You just delivered a stellar presentation — in a meeting or on a webinar, or wherever — that is sure to propel you on a global speaking tour, or to a bathroom stall to hyperventilate. To get your material in front of more people, or to eliminate the stress of live presentation, you want to capture your magic in video form. In this guide we'll walk you through how to create a video presentation in Descript.

1. Record your Presentation

Make a screen recording

Record your presentation using Descript's screen recorder. If you already recorded your presentation, import and transcribe it, then skip down to video cropping. You can also record your camera feed if you want to do a picture-in-picture style video.

To make a screen recording:

1. Open or create a new project, select Record and choose Screen.
2. Choose your recording inputs and make adjustment to your recording settings as needed
3. Select Record; then press the Space key to record your full screen, or click and drag to record an area.
4. When you're ready, pull up your presentation on screen, and start speaking. 
5. Press Stop when you're done.

Crop your video

When you're done recording, use the crop tool to remove the unwanted areas and make your presentation look the way you want on the Canvas.

To crop a visual layer:

1. Select your visual in the Canvas.
2. Press Crop at the top of your video.
3. Click and drag the video's sides or corners into the shape you want.
4. When you're finished, press Return (Mac), Enter (Windows), Esc, or Done.

2. Edit your presentation

Now while you can manually edit your presentation and get microscopic with your editing, your Descript sidekick Underlord has powerful AI tools that can get you a finely polished video presentation in a matter of clicks.  Two features edit your entire project in just a few clicks are Remove Retakes and Edit For Clarity.

Remove Retakes

It's tough to deliver your presentation perfectly the first time. Or the 15th. Plus the pressure is on the second you hit record. Not to worry though: record as many takes you need to get it exactly the way you want it—then remove all the bad takes in a single click using Underlord.

To remove any repeated takes from your recording:

1. Open Underlord and search for Remove Retakes...
2. Click Submit and Underlord will start looking for repeated sections so you are left with only the good stuff.
3. Once Underlord makes it's suggested edits, you have a few options:
   • Apply edits to script: Remove detected repeats as ignored text. This will strikethrough the text in your script, so you can see the edits that were made. If you are happy with them, select Accept all deletions to remove the ignored selections.
   • Copy edits to a new composition:Create a new composition in your project and paste in the edited script.
   • Follow up: Continue refining the AI action before applying the edits.
   • Done: Return to the list of all Underlord's superpowers.

Edit for clarity

Sometimes it takes a lot of talking to get the best ideas out there. So the first step in editing any unscripted presentation is cutting out all the ”ums” and “uhs,” long tangents, meandering blather, other scruff and fluff. And while editing that stuff out is fairly mindless, it’s also tedious and time-consuming. Or it used to be. Because now Underlord can remove all of that in a click—helping you get your best ideas, core messages, and most compelling moments come through crisp and clear.

To edit your script for clarity:

1. Open Underlord and search for Edit for clarity.
2. Click Submit and Underlord will start looking for filler words, digressions, blather, and any obvious cuts.
3. Once Underlord makes it's suggested edits, you have a few options:
   • Apply edits to script: Remove detected repeats as ignored text. This will strikethrough the text in your script, so you can see the edits that were made. If you are happy with them, select Accept all deletions to remove the ignored selections.
   • Copy edits to a new composition:Create a new composition in your project and paste in the edited script.
   • Follow up: Continue refining the AI action before applying the edits.
   • Done: Return to the list of all Underlord's superpowers.

Correct the transcript

Descript's AI transcription accuracy varies depending on a recording's audio quality. Not a problem though, you can quickly correct your transcript without altering your recording. There are three useful keyboard shortcuts that will help you quickly make corrections: C, X, and Z. Keep these shortcuts in mind for quick and efficient transcript corrections.

• Hold C and click a word to quickly correct it.
• Hold X and click a word to toggle different punctuation options.
• Hold Z and click a word to toggle capitalization.

3. Add visuals 

Create scenes and add visuals

Create scenes to quickly change or adjust visuals or transitions in your video. Scenes work like slides in a presentation. They let you divide your content into discrete segments and then add visual elements like titles or overlays, create jump cuts or zoom ins/outs. Basically, you’ll add a scene anytime you want to change the visuals in your composition.

To add a scene:

1. Place your cursor in the script where you want to add a scene boundary.
2. Add a forward slash / to your script. Or click on the slash icon to the left of your script. a large library of professional

Once you've created your scenes, you can start adding b-roll — supplemental video that plays over your voiceover track — to spice up your visuals. If you have a visual you want to play over multiple scenes, you can extend the layer over multiple scenes.

Add captions

Add captions in just a few clicks:

1. Open Captions in the sidebar; at the top of the panel, choose where you want to apply the captions:
   • All scenes: add the captions to your entire video.
   • This scene: display the captions only in the currently active scene.
2. Select the style you want to apply. After adding the captions, you can fully customize them as needed.

4. Share your finished presentation 

There are many ways to export or publish from Descript. We recommend using the publish-and-download feature. It will download your video up to 10x faster than exporting locally.

You can publish or export your work in just a few steps:

1. Select Publish and choose the file type or platform you will be exporting to:
   • The Publish tab allows you to publish directly to various integrated platforms. You can also publish to the cloud, then Download to your computer—it’s super-fast. Click here to learn more
   • The Export tab has various options for exporting to your computer.
2. Adjust your export or publishing settings.
3. Click Export or Publish button at the bottom of the Publish panel.