Descript's playback and navigation features allow you to see where you are in the script and Timeline and play your composition. These features are comprised of two elements: the transport and playhead.

Transport

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

	Skip to next marker
	Skip to previous marker
	Play at playhead
	Pause at playhead
	Set the project's playback speed
	View a list of markers in the project and choose one to jump to

Playback speed

Have you ever felt like it takes too long to listen through your media while editing? Changing your playback speed allows you to listen at up to 3x the normal speed! Keep in mind that this only adjusts playback while editing in Descript. If you want to adjust the speed of clips on your exported files, check out our article on looping and clip speed adjustment.

To adjust playback speed within the editor, click the playback speed button and choose one of the options in the menu that appears.

Playhead

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

Text cursor and playhead

When you playback your project, you can move the text cursor without moving the playhead. This means you can make edits in your script while your project keeps playing. When you're not playing your project, the text cursor and the playhead move as one.

Navigating frame by frame

In your project, you have the ability to go through each frame one at a time. This is accomplished by pressing the left or right arrow keys. This is especially useful when you need to pinpoint a specific frame for precise edits or to add new video or audio content. For a quicker navigation through your project's timeline, simply hold down an arrow key. This method allows for quickly scrubbing through your content.

Timeline focus

To navigate frame by frame using the left and right arrow keys, make sure the Timeline is the active editor panel. This can be done easily by clicking anywhere in the Timeline.