Stock the Assets panel before you place a single clip

A tidy start makes the edit faster. Before you cut anything, load every file the video needs into the project and decide the order later. The Media tab in the left panel is built for that, and one drag gesture fills it without touching your timeline.

Drop files on the panel

Open Media and stay on the Assets view. Drag video, audio and image files from your computer onto the panel. A dashed blue outline marks the drop zone, and each file becomes a card in a two-column grid. Nothing lands on the timeline.

Where a file lands depends on where you drop it:

On the Media panel stocks it as a card only.
On the timeline places it where you release it.
On the preview appends a video or photo to the end of your cut and puts audio at the playhead.

The Upload button at the top of Assets works differently. It stocks the files and places them too. A video or photo goes to the end of the main track, and audio goes at the playhead. Use Upload when you want the clips in the cut right now, and the drop zone when you want a shelf of options.

Work from the cards

Hover over a video card to play it. A size label appears on hover.
Click the + on a card to add it to the timeline.
Click the name under a card to copy a short reference token you can paste into a prompt.
Open the More actions menu for Add overlay (video and images), Save to library, Show in Finder (for a project stored on your Mac) and Delete.

Deleting a file that clips use asks you to confirm, because those clips leave the timeline with it.

Assets or Library

The two buttons at the top of the Media panel hold different shelves.

Assets holds files for this project only.
Library is shared across all your projects.

Keep one-off footage in Assets. Save a copy of a file to the Library when you will reuse it, such as a logo, a music bed or an intro clip. Choose Save to library in a card's menu. A Library card's + copies the file into the project and adds it to the timeline. Removing something from the Library leaves projects that already use it with their own copy.

Where created media lives

Anything DepCut makes for you stays out of Assets. That covers recordings, AI generations, voiceovers and freeze frames. Each one stays where it was made.

To bring one into Assets, drag its clip from the timeline onto the Media tab in the left panel. The file then shows up as a normal card.

A quick start routine

Create the project and open Media.
Drop every source file onto the Assets panel.
Watch each card once by hovering over it.
Click + on the clip you want first, then add the rest in order.
Use Save to library on anything you will need again.

Open the panel

Try the routine on your next project. Open DepCut, pick Media and drop the folder of clips you were about to import one by one.