Use the blade tool, trim handles, and drag-select to tighten your timeline before dubbing and export.
Updated 2026-07-23 · AutoCast v3.0 · macOS 14+
Who this is for
Anyone trimming dead air, mistakes, or long pauses out of a recording before moving on to dubbing.
Before you start
You need a recording already in the AutoCast editor, with clips visible on the timeline (screen, camera, mic, and caption tracks).
Steps
Position the playhead where you want to cut. Scrub the timeline or use the arrow keys to find the exact frame.
Press ⌘B (or click the blade tool) to cut. This splits whatever clip is under the playhead into two separate clips at that point.
Make a second cut at the other end of the section you want to remove, so it’s isolated as its own clip.
Select the isolated clip and delete it. The gap closes automatically and everything after it shifts left — you don’t need to manually drag clips together.
Trim instead of cutting, when you just need to shave an edge. Hover over the start or end of a clip until the trim handle appears, then drag to shorten it.
Drag-select a range to cut both ends at once. Click and drag across a span of the timeline to select a range, then delete — this removes the whole selected range and closes the gap in one step, instead of blading twice.
Reorder clips by dragging. Click and hold a clip, then drag it to a new position on the timeline; other clips shift to make room.
What you should see
Clips update in real time as you cut, trim, delete, or drag — the timeline never leaves gaps after a delete, and the Final Cut-style inspector shows the selected clip’s in/out points and duration.
Common issues
Blade tool cuts the wrong track — the blade only affects the track you’re clicked into; make sure the intended track (screen, camera, or mic) is selected before pressing ⌘B if your tracks are unlinked.
Deleting a clip left a gap — this shouldn’t happen with a normal delete; if you used a different removal method (like clearing a clip without deleting), use ⌘B plus delete instead to guarantee the gap closes.
Trim handle won’t grab — you need to hover precisely on the clip’s edge; zoom in on the timeline first if clips are too small to grab accurately.
Reordered clips threw off auto-zoom timing — auto-zoom is tied to click timestamps in the original recording, so heavy rearranging can shift how zooms line up with content; re-check the auto-zoom style preview after a big reorder.