Importing a Transcript
A short wizard that gets your words, your timeline, and your audio in sync.
After you create a project, ScriptCut opens the import wizard. The steps you see depend on the workflow you chose; the DaVinci Resolve workflow shown here walks through video or audio, the transcript, the timeline XML, and roles. Every step but the transcript is optional, and you can move forward and back at any point.
Step 1 · Video or audio for playback (optional)
Attach your recording’s video or audio (MP4, MOV, MP3, WAV, or M4A) and ScriptCut lines it up with your transcript so you can watch or listen to every line and every selection while you work. On the share link your client always hears the audio, and sees the video too when your account is on a paid plan and the video has a playback copy. On the Free plan, media uploads happen through the Transcribe flow; attaching video or audio to other projects is a paid-plan feature. A video file gives you picture, not just sound: it plays throughout the editor on Starter and ProAI. Free keeps audio only: you can upload a video on Free, ScriptCut keeps the audio and never the video. Free hears its audio in Cleanup, Select, Arrange and Review, but cannot download audio files. Video playback and downloads start on Starter. When an account moves down to Free, its videos are removed the same day. ScriptCut keeps the audio of projects transcribed in ScriptCut, the audio of other projects is removed too, and transcripts always stay. Social is the exception. Social is part of the Social, ProAI and Team plans, the ProAI free trial and beta access (the Social plan has no free trial of its own). When an account moves to a plan without Social, Social closes that day and every Social project is deleted for good, with its clips and links. Posted clips stay on your social accounts. You are told before the date. ScriptCut automatically compresses whatever you upload to a small, efficient size.
Importing from Frame.io, Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, OneDrive, Zoom or Vimeo
Instead of dragging a file from your computer, you can pull it straight from a connected cloud account. Connect Frame.io, Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, OneDrive, Zoom or Vimeo once in Settings > App Integrations; after that, a matching icon appears on the Video/Audio step so you can browse your folders, search by name, and import directly, no download-then-upload round trip. Google Drive opens the file picker from Google itself over ScriptCut: you pick in your real Drive (My Drive, Shared with me and Shared drives), ScriptCut only gets the files you pick, and connecting Google Drive shows no unverified-app warning screen.
Zoom lists your cloud recordings by month and then by meeting, so you pick the video or the audio-only file of a finished recording. Vimeo lists your own videos; Vimeo only allows downloads of your own videos on a paid Vimeo plan. YouTube import is not supported.
Auto Import: new files in a folder, transcribed by themselves
Auto Import (Starter and ProAI) brings new files in by themselves. Open a Dropbox or Frame.io folder in the picker and press the quiet Auto Import This Folder button at the bottom, or use Auto Import a Folder in that cloud's section of Settings > App Integrations (for Google Drive this opens the file picker from Google itself, showing folders only). Choose the dashboard group for the new projects, the language, Keep video or Audio only, whether subfolders count, and whether the files already in the folder should be imported too (off by default). From then on, every new video or audio file in that folder becomes its own project, named after the file, and is transcribed within a few minutes, ready to open on Cleanup. You can change where an Auto Import folder's new projects go with Edit.
Auto Import never imports the same file twice, takes at most 50 files a day per folder, and never moves, renames or deletes anything in your cloud. It only reads the files, with one addition on Google Drive: it adds ScriptCut's import address as a Viewer on the folder (more below). If the account runs out of transcription minutes it pauses, the files wait, and it carries on by itself once there are minutes again. A folder that sends to Social Clips also pauses (the folder row says Paused) when the storage is full, because a Social clip is cut from the picture and a video is never imported there as audio only: its videos wait and start by themselves when the hours come back or you have made room (it asks again within the hour when the storage was full). Turn Off in Settings > App Integrations stops it; the projects it already made stay. For a Google Drive folder, turning Auto Import on adds ScriptCut as a viewer of that one folder (no email is sent), because Google only lets ScriptCut see the files you pick; turning it off, or disconnecting Google Drive, removes that viewer again. If Google refuses the sharing (a company Google Workspace can block it, or you can only view that folder), ScriptCut says so, and Dropbox or Frame.io can be used for Auto Import instead. Google also only lets ScriptCut share a folder when ScriptCut already has every file in it (it only has the files you picked), so for a folder that holds other files the window shows ScriptCut's import address (scriptcut-drive-import@transcript-review-a4953.iam.gserviceaccount.com) and asks you to share the folder yourself in Google Drive as a Viewer (no email needed); then Turn On works. Turning Auto Import off removes ScriptCut from the folder again; for a folder you shared yourself ScriptCut may not be able to, and then a notice says to remove ScriptCut Drive Import from the folder's Share list in Google Drive.
