Regardless of having a easy consumer interface, many customers nonetheless discover the CapCut video editor on desktop exhausting to make use of, particularly for first-time customers. Like many different video modifying apps, to maintain the interface easy, CapCut makes use of icons for many of its superior options to maintain the consumer expertise easy and higher utilise the house.
Because of this, many first-time customers, particularly on desktop, who’ve by no means used superior instruments like frames and multi-layer modifying, discovered the video modifying app overwhelming to make use of at first.
If you’re a newbie or somebody who’s getting began with CapCut for the primary time, it’s extremely advisable to undergo this information to know what the totally different icons imply on the CapCut desktop.
CapCut Desktop Icons and Interface Defined: The Full Newbie’s Information
Understanding what icons and labels imply in CapCut will help you perceive the operate of every instrument and what it does, in order that sooner or later, you don’t really feel misplaced and overwhelmed by the interface, and make your video modifying workflow simple and easy.
Contemplating a lot of you is likely to be novices and even first-time customers of CapCut desktop, I made this information tremendous beginner-friendly and even included a PDF to your reference.
You can even bookmark this internet web page and revisit it should you don’t know something in regards to the image. With that in thoughts, let’s go to every interface and let me clarify what varied icons and symbols imply on the CapCut desktop app.
CapCut Video Editor Desktop Legend and Icons Information

I’ve divided this interface into a number of sub-interfaces, and I’ll clarify what symbols and icons imply within the sub-interfaces first.
CapCut Foremost Interface: Import and High Toolbar Icons
The highest toolbar is the place you may add totally different property to your movies, and it’s the most-used toolbar within the CapCut video modifying app on the desktop. What icons and symbols imply to make it less complicated for you, CapCut additionally has a textual content beneath every icon that can assist you simply perceive and differentiate between the icons, symbols, and their features.
- Media (Set by Default): First is a media chosen by default, which lets you import movies, photographs, and audio information into the undertaking timeline. You may see all of the imported information beneath the interface. You may even kind and alter their look and search out of your imported information.
- Audio: Subsequent is audio, adopted by media. You’ll find and add totally different music tracks to your video timeline, together with music, sound results, extract audio from movies, and even embrace music out of your model. It additionally comes with a helpful copyright examine, which lets you examine the copyright of the audio utilized in your movies, particularly helpful for YouTube creators.
- Textual content: Right here you may entry all of the textual content, subtitles, and preset templates you may add to your video clips. You can even generate captions and import native captions from right here.
- Stickers: You may add totally different animated and static stickers and emojis to your movies. You can even import and save model stickers from right here.
- Results: Because the title suggests, right here you may add totally different video results to your movies, together with glitter, sparkles, blur, and extra.
- Transitions: Subsequent is a transition the place you may embrace totally different results between the video clips. CapCut presents loads of transitions by default. You may hook up with the web, obtain them, save them to your undertaking, and use them between the video clips.
- Filters: Filter permits you to add totally different filters, apply totally different colors, matches, and tone changes to your movies.
- Changes: You may additional edit video clips, brightness, distinction, saturation, and different visible parameters, and all of your changes are current right here.
- Loading Search: Loading button within the search bar signifies that your media information are at the moment being loaded into your CapCut video library.
- Kind/Format Toggle: After getting imported all of your work information, you may additional change and entry them by switching between grid view and record view of property, and in addition kind these property by sort, date, and information.
CapCut Desktop: Video Preview Controls
CapCut presents a small video participant on the highest, on the left, to preview the video timeline, edits, and edge out the video show. We are able to additionally resize and regulate the scale of the participant from the resizing builder. It additionally comes with helpful controls and what they imply.
- Sound Preview: You may play the audio or music in your movies within the waveform.
- Play or Pause the Video Preview: You may play or pause your video preview in real-time.
- Match to Display: Utilizing this icon, you may improve or lower the zoom in your movies. In different phrases, you may regulate the preview to suit contained in the display window of the consumer whereas enjoying the video.
- Side Ratio: CapCut Desktop permits you to create movies in several facet ratios. Utilizing this icon, you may swap the video and think about the video in several facet ratios, together with 16:9, 9:16, and 1:1.
- Full Display Preview: Preview the video in full display for last visible outcomes.
- Extra Choices: Tapping on the three horizontal menu on the highest presents further choices, together with the colour of the telescope and increasing the body paint. You may take an image of the present body and put it aside in your machine.
CapCut Desktop Video Modifying Sidebar: Instruments & Icons Which means
When you get the previous preview tab, you get your video modifying sidebar with additional choices to edit your movies.
This panel seems when you choose any video/audio/textual content clip in your timeline. Right here you may management varied components of the video clip, together with alignment, positioning, dimension, and properties of the video clip. Right here, use these icons and the varied image names within the video tab icon features.
