Reference Manual

• Navigating Descript

  Welcome to Descript Descript is a powerful creative platform that br...

• The editor interface

  The project editor is the workspace where you'll edit your audio and...

• Manage the editor layout with the View menu

  The View menu (available with the new timeline toggled on in Labs) l...

• Customize the editor

  Customize the editor layout to speed up your editing workflow. This ...

• Drive view

  The Drive view is your main hub for organizing projects in Descript....

• Properties Panel

  The Properties panel is where you adjust everything in a scene or la...

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• Create your Descript Account

  You can set up your Descript account in a couple of different ways: ...

• Download and install Descript

  Descript is currently available as a desktop application for both ma...

• Descript system requirements

  If Descript isn’t performing as expected — your recordings are glitc...

• Descript for Web

  Descript for Web lets you edit, transcribe, and publish directly fro...

• Updating Descript to the latest version

  Descript automatically checks for updates while running to ensure yo...

• Why does Descript open when I start my computer?

  Launch at Login From Descript's Screen Recorder settings, you have t...

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• Descript API (beta)

  Use the Descript API to automate imports, trigger Underlord edits, a...

• Refer others and earn rewards

  Love Descript? Now you can share it with others and get rewarded whe...

• Access your account or reset your password

  If you’re having trouble signing in to Descript or need to reset you...

• Update your account email address

  If you created a Descript account with a username and password authe...

• Customize your profile image and name

  If you would like to change the name on your profile or add a custom...

• Switch between multiple Descript accounts

  To switch between Descript accounts (with different email addresses)...

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• Import Media Library files to your project

  Add media files to your project from your drive's Media Library with...

• Media Library: organize and reuse content across projects

  The Media Library is a drive-level storage space where Editors can u...

• Import Brand Studio media into your project

  If your Drive admin has set up Brand Studio with fonts, media, or ot...

• Import and upload files into Descript

  Import media into a project from your computer, an existing Descript...

• Upload a file from your computer

  Upload audio, video, or image files saved on your computer directly ...

• Import files from other projects

  Import media files directly from other Descript projects without re-...

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• Brand Studio: Permissions

  Drive owners and admins can control which brand assets — fonts, colo...

• Brand Studio

  Brand Studio brings your team's branding tools together in one centr...

• Set up and manage your Drive

  A Drive is where your projects, members, and settings live. You can ...

• Drive membership roles: how to invite and manage team members

  Invite others to your Drive to collaborate with your team in one sha...

• Project access and collaborator roles in Descript

  Drive Owners, Admins, and Editors can invite collaborators to a spec...

• Drive admins

  Drive admins are members with extra permissions to manage the Drive,...

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• Top Ups: Buy Additional Media Minutes and AI Credits

  Top ups let you purchase additional Media Minutes or AI Credits when...

• Lenny’s Bundle Promo

  For a limited time, annual subscribers to Lenny’s Newsletter are eli...

• How billing works in Descript

  Here are a few key points to help you understand how subscription bi...

• Invoice history

  You can view and download your monthly or annual subscription invoic...

• View and manage your Drive subscription

  Manage your billing, plan, and seat settings from the Plan tab in yo...

• Upgrade your plan

  Upgrade your plan to access more monthly Media Minutes and AI Credit...

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• Projects and compositions overview

  Projects serve as containers for all your content in Descript. Withi...

• Create a new project

  You can create a project from your Drive View or while working on an...

• Move projects

  Move projects between workspaces or Drives to keep things organized,...

• Duplicate a project, composition, selection, or layer

  Duplicate an entire project, a composition, a section of your script...

• Deleting a project

  Projects can be deleted from the drive by the project owner. Delete...

• Project settings

  You can manage your project settings by the menu in the top left of ...

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• Automatic transcription

  Descript automatically transcribes speech from your audio into text....

• Supported transcription languages

  Descript can automatically transcribe audio and video in 26 language...

• Transcription accuracy

  Descript's automatic transcription is up to 95% accurate. The accura...

• See your transcription activity

  You can see your transcription history and all the transcriptions yo...

• Use your own transcript

  Want to bring an already edited transcript into your Descript compos...

• Realign words in a transcript

  When an automatically transcribed file returns with misaligned text ...

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• Avatars Overview

  Avatars are animated presenters for your content. They can stand in ...

