Create a paper edit

Name it, pick a frame rate and output canvas, and you're ready to add clips

A paper edit is a saved document inside a project. It holds an ordered list of clips, each with a trimmed word range, ready to send to FCP, Premiere, or Resolve, or to render as a video. Making one takes about ten seconds.

Two ways to start

Open the sidebar. There's a Paper edits section. Click the + button in its header. An inline name field appears. Type a name, press Enter. Done.

The other way is to just try to add a clip when no paper edit exists yet. A sheet pops up with a name field and the same setup options below. Same destination, different door.

Either way, the new paper edit becomes the active one. That's the one the "Add to active" quick path drops clips into until you switch.

Pick a frame rate

Frame rate options are 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, and 59.94. Pick whatever your finishing timeline runs at. If you're not sure, check the FCP library you'll send it to and match it.

There's a "use default" toggle. Leave it on and this paper edit follows whatever you've set as your global default in Settings. Change the global later, this one picks it up. Turn the toggle off and the rate locks to whatever you picked here.

Pick an output resolution

Nine presets:

• Use first clip's resolution
• 720p
• 1080p
• 1440p
• 4K
• Square 1080 (1080×1080)
• Square 4K (2160×2160)
• Vertical 720×1280 (9:16)
• Vertical 1080×1920 (9:16)

"Use first clip" is the path of least resistance for most projects. The vertical and square presets are there when you know upfront you're cutting for a different aspect ratio.

Both frame rate and output resolution are changeable later in the workspace header. Change the rate and every padding override and per-clip step size re-converts on the fly. Change the resolution, the preview re-renders right away.

That's the setup. Now we add some clips.