VLPremier Pro — Complete User Guide

VLPremier Pro is a video editor for Mac, made for people who create videos every week: documentaries, YouTube films, interviews, and short clips for social media. Editing, captions, voiceover, graphics, Shorts and export all live in one app, so you never have to send your film somewhere else to finish a job.

Everything in the app follows three simple steps, shown at the very top of the screen:

1. Import — Bring in your video, sound and pictures — or open a whole project you started in another editor. Your original files are never changed.
2. Edit — Build your film on the timeline, add captions, voiceover and graphics, and polish the picture and the sound.
3. Export — Pick where the video is going — YouTube, Shorts, TikTok, Reels, or a master copy to keep — and press Export.

This guide walks through every part of the app in the same order you will use it. Start with Getting Started if this is your first project, or jump straight to the chapter you need.

Note: You do not have to read this guide cover to cover. The app also has a built-in Learn panel with searchable, plain-language guides — see The Interface — so help is always one click away while you edit.

Getting Started

VLPremier Pro runs on a Mac with macOS 14 or newer. Open it the way you open any app — from your Applications folder or the Dock — and you land on a start screen with two simple choices: begin something new, or pick up something you were already working on.

Create a new project

Choose New Project, give it a name, and you are in. A project is one film: it holds the clips you bring in, the timeline you build, and everything you add along the way — captions, voiceover, graphics and titles.

Open an existing project

Choose Open Project and pick a project you saved earlier. It opens exactly where you left it: same timeline, same playhead position, same panels.

Note: Arriving from another editor? You can open a Premiere Pro project instead and keep working on it here — see Importing Media and Projects.

Your work saves itself

There is no save routine to remember. The app saves your project as you work, so if you close it, take a break, or the power goes out, you come back to the film as you left it. Changed your mind about an edit? Undo brings any step back, and the History panel lets you jump to an earlier state of the project.

Where your media lives

When you bring clips into a project, your original files are never changed — and they are never copied, either. The app simply remembers where each file lives on your Mac and shows it to you in the project. That keeps projects small and fast, and your camera originals stay exactly as they were.

Note: Because the app points at your files instead of copying them, keep your clips where they are while a project is in progress. If you do move or rename a file, the app will tell you it is missing and help you point at its new home — see Importing Media and Projects.

Your first project, start to finish

1. Create the project — Open VLPremier Pro, choose New Project, and give your film a name.
2. Bring in your clips — Drag your video, sound and pictures into the project. They appear in the Project panel, ready to use — the full story is in Importing Media and Projects.
3. Put the film together — Double-click a clip to watch it, mark the best part, and place it on the timeline. Trim the ends, drag clips into order, and your film starts to take shape — see Editing on the Timeline.
4. Export the finished video — Switch to Export at the top, pick where the video is going, and press Export. The export runs in the background, so you can keep editing — see Exporting.

What's next

Take The Interface tour next: it shows you what every monitor, panel and track on the Edit screen does, so the screen feels familiar before your second project.

The Interface

Start at the very top. The whole app is organised in three steps — Import, Edit and Export — and you switch between them with one click. Most of your time is spent in Edit, so let us walk around that screen.

The two monitors

Two preview windows sit at the top of the Edit screen:

• The Source Monitor shows one clip at a time. Double-click any clip in your project and it opens here, so you can watch it, mark the best part, and only then place it in the film.
• The Program Monitor shows your film — the timeline, exactly as your viewers will see it. This is the big picture in the middle of the screen.

The panels on the left

• Effect Controls — the settings of the effect on the clip you have selected, such as how strong it is and how it changes over time.
• Audio Track Mixer — one volume slider per sound track, so you can balance the voice, the music and the effects against each other.
• Metadata — the details of the selected clip: where it came from, when it was filmed, and notes you add yourself.

The panels on the right

• Properties — the settings for whichever clip is selected: its position, size, text, and look.
• Color — everything for the picture's colour: ready looks you can apply in one click, or gentle adjustments you make yourself. See Color and Effects.

The panels along the bottom

A row of tabs gives you a panel for every job:

• Project — everything you have brought into this project: clips, sound, pictures and sequences.
• Effects — the list of picture and sound effects; drag one onto a clip to apply it.
• Graphics Templates — ready-made titles and designs, including Motion Studio and Text Studio. See Titles and Graphics.
• Text — the written text of your film: captions you can read, search and correct. See Captions and Subtitles.
• Shorts — where the app finds the strongest moments of your film and turns them into vertical Shorts. See Shorts.
• Voiceover — the Voiceover Studio: paste a script, choose a voice, and place the narration on your timeline. See Voiceover Studio.
• Markers — every marker you have dropped on the timeline, in one list, so you can jump back to any moment.
• History — every step you have taken, so you can return to an earlier state of the project.
• Libraries — material you keep and reuse across projects.

