Paper Edit

Paper Edit cuts your timeline from the transcript. Select the passages you want to keep, and everything else is cut. Build a new composition or sequence from just those passages, or cut the one you have open. It works in both After Effects and Premiere, and it uses no AI and no credits.

Clean Up removes what it detects, such as silences and repeated takes. Paper Edit keeps what you select.

Cut from the transcript

1. Open Paper Edit: In the Captions tab header, click the scissors icon next to New Caption. Its tooltip reads Paper Edit. It reads your captions, so transcribe the timeline or import a caption file first.

2. Read the transcript: It opens as paragraphs, split at natural pauses. Click a paragraph’s timestamp to move the playhead there.

3. Select the passages to keep: Click or drag across words to select a passage.

   • Drag from a selected word to unselect
   • Shift-click a word to move the playhead to it
   • Clear empties the selection

4. Check the result: The up and down arrows step through your passages and move the playhead with them. The summary shows how many passages you kept and how long the result will be.

5. Create or Apply: Pick where the cut lands.

   • Create composition (After Effects) or Create sequence (Premiere) builds a new timeline from only your passages, back to back, and opens it. Your original stays as it was
   • Apply cuts the open composition or sequence down to your passages, in place
   • When it finishes, it shows the length before and after, for example 12m 4s to 3m 10s

In each host

1. After Effects: Every layer goes into one source precomp, and each passage becomes its own layer, laid back to back. Paper Edit is one undo step, so a single Undo brings the comp back, and after Create it removes the copy too.

   • Comp markers inside a passage move with it
   • The comp and its work area end where the last passage ends
   • Caption layers already in the comp are cut along with the footage

2. Premiere: Create copies the sequence and cuts the copy, so your original sequence stays as it was. The cut is a ripple cut on the video and audio tracks, the same one Clean Up uses.

   • Apply is final in Premiere, so the panel asks “Cut this sequence?” first
   • Locked tracks are skipped, so unlock every track you want cut

Good to know

1. No credits: Paper Edit makes no AI call, so it spends no AI credits.

2. Clean edges: Each passage keeps 0.12 seconds of room on both sides, so the first and last syllables stay whole. That room never reaches into a word you did not select, and every cut lands on a frame.

3. Timeline order: Passages play in their original order, with the gaps closed.

4. Names: A new timeline takes the original’s name, tagged MC Paper Edit, with a time stamp.

5. Word or caption: Selection works word by word when your captions carry word timings. Captions without them, such as an imported SRT, are selected caption by caption.

6. The right timeline: Paper Edit cuts the active composition or sequence, so open the one your captions belong to.

7. Captions after the cut: The caption list in the panel keeps its original times. To caption the new timeline, transcribe it after the cut.

8. Your selection: Close the editor and reopen it on the same transcript, and your selection is still there while the panel stays open.