How to edit a video with QuickTime Player on Mac

Did you know you can use QuickTime Player on Mac for more than just watching movies? If you need to make changes to your videos, here’s how to edit movies with QuickTime Player.

QuickTime Player on Mac

While there isn’t a wide range of robust video editing tools in QuickTime, there are a few handy ones for quick changes.

You can rotate or trim movies, split a movie into clips and rearrange them, and add another movie or clip to the video. So if you’re ready for a little movie editing magic, here’s how to edit a movie with QuickTime Player on Mac.

Related: 17 things you can do with QuickTime Player on Mac

Rotate or flip a movie

Rotating or flipping a movie in QuickTime is one of the easiest edits to make, so that’s where we’ll begin our tutorial.

With your video open in QuickTime Player, click Edit > Rotate Left or Rotate Right. You can use the same action again to turn your movie upside down if needed. Or, use the Flip tool.

To flip your movie, click Edit > Flip Horizontal or Flip Vertical.

Rotate or flip a movie in QuickTime Player on Mac

Trim a movie

Trimming a video in QuickTime is another simple edit. You may want to remove the beginning or end, or just shorten the movie.

1) Click Edit > Trim from the menu bar.

2) Use the handles on either side to drag the part of the movie you want to trim out. The remaining part of your movie will remain in yellow. Anything outside the yellow will be removed.

3) When you finish, click Trim.

QuickTime Trim Movie Mac

Split and rearrange clips

If you want to split your movie into individual clips, you can do this pretty easily. And then you can rearrange those clips if you like.

Split clips

Use one of these methods to split your movie into clips.

1) Press the Play button to go to the part of your movie where you want the split and then Pause it.

2) Click Edit > Split Clip from the menu bar.

3) You’ll see the Playhead (red line) indicating the split. So if you want to make more splits, drag that red line where you want the split and then perform Step 2 again.

QuickTime Split Clips Mac

Rearrange clips

Once you split your movie into clips, rearranging those clips is simple. Select a clip that will highlight it in yellow, and then drag it where you want it in the movie.

Click Done at any point to finish splitting or rearranging clips.

Add movies or clips

You may want to add another movie or video clip that you have saved to your current one. You can do this a couple of ways too.

Add a clip to the end

If you haven’t split your movie into clips, you can simply add another at the end. Click Edit > Add Clip to End from the menu bar.

QuickTime Add Clip to End Mac

Browse for the file, select it, and click Choose Media.

Insert clip after selection

If you have split your movie into clips, you can add another after a specific clip. Click the clip to select it; again, this will highlight it in yellow. Then, click Edit > Insert Clip After Selection.

QuickTime Insert Clip After Selection Mac

Browse for the file, select it, and click Choose Media.

Remove audio or video

If you have a movie with sound, you can remove the audio and just save the video, or vice versa.

Click Edit > Remove Audio or Remove Video from the menu bar.

Remove Audio or Video using QuickTime on Mac

QuickTime Player works well for simple edits like these and can save you a few bucks if you don’t need a fancy video editor.

Have you tried the editing tools in QuickTime on Mac yet? If so, were they enough to accomplish what you wanted? If not, are you now going to give them a try?

Check out next: How to rotate, straighten, crop, trim, and flip a video on iPhone or iPad