The timeline

Along the bottom runs the timeline, where your film is actually built:

• The caption track sits on top, with each spoken word as its own small block.
• Video tracks below it hold the picture — clips on higher tracks appear in front of clips below them.
• Audio tracks at the bottom hold the sound, each clip drawn as a waveform so you can see the loud and quiet parts.

Workspaces: one layout per job

A workspace is a saved arrangement of the panels. The app comes with stock layouts — Editing, Color, Voiceover, and Vertical / Shorts — and each one has its own key, so you can jump to the layout that fits the job in one keystroke.

You can also arrange the screen yourself: drag any panel by its tab to move it, group it with other panels, or pull it out on its own.

1. Arrange the panels — Drag panel tabs until the screen looks the way you like to work.
2. Save your layout — Choose Save as New Workspace… and give your arrangement a name.
3. Go back any time — Choose Reset to Saved Layout to return the current workspace to the way you saved it.

Help that lives inside the app: the Learn panel

You do not have to leave the app — or this guide — to get help. The built-in Learn panel holds searchable, plain-language guides to every part of VLPremier Pro, written the same way as this guide. Find the task you are stuck on, read the short steps, and press Show Me: the app opens the right panel for you, so you can follow along in your own project.

Note: New to editing? Keep the Learn panel open while you work through your first film. Between its Show Me button and this guide, you are never more than a click from the next step.

Importing Media and Projects

Everything starts with bringing your material in. VLPremier Pro takes your clips as they are — and it can also open whole projects you started in another editor, so your old work comes with you.

Bring in video, sound and pictures

There are two easy ways:

• Drag from Finder. Select your files in Finder and drop them straight into the Project panel.
• Use the Media Browser. The Media Browser panel lets you browse your Mac from inside the app and preview files before you commit. Select what you need and choose Import from Media Browser.

Note: Your files are never copied and never changed. The app remembers where each file lives and works with it in place, so your originals stay exactly as they were.

Open a Premiere Pro project

You have two choices, and the difference is simple — merge into the project you have open, or open the Premiere project as a project of its own:

• Import Premiere Pro Project, XML or Captions… — brings a Premiere Pro project (or an XML file, or a caption file) into the project you already have open. Use this when you want to combine work.
• Open Premiere Pro Project or XML… — opens the Premiere Pro project as its own project, with its sequences ready to continue editing.

1. Choose the command — Use Import Premiere Pro Project, XML or Captions… to merge into your open project, or Open Premiere Pro Project or XML… to open it on its own.
2. Pick what comes in — An Import from … sheet lists the sequences in that project. Tick the ones you want, use All or None to tick everything or nothing, and use the search field to find a sequence by name. Nested sequences — sequences placed inside other sequences — come along automatically.
3. Read the report — When the import finishes, the app shows you a short report. Anything under Missing Media could not be found on this Mac; anything under Not Carried Over exists in the original project but has no equivalent here, so nothing is lost silently — you always know exactly what arrived and what did not.
4. Reconnect anything missing — If media is missing — usually because it lives in a different folder than the original editor expected — choose Find Missing Media in a Folder…, point at the folder, and the app reconnects everything it finds there.

More things that come in the same way

The same import commands accept more than Premiere projects:

• After Effects projects and .mogrt templates come in through the same command. Compositions are rendered to movies, so what you designed plays as picture in your film.
• PSD files become sequences of layers — each layer of the picture arrives as its own clip, ready to arrange and animate.
• Caption files in .srt and .vtt form become caption tracks in your project; see Captions and Subtitles for what you can do with them.
• FCP7 XML works in both directions: bring a project in from an editor that speaks it, or send your project out the same way. You can also send out an EDL — a simple list of your cuts — for tools that ask for one.
• .cube looks — ready colour looks — come in and appear in the Color panel; see Color and Effects.

Working with very large files: proxies

If your camera files are very large, editing can feel heavy. A proxy is a smaller, lighter copy the app edits with, while your full-quality original is used again when you export — you see a responsive picture while you work, and lose nothing in the finished film.

• Choose Create Proxies for Large Media and the app makes the light copies for you.
• Turn on Use Proxies While Editing while you cut; turn it off any time you want to check the full-quality picture.

Note: Proxies change only what you edit with, never what you export. Your finished video always comes from your original files, at full quality.

What's next

With your material in the project, you are ready to build the film: Editing on the Timeline. If you are moving over from Adobe's editor, Coming from Premiere Pro collects the differences in one place.

Editing on the Timeline

Editing here follows one simple rhythm: choose, place, trim, and move on. Once your fingers know it, you stop thinking about the app and start thinking about the film.

