The Workflow Edit | Practical AI Tool Tutorial
How to Use Kapwing AI Without Generic AI Instructions
Stop guessing where to cut and retyping captions by hand. Use a structured editing brief to trim, caption, and resize your video clip in one browser session.
Dear Suzannah
Dear Suzannah, I need to trim a 20-minute recording down to a two-minute highlight clip for our team channel, add captions, and resize it for mobile. I keep opening the raw file, guessing where to cut, and the captions end up misspelled or out of sync. Is there a simpler way to do this in the browser?
Use a structured editing brief, not guesswork.
Kapwing’s browser-based editor gives you a visual timeline for trimming, text tools for captions, and one-click aspect ratio changes. A clear editing brief keeps you focused so you finish the clip in one session instead of trial and error.
The real use case
You have a longer recording — a team meeting, a screen share, or a webinar clip — and you need to cut it down to a short highlight with captions and the right aspect ratio for mobile or social. Instead of guessing where to trim and manually typing every caption, you open Kapwing’s browser editor, use the timeline to select the exact segments, add text overlays for key points, and resize the canvas with one click. You preview, adjust, and export without installing any software.
The tool-specific prompt to use
This is a structured editing brief to follow while working in Kapwing’s editor. Replace the bracketed items with your real clip details before you start cutting.
Editing brief for a [length, e.g., two-minute] highlight clip from a [source type, e.g., team meeting recording, webinar, screen share]. Source file length: [total minutes]. Final output length: [target minutes]. Platform: [team Slack channel, Instagram, LinkedIn, internal wiki]. Aspect ratio: [16:9 for desktop, 9:16 for mobile, 1:1 for square]. Scenes to keep: [list the timestamps of the three to five best moments, e.g., 03:15 to 03:45, 08:20 to 09:00]. Remove all dead air, long pauses, and off-topic sections between the kept clips. Add text overlays for these key points: [list three to five short phrases, max four words each]. Place each text overlay at the bottom of the frame, centered, in a [white on dark background, brand color] style. Font size: large enough to read on a phone. Add a title card at the start with [clip title]. Add an end card with [call to action or team channel name]. Keep transitions as straight cuts — no wipes or fades longer than half a second. Export at [1080p, 720p] resolution. Preview the full clip once before exporting and fix any caption that is cut off or overlapping.
Prompt length: 187 words.
Make the result less generic
- List exact timestamps for the segments you want to keep so you do not re-watch the whole recording.
- Write your caption phrases in advance, max four words each, so they fit on screen without wrapping.
- Pick the aspect ratio before you start editing so you compose the frame correctly from the start.
- Specify your brand colors for text overlays instead of using the default style.
- Preview the full clip once before exporting to catch any cut-off captions or awkward cuts.
Quick human check
- Are the kept segments the actual highlights, or did you include filler by mistake?
- Can you read every text overlay clearly on a phone screen?
- Is the aspect ratio correct for the platform where you will share it?
- Are there any dead-air gaps or abrupt cuts between segments?
- Does the title card and end card show the right information?
