Guide
How to use Cilevi.
57 short articles covering everything version one does, in the order you would meet it: record something, open it in the Studio, change what the app already did for you, and write a file. Nothing here describes a feature that is not in the build you can download. What is still being built is on the roadmap.
Getting started
Installing it, what it needs, and the whole loop once.
- What Cilevi does What the app is for, and what it has already done by the time you open the editor.
- Installing Cilevi One portable file, what SmartScreen says about it, and the two questions the first run asks.
- What you need Windows 10 or 11, any graphics card or none, and nothing else to install.
- Your first recording, end to end The whole loop once: record, look at what the app already did, export.
Recording
Choosing what to capture, the camera and the sound, and the keys that start and stop it.
- Display, window or area The three capture modes and the panel that shows you what will be in the frame.
- Size presets Ready made capture sizes, including four portrait ones for Reels and Shorts.
- Camera and microphone Switching each on, choosing the device, and the floating camera preview.
- Recording the computer's sound What the computer is playing, captured to a track of its own.
- The countdown and a clean desktop Getting the first second right, and keeping your desktop out of the video.
- Starting, pausing and stopping F9 and F10, the tray menu, and what opens when you stop.
- Quality, format and where files go The recording quality presets, the file format, and the output folder.
- What a recording saves besides the picture The companion file of clicks, keys and pointer positions, and what it is for.
The Studio
The window, the timeline, and the edits every project needs.
- The Studio window The top bar, the preview, the timeline and the panel on the right.
- The timeline The tracks, what goes on each one, and moving around.
- Trimming, splitting and reordering The three edits every project needs, and what travels with a clip when you move it.
- Several recordings in one project Adding a second take to a project, and what comes with it.
- The library, and importing media Bringing in video, music and pictures, and the grid they live in.
- Undo and redo What counts as one undo, and what it covers.
- Keyboard shortcuts Every key the recorder and the Studio listen for.
- Transitions Three transitions on any join, and why nothing on the timeline moves when you add one.
Zoom and the pointer
The two things the app does for you before you touch anything.
- Automatic zoom Where the zooms come from, and what to do about the ones you did not want.
- Adding and editing a zoom Placing a zoom yourself, and every setting on one.
- The pointer Shape, size, smoothing, and what happens across a cut.
- Click and key sounds A soft tick wherever you clicked or typed, and when not to use it.
- Keyboard shortcuts and click labels on screen Drawing the keys you pressed, and saying what each click did.
The look
Background, framing, canvas shape and motion blur.
- The background Wallpapers, gradients, a flat colour, your own picture, or none at all.
- Padding, corners and shadow The frame around the picture, and what each control does to it.
- Canvas and aspect ratio The shape of the finished video, and what Original means.
- Vertical video and the live backdrop Turning a landscape take into a portrait video without empty bars.
- Motion blur Three motion blur settings, and why the preview does not show one of them.
Camera
Where it sits, what shape it is, and when it is on screen.
- Placing and sizing the camera Nine anchors or anywhere you like, plus shape, size and the zoom size.
- Split screen and stacked layouts Giving the camera a block of its own instead of a box over the picture.
- Cropping the camera Choosing which part of the camera picture is shown.
- When the camera is on screen Making the camera disappear, or take over, for part of the video.
- A camera for each recording Several takes, several cameras, one look.
Text, shapes and hiding things
Titles, arrows, pictures, and covering what must not be published.
Sound
Levels, clean up, voiceover, and cutting the dead air.
- Volume and levels Setting each track's level, muting, and volume that changes over time.
- Voice clean up and loudness Cleaning up a voice track, and matching it to a loudness target.
- Recording a voiceover Talking over the timeline while it plays.
- Cutting out the silence Finding the dead air and cutting it out of every track at once.
Captions and transcript
Speech to text on your own machine, and editing the video by editing the words.
- Generating a transcript Speech to text on your own machine, and which model to pick.
- Editing and styling captions Fixing the words, the timing, and how the captions look.
- Writing captions by hand Captions with no recogniser, and pasting in a script you already wrote.
- Editing the video by deleting words Delete a word from the transcript and the video is cut with it.
Exporting
Getting a file out, and what each setting costs.
- Exporting a video Getting a finished file out, and what happens while it runs.
- Export settings explained Every row in the export window and what it costs.
- Exporting a GIF When a GIF is worth it, and how to keep it small.
- Exporting the camera separately The screen and the camera as two files instead of one.
- Copying the video to the clipboard Export straight into the thing you are about to paste it into.
Projects and safety
Saving, autosave, crash recovery and the project file.
Troubleshooting
When something is missing, blocked or wrong.
- Reporting a problem The form inside the app, and what makes a report we can act on.
- A camera or microphone is missing What to check when a device does not appear in the list.
- SmartScreen and antivirus warnings Why Windows warns about a new program, and what to do about it.
- What leaves your computer Every connection the app makes, and everything that never leaves.
Something missing?
If you looked for an answer here and did not find one, that is worth knowing about. Tell us on the contact page, or ask for the feature itself on the feedback board. Inside the app, the Support button on the Studio's top bar opens a form that sends us the version number and the log along with what you write, which saves a round of questions.