The rhythm: watch, mark, place

1. Watch the clip — Double-click a clip in the Project panel. It opens in the Source Monitor, away from your film, so you can look through it freely.
2. Mark the best part — Play the clip and mark an In point where the good part starts and an Out point where it ends. Everything outside those marks stays out of the film — and nothing is deleted; you can always widen the marks later.
3. Place it in the film — Put the marked part onto the timeline, at the place where the film's playhead is waiting. Editors call this way of working three-point editing: the start and end you marked on the clip, plus the one point in the film where it should land.
4. Trim and tidy — Adjust the ends, drag clips into order, and close the gaps. Then repeat — choose, place, trim — and the film grows.

The tools

The tool rail beside the timeline holds everything you reach for:

• Selection — the everyday tool: click clips to select them, drag them to move them.
• Track Select Forward and Track Select Backward — select a clip and everything after it (or before it) on its track, so you can shift a whole section at once.
• Ripple — trim a clip's end and everything after it slides along to close the gap, so the film never has holes.
• Roll — move the join between two clips: one gets longer, the other shorter, and the film's total length stays the same.
• Razor — cut a clip in two where the playhead sits. The Add Edit command does the same from the keyboard.
• Slip — keep a clip exactly where it is, but change which part of the original footage it shows.
• Slide — move a clip along the timeline while its neighbours stretch or shrink to fill around it.
• Rate Stretch Tool — drag a clip's end to make that piece play slower or faster so it fits the space you have.
• Pen — draw and adjust the lines that control things like volume over time.
• Type — click in the Program Monitor and type words straight onto the picture.

Trimming, gaps and tidying up

Drag any clip's end to trim it. If a trim — or deleting a clip — leaves a hole, select the gap and choose Ripple Delete: the gap closes and everything after it slides up, keeping the film tight.

To reuse a piece, Copy a clip and Paste it onto the tracks you have targeted, or use Paste Insert to push everything else along and make room for it instead of covering what is there.

Markers: notes to yourself

Drop a marker on any moment you want to find again — a great quote, a place that needs music, a shot to fix later. Give it a few words and it appears in the Markers panel as a list you can click through. See The Interface for where the panel lives.

Nesting: a sequence inside a sequence

When a section of the film is finished — an opening title sequence, a complicated montage — select its clips and choose Nest…. The section becomes one tidy clip on your timeline, while the whole arrangement still lives inside it. Double-click the nested clip to open it and keep editing; every change shows through in the main film straight away, because the nest is live, not a copy.

Speed changes and reverse

Select a clip and change its speed to slow a moment down or hurry it along — or simply drag with the Rate Stretch Tool until the piece fits the space. You can also play a clip in reverse, for the classic rewind moment or a boomerang-style beat.

Several cameras, one scene

If the same moment was filmed by more than one camera, multi-camera editing lets you watch the angles together and switch between them as the scene plays, the way a live director would — the full walkthrough lives in the Learn panel inside the app.

Let the app do the first tidy-up: AI Edit

The AI Edit help can take the dullest pass off your hands:

• Remove silences and filler words — the long pauses and the "um"s are found and cut for you.
• Edit by text — your film's words are written out in the Text panel, and deleting a sentence there cuts it from the timeline. It is the fastest way to shape an interview: read, delete, and the film follows. This works hand in hand with your captions — see Captions and Subtitles.

Changed your mind? Undo and History

Every step can be undone, one at a time, all the way back. And the History panel shows your whole session as a list of states, so you can jump back to how the film looked an hour ago, compare, and carry on.

If playback feels heavy

On a long or effects-heavy timeline, choose Render In to Out: the app works through the stretch between your In and Out points in advance, and playback runs smoothly afterwards. You can also lower the playback resolution while you edit — see Settings and Add-ons — the exported film is always full quality either way.

Note: Your project saves itself as you work, so everything on this page — every trim, marker and nest — is already saved the moment you do it.

What's next

Shape the spoken words in Captions and Subtitles, or give the film its narration in the Voiceover Studio.

Captions and Subtitles

Captions that write themselves

The Text panel is where captions live. It has four tabs: Transcript, Captions, Style and Translate. The app listens to the speech in your video and types it out for you, right on your own Mac — nothing is uploaded anywhere. From that transcript you get captions timed word by word, so when your video plays, each word lights up at the exact moment it is spoken.

Make captions for your video

1. Open the Text panel — Open the Text panel and go to the Transcript tab.
2. Choose the language — Pick the language spoken in your video, so the app knows what to listen for.
3. Click Transcribe — Click Transcribe and the app listens to your video and writes out everything that is said.
4. Fix any misheard words — Read the transcript and correct anything the app heard wrong. You edit it like ordinary text.
5. Create the captions — Click Captions from Transcript. The captions appear on a caption track on your timeline, with the timing of every word.
6. Style them your way — Open the Style tab and choose how the captions look — there are 18 caption styles. Styles are grouped into This project, My presets and Built in.

