Keeping Your Timeline Organized by Adding Timeline Markers to Shotcut

In this tutorial, thanks to the Shotcut Forum members, Namna, and MusicalBox, we finally

have a way to add markers to your timeline using timeline markers.

And I’m going to show you how to install it and how to use it.

So stay tuned.

I’m just a normal person with no video editing background.

I wanted to start making YouTube videos and maybe cool transitions and effects.

I don’t really plan on being a professional video editor, so I was looking for a free, easy-to-learn

video editing software.

Luckily, I stumbled on Shotcut, a free, open-source video editing program that can do many of

the tricks you can do on more enterprise video editors like Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve,

but with a much simpler and leaner interface, thus dramatically shortening the learning

curve.

It just takes using your imagination.

So let’s learn together.

So the first thing you need to do is to download the zip file called Files for Markers.

Once you’ve downloaded it on your desktop, all you have to do is right-click it and

unzip the file.

So here I’m going to unzip it and I’m just going to unzip it on my desktop.

So once it’s done unzipping, you now have these files here.

And so these are the files that you use for a Mac and these are the files that you

use for a PC.

And so I happen to have a PC, so I’m going to use these files here.

So if you happen to have a Mac, what you need to do is you need to go to applications, Shotcut.app,

contents, resources, Shotcut, QML, views, then timeline.

And you need to open that folder.

You then need to locate three files and the files would be named ruler.QML, timeline.QML,

and timeline toolbar.QML.

First and foremost, so you don’t ruin your current build, you want to go into your computer

and rename these files.

Not the ones that you downloaded, but the ones that are already installed on your computer

because what you’re going to do is you’re going to replace those with these new ones.

But just in case something happens, what you want to do is you want to be able to bring

back the old files.

So what you want to do is go to the old files and rename them somehow.

Like rename them ruler.QML original, timeline.QML original, and then timeline toolbar.QML original.

And just rename them, but don’t get rid of them just in case you need to bring back those old files.

Once you’ve renamed them, then you can then take these files that are on your desktop

and you can drag it into that folder.

And that’s pretty much it.

That’s how you install it on the Mac.

So I happen to have a PC, so I’m going to need to use these files here.

Instead of the Mac OS, I’m going to go files for markers for PC.

So for Windows, what you need to do is go to program files.

And then go to Shotcut, then go to share, and then go to Shotcut again, and then go to QML, and then go to views, and then finally timeline.

Okay, so in that timeline, just like the way you did it for the Mac, you’re going to see identical files like the ones that you downloaded.

Ruler.QML, timeline.QML, and timeline toolbar.QML.

So what we need to do is we need to rename the old files just in case we need to bring it back.

So the first thing is ruler.QML right here.

And so all I’m going to do is I’m going to click it once to be able to rename it, and I’m going to put original right next to it.

So say yes, continue.

So I just renamed ruler.QML, and then I’m going to find timeline.QML, which is this one here.

I’m also going to add the word original right after it.

And then last but not least, I’m going to look for this file, timeline toolbar.QML.

I’m again going to click it once, and then add original.

So now you have a safety net just in case these files here that I’m about to drag into this folder here messes up.

I can get rid of these ones and then just remove original from the file names of these ones.

And it brings Shotcut back to what you had before.

So now that these are renamed, all I have to do is select the ones that we’ve downloaded and drag it over to this folder.

And that’s basically how you install it.

So now it’s installed.

And so next up, we’re going to see how it looks like on Shotcut.

So for the Linux users out there, I haven’t forgotten about you.

You basically do the exact same thing that you do for the Mac OS and the Windows operating system.

But you need to drag the files into the Shotcut dot app folder, then share, then Shotcut, then QML, then views, finally timeline.

That’s it.

The steps are pretty much the same regardless of what operating system you’re using.

Okay, so now we’re back in Shotcut.

And I’ve just loaded one of my original files.

So I just have a video.

So let’s just drag this video into timeline.

And I’m going to show you how we’re going to add the timeline markers to your new workflow.

So first, you need to go to this tool here, which is the timeline toolbar.

And you need to go into other.

And you need to make sure that this thing is checked show markers management, which mine happens to be already checked.

Now it’s going to be a little subtle, but you’re going to notice once that checkbox had been checked.

You’re going to see this little asterisk right here.

And that’s going to be a new tool to be able to add markers to your video.

So let’s start playing this video.

And let’s say I want to add a marker right at the spot right there.

And so all you have to do is click this asterisk.

And then you can put add a marker here.

And all of a sudden, look, there’s a little blue, or let’s zoom in a little bit.

There’s a little blue marker right there.

And then let’s go and advance again.

And right there, let’s click this again.

And what you can do is add another marker right there.

So now look, there’s a blue one. There’s a yellow one.

Go over here.

Click this again.