- Alignment Instruments: These are alignment instruments that permit you to regulate your clip place beginning with the left, heart, proper, prime, center, after which lastly backside.
- Reset Choices: When you allow totally different settings and mess them up, you may simply reset to the unique settings by clicking on the reset icon.
- Keyframe: Keyframe is part of extra superior video modifying that lets it change the component or the property within the video based mostly on time. It contains each the beginning and finish factors. Most typical examples for keyframes are place monitoring, the place you may change the place of the component from the beginning level to the top level, you may consider it as an animation to maneuver the thing between two factors. You can even add keyframes for various settings, equivalent to zoom, transfer, texture object on the display, fade, fade out, apply filters, and morph between two factors. CapCut additionally permits you to add keyframes with that diamond icon. It lets you choose the beginning and finish factors of the animation. If you’re a newbie, I extremely advocate you watch this video to get extra details about what keyframes are and the way they work.
- Distribute Horizontally: Distribute horizontally permits you to align totally different components horizontally within the video body.
- Distribute Vertically: Much like the above, distribute permits you to align totally different components within the video vertically.
Timeline Icons & Toolbar Symbols Which means
One other main timeline in CapCut is the timeline, icons, and meanings, which play nearly all of position in controlling your video clips.
It’s accessible within the centre and at the moment divided into two elements, each left and proper, not like different toolbars, icons right here don’t have any textual content, making them one of the vital complicated icons to know for novices. Here’s what every icon means within the CapCut video timeline and its operate.
- Choose Device: The choose instrument is the default. It’s chosen by default. The arrow mark signifies which you could faucet on any components and choose them. You may faucet on it and alter the default choice into cut up mode choice and left mode choice. Every has totally different features.
- Undo: That is known as the undo button. It’s the most helpful and in addition largely utilized in video modifying. It helps you to reverse your edit into your video clips.
- Redo: The redo button is obtainable when you undo any modifications. Unintentionally, should you rapidly reverse the modifications by clicking on this icon.
- Break up: Break up permits you to cut up the timeline into two totally different elements.
- Break up and Delete Left: Break up and delete left icon helps you to cut up the timeline of your video clip and delete the left time to save lots of you a while. It’s indicated by dotted traces for the left video clip.
- Break up and Delete Proper: Much like the cut up and delete left icon, the cut up and delete proper permits you to cut up the video clip into two elements and delete the precise clip fully.
- Delete: Delete permits you to fully take away the clip from the timeline.
- Add a Marker: Add a marker so as to add any marks to the video clip.
- Freeze: The freeze icon permits you to freeze a particular body within the video, click on and cut up the body into two clips, and freeze the body within the center. If you need, you may develop the center body.
- Reverse: Since it’s superior, CapCut permits you to reverse the video clip. You may choose the clip and click on on the reverse icon, and it’ll reverse the video clip.
- Mirror: The icon helps you to mirror the video clip you could have chosen.
- Rotate: Subsequent is the rotate icon, which lets you rotate the video clip in all 4 instructions within the anti-clockwise path.
- Crop Ratio: The crop ratio permits you to crop a particular portion of the video clip.
- Transcript Characteristic: The transcript characteristic is similar to the captions, which lets you convert the video into audio and add that to the video. It additionally contains every other sounds within the video.
- Break up Screens: The cut up display characteristic permits you to cut up the display robotically for the chosen clip. It makes use of AI and robotically splits the clip into a number of clips within the video. That is helpful, particularly if you wish to make modifications to the person clips.
Which means of icons on the precise facet
- Microphone: The microphone icon on the precise facet permits you to report video and voice over to your video clips. Moreover, it additionally permits you to choose the enter machine quantity and apply noise discount and extra options whereas recording the audio to your video clips.
- Flip off/on Foremost observe Magnet: The flip off/on primary observe magnet permits you to stick two clips collectively robotically in case you are working with a number of video clips. It may be very helpful based mostly in your use case. As an illustration, if the primary observe magnet is turned off, the second video clip sticks proper subsequent to the primary one robotically. When you flip off this characteristic, you may place the second clip wherever you need by providing a niche between them. The hole will seem as a black display within the last video.
- Autosnapping: Whereas the flip off primary observe magnet is relevant for less than the primary video timeline, the auto snapping characteristic permits you to robotically regulate all different clips, together with audio, results, subtitles, and secondary video gamers. For instance, when the auto snapping is turned on, the music on the textual content snaps begins at first of the video and matches the preview, and when it’s turned off, you may place them wherever in your timeline. Each options are related, permitting you to regulate totally different components.
- Flip off/on Linkage: The turn-on and off linkage permits you to stick a number of objects and delete them unexpectedly when wanted. For instance, if the turn-on hyperlink is enabled once you transfer the video, the music related to will probably be moved, and whether it is turned on, you may transfer the music alone and maintain the clip in the identical place.
