the gap stays where it is so those layers keep their timing.

Remove a section from the middle

1. Split at the start of the part you do not want.
2. Split again at its end.
3. Select the middle piece and press Delete or Backspace.

On a timeline with upper layers, a gap remains after the delete. Right-click the empty space and choose Remove empty space to close the gap on that row only.

Cut with intent

Cut at a pause in speech or just after an action finishes, so an edit never lands in the middle of a word. Split first, listen through the result, and press ⌘Z if a cut feels early or late. Every split is its own undo step.

Try it on your own footage

Open a project in DepCut, hover the timeline over a pause, and press S.