Add another marker right there.

And all of a sudden you have a blue one, a yellow one, a pink one.

I don’t even know how many colors it has.

Let’s just start adding random markers.

So I guess you can only add one, two, three, four, five.

So the maximum number of markers are five.

Okay.

So now let’s say you want to start all over again.

And you want to delete all the markers.

So all you have to do is go into the asterisk again

and click, obviously, delete all markers.

There you go. And you can start all over again.

Let’s see here.

So let’s click this one.

Let’s add a marker here.

And let’s see what these other buttons do.

So if I’m over here somewhere, right,

or I’m far away from the first marker,

I can click this asterisk

and I can go move to play, move playhead to marker.

And I’m going to tell it I want to move to the blue one.

Boom. You just moved it.

So let’s add another marker here.

And that’s the yellow one.

So I’m going to be here at the start again.

And I can click this and I go move playhead to marker,

but I wanted to move to the yellow one.

Boom. It goes right to the yellow one.

And so on and so forth.

Now let’s see what these other buttons do.

Display the timer.

Okay. Okay. So what it does is it shows you

basically a carbon copy of what this thing is here.

But at least when you select the marker,

it tells you exactly where the marker is located.

Again, all it is is a redundancy of this particular tool over here.

But as you can see, it’s much bigger than what we have previously.

So in playing around with this,

I guess we’ve learned that you can’t just add unlimited markers.

It looks like the maximum number of markers is five, I believe.

And so let’s test it again and let’s see if we can add another marker.

Nope. All markers are in use as you can see here in gray.

But I can go to each individual marker like this one here.

And then let’s see if I can delete this marker.

Yes, I can delete this marker.

So there you go.

It’s a great tool to be able to mark your timeline,

but the only limitation is the maximum is five markers.

But overall, I think it works for most people.

The great thing about this is that no matter where you are on your timeline,

if you want to find one of the areas where you marked,

you can just click it, move playhead to marker,

and you can tell it, I want it to move to the orange marker,

and it immediately goes to that spot,

and then it tells you on the timeline what the time reference is,

which is 5.19, five seconds and 19 frames.

And once you get tired of seeing this,

if you just don’t want to see it, what you can do is you can go back

to the tool section of the timeline right here, the three lines.

You can go back to other.

You can uncheck show marker management,

and then you can also uncheck show playhead assistant, this placement.

And it goes back to what the original Shotcut looks like.

So let’s bring those two back again.

So let’s go in here, let’s go to other, click show playhead

assisted displacement right there.

And then other show marker management.

So one thing that I forgot to mention along with the reference point,

the time reference point and this new asterisk button

that signifies a marker, you also have this thing here,

which basically allows you control of how many frames

you want to move up or down.

So right now it defaults to 10.

So for from where I am right now, I can fast forward 10 frames.

And if I want to move up to let’s say.

Can I edit this?

Okay, so what I need to do is I need to back up.

Okay, so you can’t double click and select it.

So basically you just need to backspace

and then you’re going to click 20 seconds or 20 frames actually.

So these signify frames and then I click the fast forward button

and then you just fast forwarded 20 frames.

Now from where this is again, we’re going to go and backspace

because you can’t select it, it looks like I want to go back 30 frames

and then I click the backwards button, the two arrows going back

and it just moved you back 30 frames.

So I know this is going to be helpful to a lot of people

and this is an amazing add-on from members of the Shotcut forums.

So we want to congratulate the two members who helped build this

by the name of Namna, who was the one who actually designed this tool

and my good buddy MusicalBox, who helped beta test this

and provided you with this very easy user interface.

For the most part, that’s it. It’s a very simple tool.

It’s amazing. It’s going to help a lot of people.

Thank you, Namna. Thank you, MusicalBox.

It’s great. I definitely am going to be using this a ton.

So make sure after you watch this video to write a comment below

to thank Namna and MusicalBox for adding this to our arsenal of great Shotcut tools.

So how do you get access to the download files?

Fear not. I will include all links in the description section of this video.

Along with that, I will also include a link to MusicalBox’s YouTube channel

so you can thank him by subscribing to his channel.

I’m actually not sure if Namna has a channel as well

but if he does, I will also include the link in the description.

Of course, if you hadn’t had a chance, please subscribe to my channel as well.

I hope this video was helpful and click the bell icon

if you want to be alerted as soon as I post a new video.

So, until next time, thank you for watching.

And don’t forget to subscribe so that you know when I drop a new Shotcut-related tutorial.

Every video on my channel was done on Shotcut.

So, aside from examples of what Shotcut can do,

you can also visit my playlist of tips and tutorials, all geared toward the beginner.

Visit my Shotcut Tips and Tricks playlist

and learn all the tips and tricks I’ve learned during my journey toward video editing.

So, once again, please subscribe and I’ll see you next time.