Note: When a style looks just right, click Save as My Preset… in the Style tab. Your style is saved under My presets and ready for every future project.

Edit the film by editing the text

Because the transcript is tied to the picture, you can edit your video with words instead of cuts. Delete a sentence in the transcript, and the film is cut at that point — the words and the picture stay together. It is the fastest way to remove a repeated line or a long pause from an interview.

Find and Replace in Captions…

Fixing the same mistake twenty times is nobody's job. Find and Replace in Captions… does it in one pass:

1. Open Find and Replace in Captions… — Open Find and Replace in Captions… from the captions tools.
2. Type what you are looking for — Start typing and the matches narrow as you type, so you can see exactly what will change.
3. Set the options — Turn on Match case or Whole words when you only want exact matches.
4. Replace — Use Replace for one match at a time, or Replace All to fix them all at once. A Replace All counts as a single undo step, so one undo brings everything back.

Note: To delete text everywhere it appears, leave the replace box empty and tick the delete option in the … menu first. And under Search in › All Languages you can search the captions of every language in the project, not just the one on screen.

Bring in caption files you already have

If your captions already exist as a file, import an .srt or .vtt caption file and the captions are placed on your timeline for you — no retyping.

Captions when you finish

When you export, captions can travel with your video burned into the picture, or as a separate caption file alongside it — see Exporting. To turn your captions into another language — and even a spoken voiceover in that language — see Dubbing and Languages.

Voiceover Studio

A studio for your narration

Voiceover Studio takes you from a page of text to a finished narration track in six steps. You bring in your script, the app helps you polish it, you choose a voice and hear how it sounds, fix only the lines you want to change, and place the result on your timeline — with markers showing where each line sits.

1. Switch to the Voiceover workspace — Change to the Voiceover workspace so the whole studio is in front of you.
2. Bring in your script — In the Project step, click Choose Project Folder, then Load .txt… to open your script file — or paste your text and click Use This Text.
3. Polish the script — In the Script step, click Analyse & Improve Script, correct the stresses, then click Continue to Voice.
4. Choose your voice — In the Voice step, pick a voice, click Generate Test to hear it, then Use This Voice and Continue to Preview.
5. Preview and adjust — In Preview & adjust, click Prepare & Make Everything, then Play all to hear the whole narration. Fix any line you are not happy with — only the changed lines are made again, so you never wait for the whole thing twice. Then click Go to Finish.
6. Finish and place it — In Finish, click Generate Final Voiceover, then Place on Timeline. Markers on the timeline show where each line sits, so you can line your pictures up with the words.

Note: Prefer a voice that is already on your Mac? You can use a system voice for your narration instead — pick it in the Voice step.

Note: Rather read it yourself? You can record your own voice from a microphone straight onto the timeline, no studio session needed.

Good to know

• The stresses you correct in the Script step decide how words are pronounced — a minute spent fixing them there saves re-making lines later.
• In Preview & adjust, only the lines you change are made again. Everything you already approved stays exactly as it was.
• The markers placed on the timeline show where each narration line begins, so cutting your pictures to the voice is easy.

Where to go next

Once your narration is on the timeline, balance it against your music in Sound and Mixing. Need the words on screen as well? Captions and Subtitles turns speech into captions automatically.

Dubbing and Languages

Your video, in another language

Dubbing starts with captions. Once your video has captions in its original language, the app can translate them into a new language and then speak them — phrase by phrase, timed to fit your film. If you have not made captions yet, start with Captions and Subtitles.

Each language lives on its own caption track, and each one gets its own row in the Languages panel, where you make its voice and keep track of its takes.

1. Open the Languages panel — Open the Languages panel and choose Translate Captions… to open the Add Language sheet.
2. Choose the languages — Pick the language to translate From and the language to translate Into.
3. Translate — Click Translate. The translated captions get their own caption track, alongside the original.
4. Make the voice — On the new language's row, click Make Voice… (or use Dub from Captions…), choose a voice and a speed limit, then click Dub. Each phrase is spoken to fit the time of its caption, so the voice follows your film.
5. Review the takes — Listen through the dubbed phrases. Accept the ones you like, or click Dub Again for a new take. To redo one phrase on its own, use Dub Selected Phrase Again….
6. Export the language — Click Open Export in the panel to go straight to the Export page for your languages.

Note: A dubbed phrase is never longer than the caption it belongs to — the voice fits the space your film gives it, so your pictures and the new narration stay in step.

Note: Not happy with a single line? You do not have to redo the whole dub. Select just that phrase and use Dub Selected Phrase Again… — everything you already accepted stays as it is.

