How to edit videos fast: Time-saving tips & batch workflows in Premiere.

Text-based editing.

Working with several media files, long footages, and multiple shots can be tedious. With Premiere’s text-based editing, you can significantly trim down your editing time. Text-based editing means that the software automatically transcribes your video’s dialogue and lets you edit directly from the transcript, without the need to manually scrub through the timeline to find a soundbite.

For example, when editing a 10-minute vlog for YouTube, you can simply delete unwanted lines from the transcript, and Premiere will remove the corresponding video clips automatically.

Here’s how:

1. Open Premiere.
2. Import footage and make a new sequence.
3. Open Window > Text > Transcript.
4. Click Create Transcription, pick your audio track and language, then Transcribe.
5. When the transcript appears, highlight any sentence you don’t want and press Delete. Premiere automatically removes that portion of the video on the timeline.
6. Drag lines of text to reorder moments if needed.
7. Play back the result and fine-tune cuts.

Auto captioning.

Captions aren’t just an accessibility feature. They’re an engagement booster. With auto captioning in Premiere, you can instantly generate subtitles through speech-to-text transcriptions. AI automatically detects speech and syncs captions with perfect timing. You can then style them using branded templates to maintain a consistent look across your YouTube, Instagram, and other social media channels.

Here’s how:

1. Import your media into Premiere.
2. In the top menu, select Captions > Create Captions from Transcript.
3. In the Create Captions dialog box, customise your settings:
   • Caption Preset: Choose a ready-made style or use Subtitle (Default).
   • Format: Pick your caption format (e.g., Subtitles or Broadcast).
   • Style: Apply a saved caption style for consistent fonts and colours.
   • Length, Duration, Gap: Adjust how long each caption appears and the spacing between them.
   • Lines: Choose single-line or two-line captions.
4. Click Create Captions. Premiere automatically generates captions aligned with your dialogue.

Once your captions are created, Premiere also lets you auto translate them into multiple languages. This is perfect for reaching audiences across India and worldwide. With just a few clicks, your subtitles can appear in the language of your choice, helping boost engagement, accessibility, and viewer retention without manually retyping translations.

Batch export.

If you’re publishing content to multiple platforms, exporting and resizing each version manually can take hours. Instead, use Adobe Media Encoder to batch export different formats at once.

Here’s how:

1. Finish your edit.
2. Go to File > Export > Media.
3. In the Create Captions dialog box, customise your settings:
   • YouTube: 16:9 (1920×1080)
   • Instagram Reels: 9:16 (1080×1920)
   • Instagram Feed: 1:1 (1080×1080)
4. Instead of clicking Export, click Queue. The file now launches Media Encoder.
5. If you are happy with the settings, click the green Start Queue button.
6. Media Encoder will render all versions automatically.