30-second answer: Templates in Edits work when you treat them as a starting structure, not a finished video. Choose a template whose pacing, clip count, and mood match your footage, replace every clip and text element with your own material, retime cuts to your music or speech, and change the style so the result looks like your work. A template should save you setup time; it should never be the reason your video looks like everyone else’s.
On this page
- Choose a template that fits
- Replace clips and text fully
- Retime the template to your material
- Change the style to your own
- Fix template audio and music
- Check the finished video before export
- Using this in a desktop workflow
Templates are popular for a reason: they remove the blank-page problem. Instead of starting from an empty timeline, you start from a proven structure — a sequence of cuts, a rhythm, a way of introducing text — and you fill it with your own footage. That can be a genuine shortcut, especially for recurring formats such as tutorials, recaps, or product clips, where the structure is similar every time.
The risk is equally clear. A template used without changes produces a video that looks templated: the same pacing, the same transitions, the same text style as thousands of other videos. Viewers may not know a template was used, but they will feel that the video is generic, and that feeling undermines the very footage that should make it distinctive. Edits runs on your phone, so templates are browsed and applied in the app; this tutorial covers how to choose and adapt them well, rather than promising a specific template, because available templates change between versions.
Step 1: Choose a template that fits
Choose by structure, not by thumbnail. A template’s thumbnail shows its best-looking example, not necessarily how it will work with your footage. Instead, look at the template’s clip count, pacing, and mood: how many clips does it expect, how long is each clip, and does its energy match your material? A fast, punchy template will fight slow, calm footage, and a slow, elegant template will drain energy from a fast montage.
Also check what the template expects from you. Some templates need many short clips, others need a few longer ones, and some rely heavily on text or effects that may not suit your subject. If your footage does not match the template’s structure, you will spend more time forcing it to fit than you saved by using the template. In that case, starting from scratch — or from a simpler template — is faster and produces a better video. A template should fit your material; your material should not be cut to fit a template.
Step 2: Replace clips and text fully
Once you have chosen a template, replace everything: every clip, every text element, and any placeholder audio. This sounds obvious, but it is the step most often skipped in part. A single leftover placeholder clip, a default title, or a template caption that was not updated can ruin an otherwise good video, because viewers notice the one element that does not belong far more than the many that do.
Replace clips in order, and check each replacement as you go. Does the new clip work at the length the template gives it, or does it need trimming? Does its framing suit the template’s layout, especially if the template crops or positions clips in a particular way? Update all text to your own wording, using our text and titles tutorial for readable, consistent titles, and remove any template text that adds nothing to your video. A template is a container; your material is the content.
Step 3: Retime the template to your material
Templates come with a rhythm — a sequence of cut lengths that worked for their example footage. Your footage has its own rhythm, and the two will rarely match exactly. Retime the template: lengthen clips where the action needs breathing room, shorten clips where the energy should build, and move cuts to natural points in speech or movement, using our trim and split clips tutorial.
Pay particular attention to the opening and ending. A template’s opening is designed to hook viewers quickly, but if your opening clip needs more time to establish a scene, a rushed template opening will confuse rather than hook. Similarly, a template ending that cuts abruptly may need a longer final clip or a fade to feel finished. Retime deliberately, and play the full video at speed after retiming, because a sequence that looks right clip by clip can still feel uneven in playback.
Step 4: Change the style to your own
Style is what makes a template yours. Change the text style to match your channel’s titles, adjust colours and effects to suit your footage, and replace or simplify any transition that feels like a template signature rather than your own choice, using our transitions tutorial. You do not need to change everything — a template’s structure is its value — but you should change enough that the video could not be mistaken for another creator’s use of the same template.
Think of it as a spectrum. At one end is an untouched template, which looks generic. At the other end is a video rebuilt from scratch, which wastes the template’s time saving. The sweet spot is a template whose structure you kept, but whose clips, text, timing, and style are all yours. Viewers should notice your footage and your message, not the template’s signature effects. If a viewer can name the template you used, you probably have not changed enough.
Step 5: Fix template audio and music
Template audio needs the same full replacement as visuals. If the template includes music, check whether it fits your video’s mood and whether you have the right to use it for your posting plans; if not, replace it with music that fits, using our music and audio tutorial. Balance the music against speech so words stay clear, and fade music in and out at the start and end so it does not begin or stop abruptly.
Also check for audio that the template may have hidden: sound effects, whooshes on transitions, or a voiceover placeholder. Remove any sound that does not serve your video, and add your own voiceover or sound design only where it helps. A template’s audio is part of its generic feel, and leaving it untouched is one of the fastest ways to make a video sound templated, even when the visuals have been fully replaced.
Step 6: Check the finished video before export
Before exporting, watch the finished video as a viewer who has never seen the template. Does it feel like your video, or does it still feel like a template with your clips inserted? Check for leftover placeholder elements, inconsistent text styles, cuts that feel forced by the template’s rhythm, and audio that does not match the visuals. Then export using our export settings tutorial and check the exported file, since export can affect how template effects and text look.
Also check the video on a phone screen, where most viewers will watch it, and with the sound off as well as on. A template that looks polished in the app preview can still reveal problems after export — a text element that is too small, an effect that is too strong, or a cut that feels rushed. Fix those problems in Edits before posting, rather than hoping viewers will not notice them, because they will notice the ones that break the video’s flow.
Common template mistakes
The most common mistake is publishing a template almost untouched, with only clips swapped in. That saves time but produces a generic video, and it teaches viewers nothing about your style. The second mistake is choosing a template for its thumbnail rather than its structure, then forcing unsuitable footage into it. The third is leaving placeholder text, audio, or effects in place, which signals carelessness even when the rest of the video is good.
Another mistake is over-customising in the wrong direction: adding more effects, more text, and more transitions on top of a template that already has plenty, until the video feels cluttered. Customisation should simplify and personalise, not add decoration. Finally, do not use a template to avoid learning basic editing. Templates are useful for recurring formats, but the skills in this tutorial series — cutting, timing, titles, and sound — are what let you adapt any template well, and they matter far more than the template itself.
Using this in a desktop workflow
Templates benefit from desktop planning, because choosing and adapting a template is easier when you can see your footage and the template’s structure side by side. Before opening Edits, list the clips you plan to use, in order, with their approximate lengths, and note which template structure they fit. That list prevents the common pattern of choosing a template first and then hunting for clips to fill it, which usually produces a weaker video.
After adapting a template in Edits, export a draft and review it on a larger screen, where leftover placeholders, inconsistent styles, and forced pacing are easier to spot. Note any element that still feels templated, then change or remove it in Edits. If you edit on an emulator, the larger display helps with precise clip replacement and text editing, but the steps and the app are the same. Keep a note of templates that worked well for each format, so future videos start from a proven structure, not from a random browse.
Frequently asked questions
Are templates a good way to start editing?
Yes, for recurring formats, as long as you replace all clips, text, and audio, retime the cuts, and change the style to your own.
How do I choose the right template?
By structure, not thumbnail: clip count, pacing, and mood should match your footage, and the template should not force you to cut good material to fit it.
Why does my template video look generic?
Usually because too little was changed. Replace everything, retime the cuts, and change the text style and transitions so the video looks like your work.
Should I keep the template’s music?
Only if it fits your video’s mood and your posting plans. Otherwise replace it and balance it against speech, as in our music tutorial.
Can a template replace learning to edit?
No. Templates help with structure, but cutting, timing, titles, and sound are what let you adapt any template well.
What should I check before exporting a template video?
Leftover placeholders, inconsistent text, forced pacing, and audio mismatches, then check the exported file on a phone screen.
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