Text-Based Editing in DaVinci Resolve: How It Works

In Summary DaVinci Resolve Studio lets you edit video by selecting words. Transcribe a clip, open the Transcription window, highlight a line, and Resolve sets the In and Out points for you; one click inserts or appends it to the timeline. A Timeline mode lets you cut, paste and delete text to rearrange a cut, and IntelliScript builds a timeline from a script. Blackmagic marks the features it all depends on (Audio Transcription, Text-Based Video Editing, Detect Speakers and IntelliScript) "Studio Version Only". The free version does not have them.

The short answer

Yes, DaVinci Resolve has text-based editing, in DaVinci Resolve Studio. Right-click your clips in the Media Pool, choose AI Tools > Audio Transcription > Transcribe, then open the Transcription window and drag across the words you want. The highlighted text becomes the clip's In and Out range, and the Place on Top, Insert and Append buttons edit it into your timeline.

Blackmagic's Resolve 21 Reference Manual covers this in chapter 47, "Text Based Editing". It labels Audio Transcription, Detect Speakers, IntelliScript and Text-Based Video Editing each as "Studio Version Only". Blackmagic's Resolve product page lists "text based editing" among what Studio adds over the free version.

Below is the whole workflow in the current version, the three modes and when to use each, and the places where the tool behaves differently from what most editors expect.

Which tool for which job

Resolve's text tools do four different jobs. Pick by what you are trying to do.

Text-based video editing works in both the Cut and Edit pages. Transcription itself starts from the Media Pool on the Media, Cut, Edit and Fairlight pages.

Step 1: Transcribe the clips

1. Select the clips with dialogue in the Media Pool.
2. Right-click and choose AI Tools > Audio Transcription > Transcribe, or click the Transcribe Audio icon in the Media Pool toolbar.

The Transcribing Audio window shows how many clips are left, the speed against real time and the time remaining. A transcribed clip gets a small speech balloon icon in the lower left of its thumbnail.

Set the language first if it is not English. The manual puts it at Project Settings > Subtitle and Transcription > Transcription Setup, where you can pick a language model or leave it on Auto. Fourteen languages are built in. Many more, from Afrikaans to Welsh, come with the Extended AI Transcription Support Package in the Extras Downloads Manager. Transcription Setup also has an Enable Extended Language Support box for languages not on the list, and the manual says that feature "is currently in beta".

If more than one person speaks, turn on speaker detection before you transcribe: right-click and choose AI Tools > Audio Transcription > Speaker Detection. It is a project setting, so it stays on for every later transcription. Resolve remembers each voice across the project, so a speaker you named yesterday is recognised in today's clips. Double-click "Speaker 1" in the window to rename them everywhere.

Step 2: Fix the transcript before you cut

Open the Transcription window by right-clicking a transcribed clip and choosing Transcribe Audio, or with the toolbar icon. Select a word with a double-click, a sentence by clicking a word and pressing X, a paragraph with a triple-click.

Right-click the selection for five tools: Edit, Delete, Undelete, Copy and Assign To. Use Edit to fix a misheard word or a name. Keep it to small corrections. The manual warns that "radically altering the text, such as replacing an entire paragraph with a two or three word summary will have unpredictable effects if used for editing."

Step 3: Cut by selecting text

This is the core of text-based editing in Resolve. The cursor in the transcript and the playhead in the Viewer are linked:

• Click a word and the playhead jumps to the end of that word.
• Drag across text and the In point lands just before the first word, the Out point just after the last.
• Click a word and press X to set In and Out around the whole sentence.

With a range highlighted, use the buttons at the lower right of the window:

• Place on Top puts the range on a track above the selected one.
• Insert edits it in at the timeline In point.
• Append adds it to the end of the timeline.

At the lower left, Create Subclip turns the range into a named subclip, and Marker drops a marker on a word or a duration marker on a range. Both are a quick way to log selects before you build anything.

The interview shortcut: remove the silences

Resolve shows pauses in the transcript as an ellipsis (…), and treats them like words. Click Remove Silent Portions (next to the font controls, or in the Option menu), select the range, and edit it in. You get the interview laid down as separate question-and-answer clips, with the gaps already gone.

Step 4: Rearrange a cut in Timeline mode

Clip mode feeds a timeline. Timeline Transcription mode edits one. Click the Timeline icon at the top of the Transcription window. (The manual's text puts it in the upper left and its caption in the upper right; it is in the window's header either way.)

In this mode, Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete are mirrored to the timeline. To move a sentence earlier: select it, right-click and choose Cut. The sentence leaves a silence (…) behind. Click where it should go and choose Paste. Then select the leftover silence and choose Delete to close the hole.

The catch: every clip on the timeline must be transcribed in the Media Pool first. If you add a clip that is not, the window flags it "Transcription Pending". Choose Transcribe Missing Clips in Timeline from the Option menu to catch up.