Working through your languages

• Fix mistakes in the original captions first — both the translation and the dub follow them.
• Each language keeps its own caption track and its own row in the Languages panel, so your original captions are never touched.
• Work phrase by phrase: accept the takes you like as you go, and only re-dub the ones you do not.

Where to go next

Set up the finished version for each language in Exporting, and polish the balance between voice and music in Sound and Mixing.

Titles and Graphics

Three libraries, one panel

Open the Graphics Templates panel and you will find three libraries of ready-made graphics:

• Templates — ready titles, names and lower thirds for the everyday jobs.
• Motion Studio — 91 animated presets that bring movement to your titles.
• Text Studio — 210 animated designs: steps, cards, charts, counters, timelines, callouts and kinetic text that moves with energy.

Put a graphic in your film

1. Find a design you like — Browse Templates, Motion Studio or Text Studio in the Graphics Templates panel.
2. Drag it onto the timeline — Drag the graphic onto your timeline, above the picture it belongs with.
3. Type your text — Replace the sample words with your own — a name, a title, a number, a headline.
4. Pick a style — Choose a style for the graphic, then open Properties to adjust it. The controls for the graphic you have selected are in the Properties tabs.

Which library for which job

• Templates when you need a clean title or a name strap right now.
• Motion Studio when the title itself should move and draw the eye.
• Text Studio when the words are the picture — a chart, a counter, a timeline or a list of steps on screen.

Note: Start simple: one strong title graphic usually beats three competing ones on the same screen.

Let the app suggest graphics for you

Suggest Graphics follows your narration and proposes graphics for what is being said — a chart when you quote figures, a callout when you make a point worth pulling out. Accept the ones that fit and ignore the rest. It is a fast way to dress up a plain talking-head video without hunting through libraries.

Make the library yours

Save your own title styles and templates, so a look you build once is one click away in every project. And when someone shares a set with you, Import Title Styles and Templates… brings .vlptitles files into your library.

Note: Working with .mogrt templates from another editor? They arrive with your project when you import it — see Importing Media.

Sound and Mixing

Two mixers, two jobs

VLPremier Pro gives you two mixers, and each has its own job:

• The Audio Track Mixer shapes a whole track — use its fader, Pan, Mute and Solo to set how the track sits in the master Mix.
• The Audio Clip Mixer shapes just the clip under the playhead, so you can fix one loud answer in an interview without touching the rest of the track.

Set a track's level

The number on an audio track's header is that track's level. Drag it to change the level — hold ⇧ while you drag to move in whole decibels — or double-click the number and type the value you want.

Note: Timeline row too low to grab the number comfortably? Right-click the track header and choose Track Volume… to set the level in a proper window.

For a single clip, use Increase Clip Volume for a quick lift, or Audio Gain… when you want to set that clip's level precisely.

Essential Sound: tag it and let it mix

Open the Essential Sound panel and tag your clips as Dialogue, Music, SFX or Ambience. Once the app knows what each clip is, ducking keeps the music under the voice automatically — the music dips when someone speaks and comes back up in the gaps, with no keyframes from you.

And when the whole film needs to sit at an even volume from start to finish, loudness normalization on export evens it out for you — see Exporting.

Stretch music to fit with the Remix Tool

Music rarely ends where your film does. The Remix Tool rearranges a music clip so it ends exactly where you need it:

1. Pick the Remix Tool — Select the Remix Tool from the tools.
2. Drag the end of the music clip — Drag the end of a music clip to the length you need. The music is rearranged to end there — and it stays one single clip, not a pile of pieces.
3. Fine-tune it — In Properties › Remix Segments, choose Fewer…More to control how many rearranged pieces the remix uses, and click Remix Again for a different arrangement.

Note: Prefer to type the length? Use Remix to Duration… and say exactly how long the music should be. Changed your mind entirely? Remove Remix restores the original clip.

Effects and voice presets

Beyond the mixers, you get 17 audio effects and a set of voice presets that tidy up narration in a click or two — well worth trying on any voice recorded in a less-than-perfect room. Audio Unit effects can also be installed and used in the app — see Settings and Add-ons.

Color and Effects

Every film benefits from a little polish: a shaky shot steadied, a face softened, colours that match from one shot to the next. VLPremier Pro gives you more than 80 video effects, 26 transitions and a full colour toolbox — all of it in plain reach, no engineering degree required.

Adding effects

The Effects panel holds everything in a searchable list, grouped so you can find things fast: Adjust, Blur & Sharpen, Channel, Color Correction, and more.

1. Find the effect — Open the Effects panel and type part of its name in the search box, or browse the groups.
2. Drag it onto a clip — Drop the effect onto any clip on the timeline. It applies right away.
3. Tune it — Select the clip and open Effect Controls to adjust the effect's settings until it looks right.