- Flip off/on Preview Axis: Turning off/on the preview axis permits you to preview the video that you’ve got already edited once you transfer the mouse via the video clip. It robotically previews a video for you. You can even choose each video and audio to preview.
- Zoom to suit timeline: The zoom to suit timeline robotically matches all of your video clips to your present display to see all of your progress, and all of your video clips directly, with no need to scroll left and proper.
- Zoom in: So as to add flexibility, you may also zoom in and zoom out of the timeline. The final two symbols on the scroll bar allow you to do this.
CapCut Timeline Observe Symbols
CapCut observe timeline permits you to management particular person video clips within the timeline; These settings permit you to observe management icons like audio, lock, eye, and others, and extra. These are positioned on the left facet bar.
- The TI icon (on this case): The TI icon represents textual content. It represents the kind of media timeline. It reveals the video symbols for the video clips, TI for textual content, music for the audio, and extra.
- Lock: The lock image permits you to lock the time from making any modifications or edits to it. You may lock and unlock particular video clips, textual content, or any components within the timeline anytime.
- Eye: The attention image helps you to disable some components of the tracks within the timeline. You can even use it to preview modifications and declutter your expertise when you are modifying within the timeline.
CapCut High Toolbar: Symbols and Icons Defined
The toolbar hosts some vital settings of the CapCut video modifying bar and in addition will get you to entry the video editor shortcuts with no need to examine elsewhere. Here’s what these symbols imply.
- Home windows icon: The Home windows icon helps you to change the location of the totally different home windows for the CapCut video editor. It comes with default presets, together with default, media, and attributes, and in addition helps you to reset the structure to the default. When you don’t, you may substitute any home windows within the CapCut and substitute them and resize, and in addition make the window a separate window. You may seize the window and place it wherever on the display.
- Shortcuts: Subsequent, because the title suggests, the shortcuts permit you to view all of the shortcuts in a single place.
- Share: You may export and share the video modifying.
- Export: Lastly, you may export the video with totally different settings.
Export Display: Symbols and Settings Defined
Lastly, the export tab helps you to edit and export the video you could have created. Not like different tabs, the export tab doesn’t have any symbols, and it utilises the house nicely and contains all of the textual content icons that can assist you perceive. Nonetheless, in case you are new to video modifying, some superior choices would possibly confuse you; here’s what they imply.
- AI Extremely HD: The AI Extremely HD choice upscales the video decision utilizing AI. It wants an web connection, and the outcomes have been considerably higher within the last output, as I examined with a number of movies whereas exporting.
- Bit charge: Bit charge controls the video high quality and the scale of the video. The upper the bitrate, the higher the video will likely be.
- Codec: Codec is the strategy used to compress the video for optimized sharing throughout totally different platforms. If you’re exporting it for social media, the default setting is H.264. Relying in your use case and the platform you need to share the video on, you may choose totally different bitrates.
- Format: The format of the video. MP4 is about by default. You may change the export of your video into a number of codecs.
- Framerate: The variety of frames per second. 30fps is probably the most advisable. You can even set it to 60 for smoother movies, however it will increase the video file dimension when you are exporting.
- Sync exported movies to the house: When enabled, this feature will save the exported video to your CapCut cloud, so you may edit and export it into different movies utilizing the CapCut account on different gadgets.
- Video symbols on the left facet of the length: It merely represents the length of the video.
- Folder: You may choose a particular folder to save lots of the video into.
I’ve been modifying movies for the final seven years, however I’m not aware of superior modifying instruments like Adobe and even DaVinci. I at all times discovered this too complicated to make use of and requires a number of studying curve to make even easy edits.
So, more often than not, I depend on fundamental video modifying apps like Filmora for desktop and fundamental cellular video modifying apps to edit movies, regardless of having a complicated video editor. That is the place CapCut has provided precisely what I wanted, and to be sincere, it has modified the sport for me endlessly.
It’s no brainer that CapCut, owned by TikTok, has gained thousands and thousands of customers month-to-month and is a well-liked participant like Adobe when it comes to market share. CapCut has solved the most important consumer ache level. The present most superior video modifying apps are too complicated, costly, and heavy for informal customers.
Because of CapCut. It provided an answer that’s not solely light-weight and straightforward to make use of with trendy options, but in addition a lot of the options are free to make use of in comparison with the paid, costly alternate options.
I began utilizing CapCut in 2023, and since then, it has turn into my go-to video modifying app for each cellular and desktop. If you’re on cellular, you may also strive Instagram Edits. It’s additional simplified than CapCut. I’ve an in depth comparability. I lately in contrast CapCut with the Instagram Edits cellular editor. You can even examine it in case you are searching for an easy-to-use video editor app for cellular.
You may bookmark this information to view it everytime you get caught with the symbols you don’t know. I hope you discover this information useful. If in case you have any points, you may remark beneath, and we’ll attempt to reply.