Video editing
Fix the recording without recording it again.
Every take has a false start, a notification, or a dock in the corner that should not be in it. Trim, split, crop and adjust in the same place the recording already lives — and the link you shared updates with it.
No export, no render · the share link never changes
Trusted by 5m+ people who would rather show than tell
How do I edit a screen recording?
Open the recording in your Zight library, where the editing controls sit beside the share link. Trim the ends, split out anything in the middle, crop the frame to remove the dock or browser tabs, and adjust contrast or exposure if the picture needs it. There is no export: the link you already shared shows the edited version.
Step by step
Five steps, and most recordings need two of them
In order of how often they are actually used. Nobody colour-grades a bug report, and nobody sends a recording with four seconds of silence at the front either.
-
1
Open the recording in Zight
Every recording lands in your library, so there is no export, import or file to find first. Open it and the editing controls are on the same screen as the share link.
-
2
Trim the ends, then cut the middle
Drag the handles in from each end for the throat-clearing, then split out anything in the middle you would rather nobody watched.
-
3
Crop out what should not be in frame
The dock, the tab bar, the second monitor, the customer name in the window title. Faster than blurring it and it cannot be undone by a viewer.
-
4
Fix the picture if it needs it
Contrast and clarity for small text, exposure for a dark theme. A minute here beats recording the whole thing again.
-
5
Share the same link
The URL does not change when you edit. Anyone you already sent it to sees the new version, which is the part that makes editing after sending worth doing at all.
The tools
What the editor actually does
Enough to make a take sendable. Not a timeline, not compositing — the edits that stand between a recording and someone else watching it.
Trim
Take the false start off the front and the "…is that recording?" off the end. It is the edit almost every recording needs and the only one most need.
Split
Cut the middle out — the notification that popped up, the tab you should not have opened. Split a clip into two or more parts, and any colour work you have done still applies across all of them.
Merge
Put split clips back together, or join separate takes into one. Also the undo for a split you regret.
Crop
Cut the frame down to the part that matters, or to an aspect ratio you need. This is also how the status bar, dock and browser tabs stop being in the video — usually the difference between a recording you can send and one you cannot.
Rotate and scale
Turn the frame left or right, flip it, or scale it so attention lands on the process rather than on each individual click.
Colour and fine-tuning
Contrast, saturation, exposure, temperature, gamma and clarity. Recorded against a dim monitor or a washed-out theme, this is what makes small text legible instead of re-recording the whole thing.
Why it matters
The link does not change when the video does
Most editing tools produce a new file, which means re-uploading it and re-sending it to everyone who already has the old one. Here the recording is a URL: fix it an hour after you sent it and the person opening the link gets the fixed version, with the transcript and chapters regenerated to match.
Editing, before and after the recording
FAQ
Questions people ask first
Open the recording in your Zight library and the editing controls are on the same page as the share link: trim the ends, split out the middle, crop the frame, and adjust contrast or exposure if the picture needs it. There is no export step — the link you already shared shows the edited version.
Yes, and this is the useful part. The share link stays the same, so an edit reaches everyone you already sent it to. Spotting a mistake after sending stops being a reason to re-record and re-send.
Editing is part of the product rather than a separate paid tool, and the free plan covers screen recording with recordings up to five minutes. Unlimited recording time starts on the Create plan.
Yes — split the clip either side of the part you want gone and remove it. Colour adjustments carry across every split, so you do not have to redo them per segment.
Yes, and it is the most common edit after trimming. Crop the frame down to the application you are demonstrating, which also removes whatever was in your tab titles.
No, and deliberately not. There is no timeline with multiple tracks, no compositing and no effects — it is the set of edits a recording needs before it is sendable. If you are producing a course, a production tool is the right shape for that job.
Record it once, fix it after.
Free on Mac, Windows, Chrome and iOS. Trim, crop, adjust — and the link stays the same.