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Shift Words

Shift Words moves individual words between adjacent events to fine-tune line balance and reading rhythm. It is the most targeted of the line-adjustment tools and is best used when only a single word is pushing an event over a character or CPS limit, or when a lone word has been left at the beginning of an event that would read more naturally as the last word of the previous one.

Prerequisites​

  • A project is open with at least one Event Group containing two or more events.
  • The event you want to adjust is selected in the editor.
  • Shift Word Back (move last word of selected event to the previous event): secondary toolbar; configurable keyboard shortcut.
  • Shift Word Forward (move first word of selected event to the next event): secondary toolbar; configurable keyboard shortcut.

How Shift Words works​

Shift Word Back takes the last word from the currently selected event and appends it to the end of the immediately preceding event. The selected event must not be the first event in the group — there must be a previous event to receive the word.

Shift Word Forward takes the first word from the currently selected event and prepends it to the beginning of the next event. The selected event must not be the last event in the group.

If the Update Timing on Edit option is enabled in the editor settings, the timecode boundary between the two affected events will be adjusted proportionally when a word is shifted. The adjustment is calculated based on the average time per word in the current event — if each word in the event accounts for roughly 300 milliseconds, the boundary will shift by that amount. This keeps the timing relationship between text and time consistent without requiring you to manually retime the events after each shift. If the events do not have valid start and end times, the timing adjustment is skipped.

After a Shift Word operation, the editor canvas updates immediately to reflect the new text content, and the Quill editor is refreshed to show the updated event text and alignment.

Practical guidance​

Shift Word is most effective as a cleanup tool after automatic formatting or after a transcript import has produced events with awkward line shapes. If an event ends with a single short word that would read more naturally attached to the speech rhythm of the previous event, Shift Word Back addresses this without requiring you to manually cut and paste text.

For adjustments that involve more than one word, consider using Shift Lines instead, which moves an entire line at once and is more efficient for larger restructuring.

All Shift Word operations are recorded in the undo history, so changes can be reversed at any point in the session.

Troubleshooting​

The Shift Word button appears inactive or does nothing​

Confirm that exactly one event is selected and that it is not the first event in the group (for Shift Word Back) or the last event in the group (for Shift Word Forward). The operation requires an adjacent event in the relevant direction.

Timing jumped unexpectedly after a shift​

This occurs when Update Timing on Edit is enabled. If the automatic timing adjustment is not desirable, disable Update Timing on Edit in the editor settings and perform timing adjustments manually after the text shift.

The word moved to the wrong event​

Shift Word always moves between the selected event and the immediately adjacent event. If you expected movement to a different event, re-select the correct source event and try again.

Source notes​

  • Components: src/components/toolbar/controls/ShiftWordBack.svelte, src/components/toolbar/controls/ShiftWordForward.svelte