Playback and Navigation

Descript’s playback and navigation features show where you are in the script and Timeline and play your composition. These features are made up of two elements: the transport and playhead.

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Transport

The transport is the main playback and navigation control center, located at the top of the Timeline.

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Playback speed

Changing your playback speed lets you listen at up to 3x the normal speed while editing. This only adjusts playback within the Descript editor. To adjust the speed of clips in your exported files, see looping and clip speed adjustment. To adjust playback speed, click the playback speed button and choose an option from the menu.

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Playhead

The playhead indicates the starting position of your playback media. It appears as a blue cursor in the Script editor and a vertical blue line in the Timeline. During playback, the playhead also highlights the current word in your script.

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Text cursor and playhead

During playback, the text cursor moves independently from the playhead. This means you can make edits in your script while the project keeps playing. When playback is stopped, the text cursor and the playhead move together.

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Navigating frame by frame

Press the left or right arrow keys to step through your project one frame at a time. This is especially useful for pinpointing a specific frame for precise edits or adding new video or audio content. Hold down an arrow key to scrub through the timeline more quickly.

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Timeline focus

To navigate frame by frame with the arrow keys, make sure the Timeline is the active editor panel. Click anywhere in the Timeline to activate it.