• How to use avatars in Descript

  Avatars let you add an on-screen presenter to your videos without re...

• Create a custom avatar

  Descript lets you create AI avatars that animate in sync with your s...

• Underlord (beta): Your AI co-editor in Descript

  Underlord is Descript’s AI co-editor built specifically for video ed...

• AI Tools Overview

  Descript's suite of AI tools help streamline common editing tasks li...

• Create clips from your content

  Descript's Create clips AI tool turns long-form content into shorts....

• Create a first-draft video with Quick design

  Quick design uses AI to turn your script or transcript into a more p...

• Extend video with AI

  Extend video generates additional frames for clips that are too shor...

• Create and save your own templates

  Templates are reusable creative briefs that tell Underlord how to cr...

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• Scenes overview

  Scenes control how and when visual content — like video, images, tex...

• Scene properties

  Each scene in Descript has its own properties, which you can view an...

• Scene boundaries

  Scene boundaries define where one scene ends and another begins in y...

• Splitting vs. creating a new scene

  Splitting a scene To split a scene, insert a forward slash (/) in yo...

• Reorder scenes

  Move or change the order of scenes in your Descript composition by d...

• Attaching a layer to a scene

  You can attach layers to a scene if you want to constrain certain pr...

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• Add a file to the script

  Descript works a little differently from most video editors. Instead...

• Wordless media in your script (beta)

  Wordless media is disabled by default. Wordless media refers to sect...

• Write mode

  Write mode lets you draft your script directly in Descript—before yo...

• Edit like a doc

  In Descript, you edit audio and video by editing text. When you edit...

• Selection toolbar

  The selection toolbar shows up when you highlight a portion of your ...

• Deleting vs ignoring script text

  Use delete and ignore to remove content from your script while keepi...

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• Save a frame from your video

  You can save any frame from your video as a PNG and store it in your...

• Scene editor overview

  The Scene Editor is your main workspace for arranging and editing vi...

• Scene editor tools

  You can manage visuals in the scene editor using a set of contextual...

• Aspect ratio and video settings

  You can adjust your composition's aspect ratio, increase or decrease...

• Adjust A/V sync offset for a media file

  Use A/V sync offset to fix a consistent delay between the audio and ...

• Media Panel

  The Media panel gives you access to Descript’s library of stock vide...

• Project Panel

  The Project panel contains all the media in your project—uploaded fi...

• Stock media

  Descript includes a built-in stock media library with high-quality v...

• Project file actions

  The Files section of the Project panel lets you take action on any m...

• Repair audio drift

  Have you ever noticed an unexpected echo effect after enabling Studi...

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• The Split button: how to split scenes and layers directly in the timeline

  Use the Split button to divide your timeline into scenes, to trim ex...

• Timeline overview

  The timeline gives you fine-tuned control over how your composition ...

• Advanced timeline tools

  The Advanced Timeline Tools let you fine-tune how you trim, split, a...

• The wordbar

  The wordbar tells you exactly what words a waveform represents, and ...

• Wordless Media Labels

  Descript's label feature allows you to tag ranges of wordless media...

• Automatic microfades

  For anyone who has spent time editing audio in a traditional digital...

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• Multi-select: move, resize, and align layers together

  Multi-select lets you work with multiple layers at once in the Scene...

• Add and style captions

  Descript automatically generates captions from your script, so you d...

• Replace media (b-roll, images, audio) in your composition

  The Replace Media option lets you swap out media without losing edit...

• Placeholder layers

  Placeholder layers let you visually mark where media should go in yo...

• Layer and clip overview

  Layers contain all the visual and audio elements in your Descript pr...

• Add layers to your composition

  Layers are the visual and audio elements you add to your Descript co...

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• Sequence overview

  A sequence lets you edit multiple sources as if they were a single f...

• Create a sequence

  Create a sequence to bundle multiple tracks—like camera angles, mic ...

• Edit individual tracks with the Sequence Editor

  Use the Sequence Editor when you need to adjust a single track witho...

• Fix duplicate transcripts or mic bleed

  If you're hearing echo or delayed audio, or if your transcript looks...

• Detach audio

  Descript's Detach audio feature lets you edit a video’s audio track ...

