Table of contents:
Key takeaways:
- Text-based video editing means editing your recordings by editing the text in your transcript.
- Editing becomes as easy as deleting text in your transcript to cut the matching video. Some editors also let you include markers, or adjust captions directly using the transcript.
- You’ll need a text-based editing tool like Riverside to get started.
Not using text-based video editing yet? You're about to see why it's a game-changer.
If you can edit a Word doc, you can edit a video, that’s how easy it is. Just highlight and delete text in the transcript to cut tangents, create clips, or rearrange scenes.
Curious how it works? Let’s walk through how to edit your video using text.
What is text-based editing?
Text-based editing (also known as transcription-based editing) lets you edit a video by editing the transcript. It’s especially efficient for interviews and talking head videos. If you say something you didn’t mean to, just delete that line of text. That portion of the video will disappear with it.
Before text-based editing, clips had to be manually cut and rearranged through the video waveform. It took skill and it took time. With text-based editing, everyone can do it, no experience required.
Here’s how they compare:
How to edit video with text using Riverside
Ready to try text-based editing for yourself? With Riverside, it’s fast, easy, and free.
Here’s how to use Riverside’s text-based video editor to create polished, professional videos in no time:
Step 1: Log in to your Riverside account, or sign up for a new one.
Step 2: Record a video in Riverside by clicking “Record,” or upload existing footage to the platform by clicking “Import.”
Step 3: Click on your recording and click "New edit" to open your video in the Riverside Editor. You’ll see your Riverside transcript on the left hand side of your screen.
Step 4: Press the “Play” button to watch your video, and find areas you’d like to adjust. You’ll see the cursor following along in your transcript. You can also use the search function to find specific sections based on the transcript.
Step 5: To remove a section of your video, simply select the text and choose the trash button. The corresponding section of the video will also disappear from your timeline.
If you changed your mind, you can click the strikethrough text and hit “Restore” to bring that section back.
When you select text, you’ll see that the toolbar comes with other editing options:
- + Add: Click this if you want to add visuals like text, images and b-roll, or if you want to create a new scene or chapter.
- Correct: If you want to fix a mistake in the transcription.
- Mute: Use this to mute one of your speakers during the selected text, all without cutting the video.
- Delete: This is how you trim video.
- Create new edit: Turn the selected text into a new editing project.
- Comment: Leave a comment for yourself or other collab creators.
And then when you click the three-dotted menu, you’ll have the option to:
- Keep only this: Delete everything else and only keep the selected text.
- Cut, copy, paste, and duplicate: You can use this to move text (and its matching video) around using the transcript.
Step 7: Use Riverside’s AI-powered tools to remove pauses and filler words automatically.
Step 6: Click “Export” to finalize your video and transcript. You’ll find both in your dashboard.
And that’s it! It’s really that easy. Sign up and try Riverside’s text based editor to see for yourself.
Best text-based video editing software to try
Video editing software that provide automatic transcription and text-based editing are catching up fast, but some are better than others.
Here are a few worth trying out:
Riverside
Price: Free plan available; paid plans start at $19/month
You’ve seen how easy it is to edit a video by transcript on Riverside. But what sets Riverside apart is everything else it brings to the table
You can record your content in high-quality, automatically transcribe it, then have all the AI tools you need to edit it quickly and easily at your disposal. It’s a one-stop-shop that even lets you record on the go with the mobile app and live stream while sharing to multiple platforms.
And yes, you get automatic transcription and text-based editing on the free plan.
Key features:
- High-quality audio and video recording: Record up to 4K video and 48Khz audio in separate audio and video tracks for each participant. Content is recorded locally, so quality stays sharp even with lousy WiFi.
- Automatic transcription: Quickly and accurately transcribe spoken content in 100+ languages, for instant text-based editing.
- Easy navigation: Different speakers are automatically detected and labeled. Break content into chapters with a click. Use the “search” function to find specific sections of your transcript.
- Automatic audio/video syncing: Cut and move sections with ease. Video and audio syncs automatically.
