To edit a video using the ScreenPal video editor, choose a video from available recordings on the recording home page. By default, ScreenPal sorts the recordings by date (the newest video will be at the top of available media files). ScreenPal names the video files basic “Recording # 1”, and “Recording # 2”. Etc. To rename a video project, Select “Enter Recording Name” in the upper left of the screen and type in a new name. This action only changes the video project name (you will be able to rename the video later when you publish the video).
After you are finished making all of your video edits, select the gray Done button in the lower right of the screen. The options are: Save the File (and rename it), continue to Edit the video, or Delete the video.
Selecting Save As Video File brings up a secondary menu:
- Type: Allows you to choose the output file format (MP4 can be read by most video players, smart TVs, and computers, and can be imported into Canvas)
- Filename: This is where you name the finalized video
- Folder: This is the output destination of the video (Desktop or Videos is probably the most accessible)
- Cursor: You can choose whether to highlight the mouse (this is beneficial because it helps the audience keep track of the location of the mouse
- Open Captions: If you have captions for the video. "Open" means they will always be displayed in the video.
- Quality: Normal is fine, However, if the video is to be played on a device with a lower resolution, (such as an older projector) it would be beneficial to change the quality to Higher for a better viewing experience.
After choosing the Publish Options, press the green Publish Button and ScreenPal will publish the video.ScreenPal needs to be left running while it publishes the video. If you close the program, the video will not publish and will revert back to the latest draft edit of the video. There is the option to Publish in Background. This option appears after pressing the green Publish button. This allows the program to be minimized while the video is being published.
To edit a video: Press Edit in the lower right corner (this will load the ScreenPal video editor
The three most common tools that will be used when editing a video in ScreenPal *
- Volume
- Cut
- Undo/Redo
*All of the editing tools in ScreenPal will function in a similar manner.
To start editing a video, move the white time stamp bar anywhere on the video timeline and select the desired tool (for the purpose of this tutorial we will be using the Volume tool). Pressing the Volume tool opens up a sub-tool menu that allows selection between
- turning the narration volume higher
- turning the narration volume lower
- muting the narration altogether (muting the narration is usually the most helpful as you can mute out phrases such as ‘um” or mute out a sneeze).
After you select the Volume-Narration tool, drag the purple bar to the point in the recording where you want to adjust the endpoint of the narration and then “grab” the back of the purple bar to set the starting point of the narration adjustment. You can move the start and endpoints of the narration by hovering over the start or end of the narration, grabbing the purple line, and moving to a new location.
To help see the adjustments better, click on the magnifying glass (bottom right of the screen) or press the “M” key on the keyboard. Use the audio track as the context of when to set the start and endpoint for narration adjustments. Remember Narration adjustments do not remove sections of the video, narration adjustments only raise/lower the volume or mute the narration of the video. To remove sections of the video, use the Cut tool. After a given narration adjustment has been made, press OK and continue editing the video (or press Cancel if you don’t wish to keep the edit).
The Cut tool is useful for removing sections of the video. A typical use for the cut tool is where there is a lot of narration errors in one part of the video, however, the other part of the video does not have narration errors. Using the cut tool would allow the narration errors to be cut out of the video and the finished video to be more professional.
To use the Cut tool, select a point on the video timeline and select the Cut tool (from the Tools dropdown). Press [+ Cut ] to create a new cut. Similar to the Volume tool, you need to set a start endpoint for the cut (use the audio track for the context of where to start and end a cut). Press OK to make the cut or Cancel to cancel the cut.
Undo & Redo buttons allow you to reverse edits if you decide that you want to change an edit that you recently made*
- To Undo an edit, press the arrow that curves left (in the upper right side of ScreenPal).
- The arrow that curves right is the redo button. This is useful if you decide you do like the changes you made that you just undid and you want to redo them.
*If both the Undo/Redo buttons are greyed out select the dropdown arrow (next to the Redo button) and select one of the edits. The Undo/Redo buttons can become greyed out during an autosave, however, all past edits are still available by using the dropdown arrow next to the Redo button.