Each of these offers powerful and creative video editing software, and most are equally friendly towards novice and experienced video editors alike.

There are numerous video editing tools available that can blow Shotcut out of the water, such as Lumen5, Pinnacle Studio, VideoPad, or PowerDirector. Shotcut can be downloaded for free on Windows, Mac and Linux. On top of that there's an extensive FAQ and 'how to' guide on their website, along with a number of user forums for discussion and troubleshooting. All of these videos are under 15 minutes, so you're never far from getting the answer you're seeking. These videos start with the fundamentals, and gradually build into more complicated techniques such as adding or muting audio, using keyframes, customizing video modes, or exporting sub-clips. Thankfully there are a handful of tutorial videos on Shotcut's website to help new users along with the learning curve. 'J,' 'K,' and 'L' are used to control playback, for instance, for no reason other than they're in a comfortable spot on the keyboard. These hotkeys make sense when you think about it (tapping 'i' or 'o' to set the in and out points, or using alt+left and alt+right to jump between start, in, out, and end), there are others that users will just have to sit down and memorize if they want to get the most out of their experience. Since Shotcut squeezes in a plethora of functions and effects, beginners may have a hard time navigating the menus at first glance, or learning the necessary hotkeys. Though Shotcut's interface appears empty at the start, digging around yields a surprising amount of effects and features that far more expensive programs boast about offering.

You can cut long videos, group multiple clips together, and even add simple transition effects such as fade out/fade in options or visual filters (like saturation, glow, blur effects, or vignette). The timeline on the bottom is where you'll be doing your trimming, cutting, and layering. Source clips appear in a panel on the top left of the screen, and a preview window rests on the top right. Whenever you import raw footage into Shotcut you can see its thumbnail right away, allowing you to more easily pick it out and place it where you need. It'll appear right on the timeline and you can get to work right away. Click 'open file,' scroll through your File Explorer, and simply click on the file you want to add. Its design is spartan the UI and effects are sparse, but the interface is intuitive and intelligent. Shotcut is a no-hassle, simple but effective tool for editing your content.

Shotcut's design is spartan the UI and effects are sparse, but the interface is intuitive and intelligent.Editing a video is hard enough without having to fight your software every step of the way.

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