How To Create A Template in Shotcut

Help/How To
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I’ve figured out how to create a template in Shotcut (which I’m defining for our purposes as a video with certain reoccurring elements – an opening, music, closing, etc so you don’t have to keep remaking the wheel, so to speak).

First, assemble the elements that will remain consistent from video to video (music, jpgs, and whatnot) and put them in their own folder.

This folder is important, and once assembled, should be left alone.

Then build your video from the elements in the folder ONLY.

It will not be “complete” in that it only includes what you need to produce the skeleton of your video, including whatever else you want to remain consistent minus anything that you don’t want to remain that way.

Save it and call it something fairly obvious (and simple. This is not the place for cleverness).

Let’s say you’re ready to use the template. Open it and start building your project, using the “Save As” command, NOT “Save” and changing it’s name to whatever it is that you’re currently working on.

Close the template (deleting any additional files if you added any) then open the file you just created with the “Save As” command and use how you will.

The point being the file you designated as a template will remain pristine, and you won’t have to keep remaking it.

This may have been intuitive for some, but coming from Final Cut Pro X Shotcut is a whole different animal.

6 Likes
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Thank you.

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Nice description and instructions of a very useful technique, @Philez.

I have been using this workflow for nearly a year now; it has made my work much easier.

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You’re welcome! I’m glad that someone could benefit from my trial and error(s)!

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Indeed! For awhile I was constantly rebuilding videos that used the same format, getting more irritated each time, since I was constantly wasting time to achieve a result I had already achieved.

This way, all I need do is add the new elements, and I’m essentially done! It should save a lot of time!

And what’s even cooler is that no matter the length of the project, if I’m going to use the same format more than once the same idea applies.

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Also as a backup you should also make a copy of the template and call it “template(backup)” or something. This was if you ever save a project by mistake you still have a copy of this template. Thanks for the tip tho, pretty new at Shotcut but its been working flawlessly so far!

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And keep the elements of that template in their own folder as well because if Shotcut can’t find the pieces, the elements, that make up your template it’ll create all sorts of frustrating problems.

Glad to hear that it’s working for you!

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