Transitions work the same way: drag one of the 26 transitions onto the join between two clips, and the cut turns into a smooth dissolve, wipe or slide.

Note: Blend modes change how a clip mixes with the one underneath it. Try them when you layer titles, overlays or a second video on top — a light leak or a soft glow is often one blend mode away.

Adjusting a clip's effects

The Effect Controls panel shows everything applied to the clip you have selected:

• Motion and opacity — move, scale and rotate the picture, or fade it in and out.
• Each effect's settings — sliders and controls for whatever you added from the Effects panel.
• Keyframes — a keyframe is simply a setting that changes over time. Set a value at one moment, move the playhead, change the value, and the clip animates between the two on its own. That is how zooms, fades and moving titles are born.

Colour: fixing and styling

Switch to the Color workspace and the Color panel and Scopes come to the front together.

The Color panel gives you:

• Basic corrections — exposure, contrast, saturation and white balance for shots that came out dull or off-colour.
• Curves and color wheels — gentle, precise control when a shot needs more care.
• HSL — adjust one colour at a time: make only the greens richer, or only the skin tones warmer.
• Ready looks and .cube files — apply a finished look in one click, including .cube look files you already own.

Note: The Scopes show you the picture's brightness and colours as graphs, so a look matches from shot to shot. If two shots of the same scene look different to your eye, the scopes tell you which one is brighter or warmer — fix that one, and the scene cuts together seamlessly.

Masks: fixing one part of the picture

A mask lets an effect touch only part of the frame:

• Blur a face or a licence plate that should not be readable.
• Remove a background behind your subject.
• Stabilize a shaky shot so handheld footage sits still.

Draw the mask on the clip, apply the effect, and only the area inside is changed.

Using your Premiere effect presets

If you already own effect presets from Premiere Pro, you do not have to leave them behind — they can be installed and used here. See Settings and Add-ons for how, and Coming from Premiere Pro for the full map of familiar tools.

Shorts

A finished film is full of moments that deserve a second life as vertical Shorts. VLPremier Pro finds them for you: it picks moments that open with a hook and finish a complete thought, scores each one, keeps faces in frame in the vertical picture, and exports finished Shorts with captions, a title, a description and hashtags already written.

Finding the best moments

1. Switch to the Vertical / Shorts workspace — The Shorts panel is where the whole job happens.
2. Transcribe the film if needed — If the bar at the top of the Shorts panel offers transcription, run it — the finder reads your film's words to choose its moments.
3. Set what you want — Choose how many shorts to find, Best moments or Even intervals, a length of about 60–90 seconds, and the format: Fill frame or Fit with bars.
4. Click Find Shorts — Every find is scored and listed as a row in the panel, best first.
5. Create the ones you like — Click Create Short on a row, or Create All to make every find at once.

Prefer to choose a moment yourself? Mark an In and Out range on the timeline and use Add In–Out as a Short — your pick joins the same list.

Note: You can also run the finder over several videos in one batch, so a whole series gets its Shorts in a single pass.

Reviewing and exporting

1. Open the Review Timeline — From the Review Timeline menu choose Make in the Final Shape, with Captions. Every short lands on one timeline, ready to watch end to end — Gap Between the Shorts sets the pause between them.
2. Play through and trim — Watch each short and trim anything that drags. What you see here is exactly what gets exported.
3. Style the captions — In the Captions tab choose the Look — the animated caption style — and the Text size.
4. Export — Choose Export Each Short on the Review Timeline… for one file per short, or the panel footer's Export All Shorts… with the preset beside it.

Working from an ordinary timeline instead? Export Each Short on This Timeline… does the same job there.

Each exported short comes with a ready title, description and hashtags, plus its own caption file — posting is the only step left. For the full export options behind these presets, see Exporting; for the caption styles themselves, see Captions and Subtitles.

Libraries and Projects

Some things you use in every film: a favourite clip, a colour look, a caption style, an effect combination that just works. Libraries are where those live — saved once, ready in every project. And when a project needs to travel, the Project Manager packs the film and its media into one folder.

Building a library

The Libraries panel sits behind the Project panel. Adding things to it is drag-and-drop:

• Drag clips straight from the timeline onto the panel, or right-click a clip and choose Add to Library.
• Drag media and sequences from the Project panel.
• Drag a .cube look file in from the Finder.
• Use the + menu to add the selected clip's effects, its look, a caption's style or a colour — plus things already saved on this Mac.

Using what you saved

Double-click any item in the library to use it:

• Clips and graphics land at the playhead, on the tracks you targeted.
• An effect stack, a look, a colour or a caption style goes onto the clips you have selected.
• Every use is a single undo step — if it was not what you wanted, one undo takes it back.