Step 5 (scripted work): IntelliScript

IntelliScript arrived in DaVinci Resolve 20. Give it a script and it builds the scene for you.

1. Save the script as plain text (.txt) or Final Draft (.fdx), with only the spoken lines and a full stop after each sentence. Scene headings, parentheticals and character names "will likely cause transcription issues".
2. Select the clips, right-click and choose AI Tools > Create New Timeline Using IntelliScript.
3. Load the script file and press Open.

Resolve puts the best take of each line on track one, in script order, and the alternate takes on separate tracks, disabled. You turn alternates on where you prefer them. The manual says what "best" means here: IntelliScript "chooses the 'best' take by matching the spoken dialog only." It does not read good-take metadata or judge performance.

Where it trips editors up

• Delete does not delete. In clip mode, Delete marks the text in orange with a strike-through. The words stay in the window, and the range is skipped when you edit or export. The manual calls it closer to an "exclude" operation. Undelete reverses it.
• There is no Paste in clip mode. Copy copies the text for use in other applications. Moving lines around is a Timeline mode job.
• Timeline mode needs Media Pool transcripts. The manual's rule is that the clips on the timeline must be transcribed in the Media Pool. Transcribe the source clips before you switch modes.
• SRT imports need matching timecode. You can bring a transcript in with Import Subtitles (clip only) from the Option menu. The clip's timecode must match the .srt file's, or the text will not line up.
• Export with speakers and timecode is Studio-only. In Studio, the .txt export includes speaker names and timecode for each block.

What it will not do

• It is not in the free version. Audio Transcription, Text-Based Video Editing, Detect Speakers and IntelliScript are each marked Studio Version Only, and every other tool here works on a Studio transcript.
• It does not choose your soundbites. You read, select and place each one. IntelliScript is the exception, and only for scripted dialogue.
• It does not judge takes. IntelliScript matches words, not performance.
• Transcripts are not captions. For subtitles, Blackmagic points you to the separate Create Subtitles from Audio tool, also Studio-only.

When the transcript is the long part

Resolve's tools make you faster once you know what to pull. On a day of interviews, finding it is the slow part. That is the job Eddie AI takes on before the cut goes back to Resolve.

Through the Eddie extension, Eddie reads clips, multicams and timelines from Resolve, logs the interviews and b-roll, and builds the rough cut from a chat. You can search every transcript in the project for a phrase, a topic or a speaker. Eddie builds an edit from soundbites you name by quoted text or time range, with a target length. A misheard word can be corrected without losing the word timings, and spoken content can be marked as removed and restored later. The timeline then returns to Resolve with the media relinked, for colour, sound and titles.

The step-by-step version is in how to edit interviews in DaVinci Resolve with AI. For the same question in other editors, see Premiere Pro text-based editing vs Eddie AI and editing by transcript in Final Cut Pro. To find shots by what is in the picture rather than what is said, Resolve has IntelliSearch.

FAQ

Does DaVinci Resolve free have text-based editing?

No. Blackmagic's Resolve 21 manual marks Audio Transcription and Text-Based Video Editing as "Studio Version Only", and its product page lists text based editing as a Studio addition.

Where is the Transcription window in Resolve?

Transcribe a clip first, then right-click it in the Media Pool and choose Transcribe Audio, or click the Transcribe Audio icon in the Media Pool toolbar. The window can be moved anywhere, even to a second monitor.

Can I edit a timeline by deleting words in Resolve?

Yes, in Timeline Transcription mode. Selecting text and choosing Delete removes that range from the timeline. In the default clip mode, Delete only excludes the words from later edits.

What is IntelliScript in DaVinci Resolve?

A Studio tool, added in Resolve 20, that builds a timeline from a plain-text or Final Draft script. It places the best-matching take of each line on track one and alternates on disabled tracks below.

Which languages does Resolve transcribe?

Built in: Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish. The Extended AI Transcription Support Package in the Extras Downloads Manager adds many more; the manual says extended language support is currently in beta.

Can Resolve detect who is speaking?

Yes, in Studio. Turn on Speaker Detection before transcribing. Resolve numbers each voice, remembers it across the project, and lets you rename speakers or reassign a line with Assign To.

Sources

• Blackmagic Design, DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual (July 2026): chapter 47 Text Based Editing, pp. 1017–1033; chapter 35 Fast Editing in the Cut Page, p. 734; chapter 18 Using Clip Metadata, p. 423; chapter 6 Project Settings, p. 165. Checked 2026-11-06.
• Blackmagic Design, DaVinci Resolve: Edit. Checked 2026-11-06.
• Blackmagic Design, DaVinci Resolve product page, DaVinci Resolve Studio comparison. Checked 2026-11-06.