Social Autopilot: clips from a folder, by themselves
Social Autopilot (Social, ProAI and Team) turns a folder into finished clips. In the Auto Import This Folder window choose Send To > Social Clips and pick the Client; the window turns indigo. Every new video in the folder becomes a Social project in that client's folder, is transcribed, and Autopilot makes its clips with the settings in the client's kit (Social, the client's kit, Autopilot): Clips Per Video (AI Decides, or 3, 5, 8, 10 or 15), Minimum Score (Any, 60+, 70+, 80+ or 90+), Clip Length (up to 30 s, 60 s, 90 s or 2 min) and Music (By Mood or No Music). A new kit starts on AI Decides, 70+, up to 60 s and music by mood.
Each clip gets the kit's shape, subtitles and logo, the picture follows the faces (it moves, it never zooms in), and a track from your own music that fits its mood: AI listens to each track once and tags it. A clip under the minimum score is skipped and kept in a list, never edited or posted. The clips are rendered and wait in the client's Social project, and one notification says how many are ready and how many were skipped. Nothing is posted. AI credits are charged as for any AI Clips run, rendering is free, and a kit makes at most 30 clips a week. The kit's Autopilot section lists the Folders That Feed This Kit with their latest video, and has its own Auto Import a Folder button.
Social Autopilot posting: Next Week's Posts
In the client's kit, Autopilot, the Posting Schedule says where and when the clips go out. Networks lists only the client's connected accounts, each switched off until you turn it on (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook say Waiting for approval until their platform approval lands). Pick Posts Per Week, Days, Times and the Time Zone; the line under them says it in words. Per network, Descriptions takes a goal (Grow, Educate, Entertain or Convert) and Include hashtags; AI writes each description in the client's voice for 2 AI credits. Thumbnails is Frame From The Clip or AI Picture.
Every Friday at 9:00 AM in the kit's time zone the next week is booked: the best scores first, one clip per time slot. Nothing posts until you give your OK: the cards say Waits for your OK, and one notification and one email open Next Week's Posts, with each clip's thumbnail, time, description and your client's answer. Approve All schedules them in one tap, Edit opens a clip on its description, Skip takes a clip out and the next best one takes its place. Your client's approval still counts (a post waits and says Waiting for approval), and a rejected clip never posts. Switch on Post Without Asking to let them go out by themselves.
Step 2 · The transcript
Drag your transcript file onto the upload area, or click to browse. ScriptCut accepts .srtx, .srt, and .vtt subtitle files, as well as Premiere’s transcript JSON. The on-screen instructions name the exact export settings for your editing software.
As soon as the file is read, ScriptCut confirms it and tells you whether it detected word-level timecodes and speakers. A clean file needs no further action: the step turns into a green check and the wizard moves you straight on.
Step 3 · The timeline XML (optional)
If you exported a timeline XML from the same sequence, add it here. ScriptCut reads the sequence’s frame rate and start timecode from it so your exported cut lines up perfectly with your original footage. You can skip this and still export a timeline; the XML simply makes the match exact.
Step 4 · Roles
ScriptCut lists the speakers it found and asks you to tag each one: Interviewer, Interviewee, or Crew. Tagging the interviewer (or crew) lets you keep their lines out of the way later with a single click, and it styles questions and answers correctly in your exports.
These labels work for any non-scripted format, not just interviews: for a podcast or panel, tag the host as Interviewer to get the same one-click filtering and formatting.
When everything is tagged, press Start. Your transcript opens on the Cleanup page, and you are ready to work.