- Captions and subtitles: Use the transcript to create captions and subtitles easily.
- Automatic silence and filler word removal: Clean up audio by removing silences and pesky “ums” and “ahs” with AI in seconds.
Adobe Premiere Pro
Price: $22.99/month
If you’re already using Adobe Premiere Pro as part of your workflow, their text-based editing feature is a great add-on. It helps you produce a rough cut that you can clean up using their comprehensive range of editing tools.
Premiere Pro is a powerful tool but it has a steep learning curve and most of its more advanced options are probably overkill for most editing needs. Its price and lack of recording capabilities also make it a less compelling choice for inexperienced video editors.
Key features:
- Powerful editing suite: Includes frame-by-frame editing, multi-camera editing, effects, and color grading.
- Automated transcription: Fast, accurate transcription of any footage.
- Keyboard shortcuts: Use standard text keyboard shortcuts in your transcript to navigate and edit even more quickly.
- Captions and subtitles: Use the text-based editing feature to create captions and subtitles directly from the transcript.
CapCut
Price: Free plan available; paid plans start at $9.99/month
CapCut’s text-based editing feature is relatively new but, like most of CapCut’s features, it’s simple and straightforward. It automatically creates a clickable transcript, and you can delete or rearrange clips by moving words around.
A cool feature is the ability to highlight segments of the transcript and add them as a caption in one click.
However, CapCut doesn’t have speaker labelling, so navigating the transcript is a bit of a pain unless you add speakers manually.
Key features:
- Easy transcription: Instantly transcribe content in 100+ languages. Accuracy varies depending on audio quality.
- Filler word removal: Automatically remove filler words with a click.
- Auto-generated captions and subtitles: Automatically creates captions based on the transcript, which you can customize in terms of style, font, and positions
Vimeo
Price: Text-based editing only available with the Standard plan, $28/month
Vimeo is another easy-to-use all-in-one recording and editing software that includes transcript-based editing.
Vimeo is beginner-friendly with lots of templates and tools to make editing easier, but has some major limitations. It only transcribes in English and doesn’t support multitrack editing, making your edits less precise and accurate.
Key features:
- Automatic transcription: Automatically transcribes content in English.
- Filler word and silence removal: AI detects filler words and silence gaps for easy removal.
- Mobile-accessible: Available on iOS and Android, for on-the-go editing.
FAQs about text-based editing
How do I edit a video with text?
If you're using a text-based editor, then follow these steps to edit video with text:
- Select the text you want to trim from your video in your transcript. Press backspace on your keyboard or use a delete button to remove the text and the matching video.
- You can also select text, cut it and paste it somewhere else in the transcript to move around sections in your video.
Note that the process may be a little different depending on your editor. But overall, it should be similar.
If you're talking about adding text to your video, then you can check our guide on how to add text to video.
Can a video be converted to text?
Yes, through a transcription. Riverside automatically generates a transcript as soon as you’re done recording, so you’ll always have a text version of your content ready. You can use this transcript to create subtitles and captions or edit your video with text-based editing.
Is text-based editing faster?
Yes, text-based editing is typically much faster than traditional video editing methods. This is because:
- It’s easier to navigate: Reading is faster and easier than sifting through a timeline. With Riverside, speakers are color-coded, and you can even search for specific words or phrases to jump right to the part you need.
- It’s faster to edit: Deleting words from a transcript takes a second. Just highlight the words you want to remove and delete them to cut the corresponding footage.
- It’s more straightforward: Traditional timeline editing requires practice and skill. With text-based editing you can edit a video if you know how to edit a text document.
- The workflow is streamlined: Most text-based video editing software includes tools to help make editing even more accessible. With Riverside, you can remove all silences and filler words across the entire recording with a single click.
How can I use text-based editing for free?
There are a few good options if you’re looking for free video editing software that includes text-based editing features. From this list, Riverside and CapCut both offer text-based editing as a free feature. You can check out other options in our list of best video editing software for beginners.
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