• Recorder overview: the Editor Recorder and Screen Recorder

  With Descript, you have two recording options: the Editor Recorder ...

• Record with Descript's built-in teleprompter

  Descript includes a built-in teleprompter you can use while recordin...

• Record a slideshow presentation with Descript

  Turn your live presentation into a polished, reusable video. With De...

• How to use the Screen Recorder in the Descript desktop app

  The Screen Recorder is a lightweight recording tool available in Des...

• Visual and audio effects overview

  Descript includes a wide variety of audio and video effects to help ...

• Applying and adjusting effects

  Descript includes visual and audio effects you can apply to scenes, ...

• Smart Transitions

  When you add a new scene, Descript automatically applies a Smart Tra...

• Add a zoom effect with a custom animation

  Select the layer you want to animate. In the Properties panel, scro...

• Ken Burns Animation

  The Ken Burns animation, named after the famous American documentary...

• Apply and adjust animations

  Animate visuals in your scene to change their position, size, croppi...

• Transitions

  Transitions are visual effects that smooth the start, end, or change...

• View and monitor audio levels of your composition

  The volume unit (VU) meter in the Timeline shows the stereo audio le...

• Adjust volume and pan audio

  You can control how audio sounds in your project by adjusting volume...

• Auto-leveling

  Auto-leveling maintains consistent audio throughout your composition...

• Room tone

  Recordings made outside of professional-grade recording studios may ...

• Volume automation and keyframes

  You can adjust the volume over time of your script or audio layers w...

• Composition audio properties

  Similar to a master bus or mix bus, your composition's audio propert...

• Visual roles

  Visual roles tell Descript what kind of content a file or layer rep...

• Layout packs overview

  Use layouts to quickly style scenes in your video with professionall...

• Apply a layout to a scene

  Layouts help you quickly design each scene in your composition—contr...

• How layouts interact with scenes and the script

  When you apply a layout to a scene, Descript uses context, layer nam...

• Remix a layout pack

  Transform remixable layout packs to match your brand, project, or cr...

• Share a custom layout pack

  When you create and publish a custom layout pack, it will be private...

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• Export your content to HubSpot

  Publish a finished video directly from Descript to your HubSpot acco...

• Export to Google Drive

  Export your finished Descript composition to your Google Drive. Once...

• Export and publishing overview

  Descript gives you comprehensive exporting and publishing options ta...

• Export and publish content with Descript web links

  Exporting to a Descript web link (sometimes called "publishing" to a...

• View, share, and manage a published share page

  After you export your content to a web link, you can share it with o...

• Publishing to other hosting providers

  Publishing to other hosting providers Descript now supports a variet...

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• Project links

  Project links let you share your entire project with other Descript ...

• Commenting in projects

  In Descript, comments let you add notes directly to your transcript ...

• Use Descript with an AI assistant (MCP)

  Use the Descript MCP to control Descript from an AI assistant like C...

• Add verified Descript skills to LinkedIn

  Got video editing skills? Prove it with Descript-verified skills on ...

• Export to YouTube

  Export videos directly to your YouTube channel using Descript’s buil...

• Export Blubrry episodes

  Publish to Blubrry in Descript Click Export at the top-right corner...

• Export your content to Buzzsprout

  Click Export at the top-right corner of your editor. Then select Bu...

• Exporting Captivate episodes

  Currently this integration isn't working as expected We’re currentl...

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• Questions and concerns we’ve heard from the customer community

  We've been listening to your feedback about the new subscription pla...

• Get Help / Contact Descript

  Need help with Descript? Get an assist from our support team, find t...

• Live events, webinars, and Descript community

  Have a question, want to learn a new workflow, or just looking to co...

• The Descript Affiliate Program

  Do you enjoy Descript's powerful editing tools, and want to let your...

• Becoming a supported content hosting partner

  Descript now supports one-click export to supported content hosting ...

• What does the “beta” label mean in Descript?

  Some features in Descript have a beta label. This indicates the feat...

• The new timeline experience

  The new timeline in Labs is designed to make video editing simpler a...

• Preview upcoming features with Descript Labs

  Descript Labs lets you try early access features before they’re offi...

• Keyboard shortcuts

  Descript includes a wide set of keyboard shortcuts to help you edit ...

• App settings

  You can access your app settings from the top right corner of the Dr...