Getting Started With The TST Swipes Editor

Create stunning Instagram carousel (swipe) posts from video clips — add text overlays, trim clips, customize styles, and export individual slides ready for upload.

What Is It?

The Swipes Editor is a carousel creation tool designed for social media content creators. It lets you turn short video clips into a series of slides (up to 10 per project) that can be posted as an Instagram carousel or used on any platform that supports multi-slide video posts.

Each slide is a video clip with an optional title and subtitle text overlay. You control fonts, colors, positioning, background, stroke effects, and more. When you're done, the tool renders each slide as an individual MP4 and gives you a ZIP download or QR code to transfer files to your phone.

Pro Feature: The Swipes Editor requires a Pro subscription. Free users will see an upgrade prompt.

Desktop Only: The editor requires a desktop or tablet-sized screen. Mobile devices will see a "Desktop Required" message.

Quick Start Workflow

Create a new project — From the carousel dashboard, click Create New Swipe. Give it a title, pick an aspect ratio, and upload your video clips (or browse from your asset library).
Edit your slides — In the editor, select a slide from the strip at the bottom. Add a title and subtitle, trim the video, and style the text in the right sidebar.
Export — Click Export in the top bar. Each slide is rendered as an MP4. Download them individually, as a ZIP, or scan a QR code to get them on your phone.

Project Setup

When creating a new project you configure two things:

Title — A name for the project (shown on the dashboard and used as the ZIP filename when exporting).
Aspect Ratio — Choose from:
- 4:5 (1080x1350) — Recommended. The standard Instagram feed carousel size.
- 9:16 (1080x1920) — Full vertical / Reels / Stories format.
- 1:1 (1080x1080) — Square format.

Tip: The aspect ratio is locked after project creation. Choose carefully before uploading clips.

Adding Video Clips

You can add videos to your carousel in two ways:

Upload — Drag and drop video files onto the upload zone, or click "Choose Files".
Browse Library — Pick from previously uploaded video assets using the built-in asset browser.

A carousel can have up to 10 slides. Each uploaded video becomes one slide.

The Editor Interface

The editor is a full-screen layout with four zones:

Center — Live Preview: Shows the currently selected slide with its video, title, and subtitle overlaid. Use the play/pause controls to preview. If free positioning is enabled, drag directly on the preview to move the text.
Right Sidebar — Slide Settings: All editing controls for the selected slide: title text, subtitle text, video trim, font, size, position, colors, stroke, style presets, and more.
Bottom Strip — Slide Navigator: Thumbnail strip of all slides. Click to select, hover to reveal reorder arrows and delete. Use the + buttons to upload more clips or browse the library.
Top Bar: Project title (editable), aspect ratio badge, Save button, and Export button.

Video Trimming

Click Trim Video in the sidebar to open the trim dialog. Set a start and end point to use only a portion of the clip. The preview updates in real time. The trim range is shown below the button (e.g., "Using 1.5s – 4.2s of 6.0s").

Title and Subtitle Text

Each slide has two text fields:

Title — Primary overlay text (bold by default, larger font).
Subtitle — Secondary text below the title (auto-derived at 60% of the title font size).

By default, the title and subtitle share the same styling (linked). Toggle the Link Title and Subtitle switch off to style them independently — you'll get separate "Title" and "Subtitle" tabs with full style controls for each.

Text Styling

The following properties can be configured per slide (and per text layer if unlinked):

Font Family — 12 Google Fonts including Inter, Poppins, Montserrat, Bebas Neue, Pacifico, and more.
Font Size — 16px to 120px slider.
Font Weight — Normal or Bold.
Text Color — 12 preset swatches plus a custom color picker.
Background Color and Opacity — Set a backdrop behind the text (e.g., semi-transparent black). Use the opacity slider or set to "No background".
Padding — Space between text and its background box (0–100px).
Stroke Color and Width — Outline/border around the text (0–20px).

Font weight, colors, background, padding, and stroke are grouped under an Advanced toggle to keep the sidebar compact.

Text Positioning

Two positioning modes are available:

Preset mode (default) — Choose a vertical position (Top, Center, Bottom) and text alignment (Left, Center, Right).
Free mode — Click the lock/unlock toggle to switch to free positioning. Then drag directly on the video preview to place the text at any X/Y coordinate (shown as percentages).

Style Presets

Save and reuse text styles across projects:

Click Style Presets to open the popover.
Load a preset — Click any saved preset name to apply its style to the current slide.
Save current style — Type a name and click save. The current slide's title style (and subtitle style if unlinked) is stored.
Delete presets — Click the trash icon next to any saved preset.

Apply Settings to All Slides

After styling one slide the way you like, click "Apply text settings to all slides" at the bottom of the sidebar. This copies the current slide's font, color, position, stroke, and subtitle link settings to every other slide in the project.

Reordering and Deleting Slides

Reorder: Hover over a slide thumbnail in the bottom strip — left/right arrow buttons appear to swap the slide with its neighbor.
Delete: Hover and click the trash icon on a slide thumbnail. A confirmation dialog prevents accidental deletion.

Saving

Click Save in the top bar at any time. The project (title, slides, text, styles, trim points) is persisted to the backend. If this is a new project that hasn't been saved yet, the first save creates the project and updates the URL.

Tip: The editor does not auto-save. Remember to save before navigating away.

Exporting and Downloading

Click Export to render all slides as MP4 videos:

The project is auto-saved before rendering begins.
Each slide is sent to the render API and processed sequentially.
An export panel shows real-time progress for each slide (pending, processing, completed, or failed).
Once complete, you have several download options:
- Download individual slide — Click the download button next to any completed slide.
- Download All (ZIP) — Downloads all rendered slides in a single .zip file.
- QR Code — Generate a QR code link for a single slide or the entire carousel, making it easy to transfer to your phone for posting.

Dashboard

The carousel dashboard lists all your saved projects as cards showing:

A video thumbnail from the first slide
Slide count and aspect ratio badges
Project title and last-updated date

Click a card to reopen it in the editor. Hover to reveal a delete button.