Combining spoken word & video clips in the Timeline
The timeline is the area in ScreenFlow where your voice, text, video & music clips are arranged. This page will give you tips & tricks on how to arrange those clips. We will even tell you how to make the music soften automatically every time a voice speaks.
Summary of the timeline
Here is a 2 minute summary of this page in video form.
Arranging voice clips in the timeline
To begin making voice clips:
- Click on the camera icon at the top of the page.
- Click Configure Recording.
- Uncheck the Record Computer Audio box.
- Check the Record Audio From box.
- Choose the audio device you will be using.
- Speak the script of your video into the microphone.
- Save it.
After your video clip has been added to the timeline, break your 
voice clip into many smaller voice clips. You will do that one at a time. Align them with the appropriate video clips. The voice clips will often have spaces between them to allow the listener to absorb the message. I usually leave about a second between voice clips.
If the message is really important, repeat the voice message in different words. In such a case, the video clip may be shorter than the corresponding voice clip. So, you will have to add a freeze frame to extend it beyond the voice clip.
Freeze frame
A freeze frame will be a frame without movement that is added to the end of a video clip. To create a freeze frame, use the steps below.
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- Select the frames to the right of the point where you want to have your freeze frame. Drag them to the right to make room for your freeze frame.
- Right click on the frame and click on Add Freeze Frame.
- Click on the clip to the right of your new freeze frame.
- Delete it like you see in the Freeze Frame animated GIF.
- If necessary, hover over the right end of your freeze frame to size it correctly.
- Select clips to the right your freeze frame and drag them back again.
- In order to select and drag them, it may be necessary to slide the Zoom button at the bottom of your timeline.
Shorten a video clip
When you make a freeze frame, you want to make a video clip last longer. However, sometimes you may want to make it finish more quickly.
In that case, you would click on the gear icon in the lower left-hand corner and click on Show Clip Inspector. Then reduce the speed to a lesser number of seconds.
Text
When you add text to your ScreenFlow timeline, it must be ABOVE the video clips. Otherwise, they will not be visible. These are the steps for adding text to your video:
- Click on the T icon in the upper right-hand corner.
- Click the plus sign.
- Key in the text you want into the Text box.
- Use the panel on the right to change the text with font type, size, colour, alignment, backdrop or whatever you want.
- Drag the text to wherever you want it on your screen.
Music
Videos are usually much better to watch if music has been added. If you are going to use you video on YouTube, they have tens of thousands of free music and sound effect clips available. Go to youtube.com/audiolibrary. You can also find free music at bit.ly/musicfreemusic.
Once your music is on your timeline, you will want to soften it while someone is speaking. This process is called audio ducking. These are the steps for using audio ducking:
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- Highlight voice clips that are to remain loud
- Move scrubber (the vertical red line) to beginning of first voice clip
- Click on audio properties icon
- Check ducking box
- Move slider to a quiet enough number such as 14. That represents background sound volume
- Click on + Action > OK
- Highlight the music clips.
- Move scrubber to beginning
- Set the volume to, say, 35 and click on Action > OK.
Watch your video at least once to make sure the volume is not too loud.- When you check your volume, the background music may be too loud.
- The above instructions tell you to try around 19%. Try different numbers such as 10%.
- If the music drowns out some of the voice clips, look at the point where the music is the loudest and try different volumes significantly lower than 35%.
- Note that the 19% and the 35% may not work for you. The determinant factors are the original volume of the voice clips and the music clips.
- Note that the yellow strip has to be deleted before making a volume change. The strip at the beginning of the voice clips will be green. It too will have to be deleted before you can make a volume change to the voice clip section.