Note: A library is simply a folder on your Mac. Use New Library… to start one and Open Library Folder… to open an existing one — and because it is just a folder, it can live on a shared drive where your whole team can reach it.

One library or several?

Both work. Many editors keep a single library of all-time favourites — the intro clip, the house look, the caption style every video uses. Others keep a library per series or per client, so everything for one show sits together. Switch between them with Open Library Folder… whenever you like; nothing stops you mixing the two approaches.

Note: Anything you save keeps working the way it did when you saved it: an effect stack arrives with the settings you gave it, and a look lands exactly as it looked on the clip you took it from.

Projects that save themselves

Your project saves as you work, and automatic backups are kept as you go — a crash or a wrong turn never costs you the film. You can relax and edit.

Moving a project: Project Manager

When a film is done — or needs to move to another Mac — open Project Manager…. It collects the film and the media it uses into a new folder, so everything the project needs travels together and nothing is left behind.

Sequences can also live inside other sequences, which keeps long films organised — see Editing on the Timeline for how nesting works while you cut.

Exporting

Exporting is the moment the film leaves your Mac. VLPremier Pro keeps it simple: pick where the video is going, and 24 ready presets have the right settings waiting. Exports run in the background, so you can keep editing the next film while this one renders.

Exporting a film

1. Open Export Media… — The Export page opens with your sequence ready to go.
2. Pick a preset — Under Presets you will find YouTube in full quality, vertical for Shorts, TikTok and Reels, square, high-quality master copies, GIF and image sequences. Exporting often with your own settings? Save Settings as Preset… keeps them under My Presets.
3. Set the basics — File Name, Location, Format, and Range: Entire Sequence, Sequence In to Out, or Custom… for exactly the part you marked.
4. Choose how captions travel — Print them into the picture so they are always visible, or send them as a separate track or file — captions on their own see-through track, ready for platforms that display them their way.
5. Click Export — The render starts and the queue shows its progress.

Even loudness, automatically

Under Loudness, Normalize brings the mix to an even level for where it is going — YouTube, Shorts, TikTok, Reels, Podcast, Broadcast or Custom — under a True Peak Ceiling, so no part is suddenly louder than the rest and nothing clips at the loudest moment. Quiet dialogue and a big music swell come out balanced, the way the platform expects.

Several files from one sequence

One film often needs several versions: a master, a YouTube upload, a vertical cut. You do not have to export them one at a time.

1. Send to Export Queue — Instead of exporting right away, choose Send to Export Queue.
2. Add Output — On the waiting job, click Add Output and give each output its own settings — its own preset, name and destination.
3. Start the queue — Every version renders in turn while you keep working.

The queue shows the progress of every job, with Pause when you need the Mac's full power, Retry Failed for anything that stumbled, and Reveal in Finder to jump straight to a finished file.

Note: Exporting vertical Shorts one file at a time? The Shorts workflow has its own export built in — see Shorts.

Coming from Premiere Pro

If you have edited in Premiere Pro, you already know how to edit here. The panels carry the same names, the shortcuts are Premiere's by default, and your Premiere projects open right up — see Importing Media for bringing projects in, and Keyboard Shortcuts for bringing your own keys with you.

Here is where your familiar tools live now:

Note: A few things are genuinely new rather than renamed: captions are written automatically from your audio, the Voiceover Studio records and polishes narration in the app, and the Shorts panel finds the best vertical moments in a long film. The rest of this guide walks through each one.

Your media and presets come too

The move is not just about panel names. Your Premiere projects open here, your own Premiere effect presets can be installed in one step, and the media browser you are used to browsing with is here under the same name — so the footage, the looks and the habits all arrive together. Settings and Add-ons covers installing what you already own.

A good first route through the app: Getting Started, then Editing on the Timeline, Captions and Subtitles and Exporting.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Good news first: the keyboard shortcuts are set to Premiere Pro's by default. The keys your fingers already know — for cutting, trimming, marking and playing — do what you expect from the first minute.

Bringing your own keys from Premiere Pro

If you customised your shortcuts in Premiere Pro, bring the whole set over in one step:

1. Open Keyboard Shortcuts… — The shortcuts window lists every command and its key.
2. Choose Import from Premiere Pro… — Point it at your .kys file. In Premiere Pro your custom keys live in Documents › Adobe › Premiere Pro › your version › Profile › Mac.
3. Done — Your familiar keys now drive VLPremier Pro.

Changing a single key

1. Search — In the Keyboard Shortcuts… window, search by command name, menu or key to find the command you want.
2. Click its key and press the new one — The change takes effect right away. A key belongs to one command only: if the key was already in use, the window names the command that had it, and that command loses it.
3. Changed your mind? — Reset on a row restores that one command's original key; Reset All… restores everything.

