Turn a long recording into something people will watch EN

Captions, chapters, a summary and a suggested speed, in that order.

To make a long recording easier to watch, finish your edits first. Then generate captions, chapters and a summary, and suggest a playback speed. The order matters, because each step builds on the one before it. Viewers can then see what's in the video, jump to the part they need, and watch at a pace you've chosen.

You need to own the recording. Captions, chapters and summaries need Cloud mode, because Offline recordings have no captions. See What you give up in Offline mode.

1. Finish your edits

Cut mistakes and dead air before anything else. When you choose Apply & render, Rekorder clears the recording's transcript, summary and chapters, because their timing no longer matches the video. If you add them first, you'll do the work twice. See Save a draft vs Apply & render and Why rendering clears captions, summary and chapters.

If you don't need to edit, skip to the next step. Wait until the recording has finished processing first. See Why editing, sharing and captions wait for processing.

2. Generate captions

Captions come first because Rekorder builds chapters and the summary from the transcript.

Open the recording.
In the Edit tab, select Auto-generate Captions.
Select Generate.
Pick the spoken language from the Language list, then select Generate again. Picking it yourself is more reliable than Auto-detect.

If a name or term was misheard, fix it in the Transcript tab before you go on. See Fix a mis-transcribed name, or delete a line. More detail is in Generate captions for a recording.

3. Add chapters

Chapters are a list of titled moments under the video. Each one jumps to that point, which is the fastest way for someone to skip to the part they care about.

In the Edit tab, select Auto-generate Chapters.
Read the prompt and select Generate.
When you see "Chapters generated", select OK.
Check the list under Chapters. If a chapter starts in the wrong place, move the player to the right moment and select + Add chapters.

You can't edit a chapter's title once it exists. To rename one, add a new chapter at the same moment and delete the old one. Generating chapters again replaces the whole list, including chapters you added by hand. See Chapters: generated, added and renamed.

4. Add a summary

The summary is a short account of what the recording covers. It appears under the video, so viewers can decide whether it's worth their time.

In the Edit tab, select Auto-generate Summary.
Read the prompt and select Generate.
When you see "Summary generated", select OK.

A summary is at most 255 characters. You can edit it afterwards, or write your own. See Generate a summary.

5. Suggest a playback speed

For a long recording of a steady talker, a slightly faster speed saves viewers time. You can suggest one, but you can't force it.

Open the Settings tab on the recording's page.
Next to Suggest a playback speed, choose a speed from the list: 0.8x, 1x, 1.2x, 1.5x, 1.7x, 2x or 2.5x. None turns the suggestion off.

Viewers see the message "The creator of this video suggests a playback speed of" and the speed above the player. Selecting the speed switches their player to it, and they can dismiss the message. Nothing changes unless they select it. See Suggest a playback speed to your audience.

If you edit again later

If you render the recording again, the transcript, summary and chapters are cleared. Rekorder generates the captions again if the recording had them. You then create the summary and chapters again, in the same order. Your suggested playback speed is a separate setting.