You’re not stupid: A Beginner’s Guide to the Timeline

Zooming in, zooming out, navigating left, navigating right. Navigating the timeline like this in descript is one of the hardest things for beginners to master. So let me break it down for you. Now, the first thing to know is everything I'm going to show you today is using this tool right here. If you've never changed it, this is the default tool. It's the select tool. But you will need to be on this tool in order to do what I'm about to show you. Now, the first way you can manipulate the timeline is with this gray bar right here on the bottom. It's a super light gray, and it's pretty hard to see, but it's there. And you can click in the middle and you can slide it to the right. Left click and drag to the right to move your timeline to the right. And when I say to the right, I mean further in the video. If I do the opposite, I move to the left. I'm moving closer to the beginning of my video. Also, there's these little dots on either end of that bar. If you hover over it, your mouse turns into that double black arrow facing outboard. And if you click and you drag to the right, that is zooming out. You're seeing more of the timeline in one view. If you do the opposite and you drag it in, that is zooming in on your timeline. But personally, I don't use that method. I don't use the bar. I'll show you what I do instead. If you hold Shift on your keyboard, and this is for Windows or Mac, while scrolling with your mouse, you scroll up, the timeline moves to the right while still holding Shift, and you scroll down with your mouse, the timeline scrolls to the left. And when I say scroll, I mean with a mouse. With a mouse wheel, you're scrolling that wheel up or down. Or if you're on a laptop with a trackpad, you're using your two fingers to scroll up or down, just like you would on a web page. So again, shift plus scroll is left or right. Now, the way to zoom in and out from the hotkeys is to hold command on a Mac keyboard or control on a Windows keyboard and scroll. So while holding command, I'm scrolling in, and that's zooming in. I'm holding command and I'm scrolling out, and I'm zooming out. And one tip for you. I see a lot of students struggle because they're on trackpads. It's easier if you're going to be editing a lot of video. Invest in an external mouse, and it's much easier to use a scroll wheel than to use the trackpad. If you want more descript tips like this, click on this video next.