Finding a command

The search in the Keyboard Shortcuts… window accepts command names, menus and keys, so there are two ways to find anything: type the command you are thinking of, or press the key you are curious about and see which command owns it. Either way you land on the row, ready to keep the key, change it or reset it.

Note: Not sure what a key does in Premiere terms? Coming from Premiere Pro maps the tools and panels side by side.

Settings and Add-ons

VLPremier Pro grows with you: effect presets, looks, caption styles and extensions you already own can be installed and used alongside the built-ins.

Installing add-ons

Use Install Add-on… for any of these:

• Effect presets (.vlppreset), including Premiere preset files (.prfpset)
• Looks (.cube)
• Caption looks (.vlpcaptions)
• Audio Units (.component)
• An extension's folder

Where things appear after installing:

• Looks — in the Color panel, under Look
• Effect presets — in the Effects panel's Presets folder
• Caption looks — in the Text panel, under Style › My presets
• Extensions — listed in the Extensions panel

Two shortcuts worth knowing: Install My Premiere Pro Presets brings your own Premiere presets in, in one step. And Import Title Styles and Templates… adds title styles and templates (.vlptitles).

Note: .mogrt templates and After Effects projects do not install here — they come in with your media, through project import. See Importing Media.

Settings worth knowing

Where a paste lands. In Settings › Timeline, "A paste onto clips" decides what happens when you paste onto existing clips — one choice sends the paste to a free track above instead, so nothing gets overwritten by accident.

Files that change on disk. In Settings › Media, "Refresh files that change on disk" can be set to When I Come Back, While I Work, or Never. This matters with Edit Original: open a clip in its original app, change and save it there, and VLPremier Pro picks up the new version on its own.

Playback Resolution. In the Program Monitor's bar, choose Full, 1/2 or 1/4. At 1/2 or 1/4 even a heavy timeline plays in real time — handy on a big project. A stopped frame and every export are always full resolution, so nothing you deliver is ever softened by this setting.

Everything in its place

Nothing you install replaces what is built in — add-ons join the lists alongside the stock effects, looks and styles, so your own presets and the app's own sit one search away from each other. If you remove a project, your installed add-ons stay installed for the next one.

More on keeping a big project playing smoothly is in Troubleshooting, and the full colour side of looks and presets is in Color and Effects.

Troubleshooting

Most interruptions have a one-minute fix. Find your situation below — each answer uses only the app's own tools.

Playback is choppy

Lower the Playback Resolution in the Program Monitor's bar to 1/2 or 1/4 — a heavy timeline then plays in real time, while exports stay full resolution. You can also Render In to Out over the heavy section, or work with lighter copies of big files: Create Proxies for Large Media, then turn on Use Proxies While Editing.

A clip shows as missing media

The file moved or its drive is not connected. Reconnect the drive if that is the cause; otherwise use Find Missing Media in a Folder… and point the app at the folder where the files live now. When you import a project, the import report also lists any files that are missing.

Something from my Premiere project did not come over

Open the import report's Not Carried Over list — it names everything in the Premiere project that has no counterpart here, so you know exactly what to rebuild rather than discovering it later. Most of a project comes across; the list covers the exceptions.

I changed a file in another app and the editor shows the old version

Files are read again when you come back to the app, so switching away and back usually refreshes them. Check Settings › Media › "Refresh files that change on disk" — When I Come Back or While I Work both keep versions current. The Edit Original round-trip is built for this: edit the file in its own app, save, and the editor uses the saved version.

An export failed

Open the export queue and click Retry Failed — most failures are a one-off. If it fails again, check the File Name and Location on the job: a destination that is full, disconnected or not writable is the usual cause.

My captions have a wrong word everywhere

Use Find and Replace in Captions… with Replace All — one pass fixes a misheard name or word in every caption at once, instead of hunting line by line.

I pressed the wrong thing and lost my edit

Undo brings back the last step. For anything further back, the History panel lists every step you took — click an earlier step to return the project to exactly that moment.

A key does something different than in Premiere

The defaults follow Premiere, but a key may have been changed. Open Keyboard Shortcuts…, search the command, and use Reset on its row to restore the original key — or press the key you actually want. See Keyboard Shortcuts.

Before you worry

Two habits prevent most of the problems above. Your project saves as you work and keeps automatic backups, so a crash or a mistaken edit is a detour, not a disaster — the History panel is always there to walk you back. And when a project comes in from Premiere, read the import report once at the start: it tells you up front what arrived, what is missing and what has no counterpart, which turns surprises into a short checklist.

Still stuck? The task-based pages of this guide — Editing on the Timeline, Exporting, Settings and Add-ons — cover each area step by step.