Video editing for beginners: a simple 7-step workflow

Editing feels hard at first because there are so many buttons. The trick is to do things in the right order. This seven-step workflow works for a vlog, a tutorial, a short ad or a family video, and every step links to a deeper guide.

1. Plan before you open the editor

Write one sentence that says what the video is for and who will watch it. List the shots you have and the order they should go in. Ten minutes of planning saves an hour of editing. More in plan a short video before you open the editor.

2. Pick your format

Decide where the video will be posted. Landscape (16:9) suits YouTube and websites. Vertical (9:16) suits TikTok, Reels and Shorts. Set it first, so you frame every shot once. See pick an aspect ratio before you start editing.

3. Make a rough cut

Drag all your clips onto the timeline in order. Remove the obvious mistakes, false starts and long pauses. Do not worry about polish yet. The goal is a version that tells the whole story from start to finish.

4. Tighten the pace

Watch the rough cut and trim anything that drags. Start each clip as late as you can and end it as early as you can. Short videos need a strong opening line in the first two seconds. Read cut dead air and tighten the pace.

5. Add sound

Sound carries more of a video than most beginners expect.

• Keep voices clear and at a steady level.
• Add background music and lower it under speech.
• Add a few sound effects to mark key moments.

6. Add titles and captions

Use titles for names, places and key points. Add a title and set when it appears. Then add captions. Many people watch with the sound off, and captions help them follow along. See captions for viewers watching with the sound off.

Add captions last, once the cut is final, so you do not have to redo them.

7. Check, export and publish

Watch the whole video once more, start to finish, as a viewer would. Look for jump cuts, loud spots and typos. Use a pre-export checklist, then choose the right export preset for where it will be posted.

Let AI handle the slow parts

In DepCut, the AI assistant can do several of these steps for you. Ask it to cut the silences, add captions, or duck the music under speech, then review the result on the timeline. You learn faster by seeing each change made.

Edit your first video

Open DepCut, the free video editor for Mac and the browser, and take one short clip through all seven steps. Your second video will be twice as fast.