Quickly identify and remove unwanted terms throughout your Composition or Project with Filler word detection.
Pro Features
Features labeled with 
are available on Descript's Pro plan.
How it works
Filler Word detection identifies unnecessary um's and uh's in your Composition and labels those with a light-blue underline.
Filler Words Pro
With Filler Words Pro, Descript employs advanced contextual search algorithms to identify even more keywords and phrases in your Compositions:
- "Like"
- "You know"
- "Sort of"
- Repeat words: "my cat, my cat"
and many more!
Removing Filler Words
Removing filler words is simple and can be done in a few different ways. Once the filler words have been marked in the script, you can simply select to delete on a one-by one basis by placing the cursor after the word and pressing the backspace/delete key.
You can also perform single and batch actions using the Filler word removal tool by clicking on the wrench icon at the top of the script and selecting the Remove filler words... option. In the left-hand sidebar you will see a list of all filler word results in the composition (or project if you choose). Select the desired result, choose whether you would like to Delete or Ignore the word, then click the Apply button.
You can also save time by clicking Apply to all which will remove all detected filler words in either your Composition or the whole project.
Caution when editing Sequences
If you remove filler words on a Sequence track, then later edit the Sequence and change the placement of the underlying source files, your Filler Word edits may become corrupted. Descript Best Practices hold that all Sequence edits should take place before using Filler Word removal.
Replace with Word Gap
Descript also allows you to remove filler words with a word gap of the same size. You can do this by enabling the toggle "Replace with gap clip" on the filler word removal sidebar, then clicking Apply.
If you're working with video this will detach the audio from the video file and create a multitrack Sequence with one track containing the preserved video, and the other track containing the clipped audio.
Remove Ignored Text
If you would like to batch remove ignored filler words within your Composition, click on the Conductor icon or press Command + K (Mac) / Control + K (Win) then select Remove Ignored Text from the list.
Reverting a filler word action
If you would like to revert a filler word action you can do so in one of several ways:
Undo
Use the Edit > Undo action to undo a filler word removal (Cmd + Z for Mac / Ctrl + Z for Windows)
Strikethrough
If you've previously ignored filler words, you can select the ignored word in the script and click the Strikethrough icon in the toolbar to restore the word in the audio timeline.
Version History
If you have used a batch ignore/delete on filler words would like to revert to the version of the script prior to the removal, you can use the Version History menu to view and restore previous revisions of your project.
Please note: Reverting to an earlier version of your project reverts all edits from all users across all Compositions in the project. Please consult with your team before performing this action.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why isn't Filler Words Pro working after upgrading to a Pro subscription?
You may notice after upgrading to a Pro subscription that your transcript is still only flagging "um" and "uh" as a filler word. Filler Word detection is run on a file as soon as it is transcribed, so if you previously transcribed a file before upgrading, you can click on the Media Library, locate and right-click on the file, and select Detect Filler Words to redo the process.
