Manage the editor layout with the View menu

The View menu (available with the new timeline toggled on in Labs) lets you control how Descript’s project editor is displayed. Use it to show or hide panels, adjust layout settings, toggle editing guides, and choose how audio and visuals appear in the timeline.

You’ll find the View menu at the top left of the editor window.

View menu dropdown

Script panel settings

  • Toggle script: Show or hide the script panel. When hidden, the scene editor expands to fill the workspace.
  • Show edit boundaries: Display cut and edit markers within the script.
    Edit boundaries in the script panel
  • Underline filler words: Highlight filler words with a dashed blue underline.
  • Underline word errors: Underline instances where alignment fails.

Scene editor settings

  • Toggle scene editor: Show or hide the visual scene editor. When hidden, only the script is visible.
  • Scene editor placement: Choose where the scene editor appears. Some placement options are only available when the window is wide or zoom is below 100%.
  • Snap-to guides: Show alignment guides while moving elements. Layers snap to guides for precise positioning.

Timeline settings

  • Toggle timeline: Show or collapse the timeline. Use Shift + Cmd/Ctrl + S to toggle quickly.

Show in timeline

  • Advanced timeline tools: Enables additional options in the timeline toolbar.
    Advanced timeline tools
  • Volume meter: Displays a VU meter for real-time audio levels.
    VU meter in timeline toolbar
  • Markers, comments, and audio pins: Show or hide these indicators in the timeline view.

Timeline display options

  • Layer size: Switch between default and large track height.
  • Timeline view / Storyboard view: Toggle between a full layer timeline and a scene thumbnail layout.
  • Zoom in / Zoom out: Adjust the timeline zoom level.
  • 100%: Reset the timeline zoom to 100%.
  • Fit in view: Fit the full composition into the visible timeline area.
  • Fit current scene: Fit only the current scene into the visible timeline.

Sidebar panel visibility

You can toggle the visibility of these side panels:

Appearance settings

  • Theme: Switch between Light, Dark, or System theme modes.
  • Show volume in decibels: Display volume in decibels (dB) instead of percentages in the Layer panel.