# The studio at a glance

> The five areas of the studio, what each one is for, and how the same editor looks on a phone.

https://driftedit.app/manual/studio/

The studio has five areas. Once you know them, every other chapter is easy to follow.

![The studio, with the five areas: the top bar, the panels on the left, the viewer, the inspector and the timeline](https://driftedit.app/manual/shots/studio-light.webp)

*The five areas of the studio*

## The top bar
Along the top, from left to right:

- **The menus**: **File**, **Edit**, **Clip**, **Sequence**, **View** and **Help**. Every command in the studio is in one of them, with its key beside it.
- **The project's name**. Click it to rename the project. Beside it, **Saved** says your work is stored on this device; it saves by itself as you work.
- **The plan**: **Free** or **Pro**. On the free plan, the time before the project locks is shown here (see [Projects, files and your account](https://driftedit.app/manual/projects/)).
- **MCP**: connects an AI agent to the studio (see [Working with an AI agent](https://driftedit.app/manual/agents/)).
- **Project file**: saves the project as a file, or opens one.
- **Export**: makes the finished video.
- **The theme** (System, Dark, Light or High contrast) and **your account**.

## The panels on the left
A column of icons, the rail, opens one panel at a time, in the order work usually goes:

| Panel | What it holds |
| --- | --- |
| **Media** | Your imported videos, photos and songs, in folders. |
| **Auto** | Auto mode: a song, a style and a length make an edit. |
| **Text** | Text styles and animations for titles. |
| **Transitions** | Transitions to put on a cut between two clips. |
| **Effects** | Effects and looks for a clip, and the VFX. |
| **Overlays** | Light leaks, grain, frames, 3D scenes and overlays of your own. |
| **Techniques** | An editor's moves applied in one press, and still frames. |
| **Captions** | Captions from speech or a file, their style, and an AI voice. |
| **Library** | Sound effects, beats and stickers, free to use. |
| **Templates** | Ready edits with places for your own clips. |

Most of what a panel holds works the same way: click it to apply it to what is selected, or drag it onto the timeline. An effect goes on a clip, a transition on a cut, a text style makes a title, and a template opens a window where you choose what fills it.

## The viewer
In the middle, the picture at the playhead. Under it:

- **Play**, and the buttons to step a frame or a beat back and forward. `Space` plays and pauses.
- **Loop**: plays the part between the in and out points again and again.
- **Proxy**: playback uses a lighter copy of each video so it stays smooth; the full picture is shown whenever you pause. Turn it off to play the original.
- The project's size and frame rate, to change them.

Above it, the shape of the video (16:9, 9:16, 4:5, 1:1) and **Safe areas**, which shows where a phone app's buttons and captions would cover the picture.

Click a picture, a title or an overlay in the viewer to choose it, then drag it to move it, drag its corners to scale it, or turn it from its handle. On a phone, use two fingers.

## The inspector
On the right, everything about what is selected: a clip's position, scale, rotation, opacity, crop and blend in **Video** (and a title's words and look, under **Text**); its speed in **Speed**; its keyframes in **Animate**; its effects in **Adjust**; its sound in **Audio**. Select a sound track's head and the inspector shows the track's EQ.

A slider's value sits in a field beside it: click the field to type a value, or drag it sideways (Shift for ten times as far, Alt for a tenth). The same goes for the sliders in the style editor, the teleprompter, Draw and the other windows.

Every value with a diamond beside it can change over time: see [Keyframes, speed and motion](https://driftedit.app/manual/keyframes/).

## The timeline
At the bottom, the edit itself: tracks of pictures, sound and text, left to right in time. The ruler along the top shows time, or the song's bars when its beats are known; the white line is the playhead. The toolbar above holds the tools, snapping, markers, the in and out points and the zoom. [The timeline](https://driftedit.app/manual/timeline/) explains all of it.

## On a phone
The same studio, arranged for touch: the viewer at the top, the timeline below it, and a bar of actions at the bottom that opens the panels and the inspector as sheets. Long-press anything for its menu, pinch the timeline to zoom it, and drag the ruler to scroll.

> [!TIP] Make the layout your own
> Drag the borders between the areas to make them bigger or smaller. Drag the bottom edge of a track's head to make that track taller. The studio remembers both.