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What is Video Shot Sequencer?
Video Shot Sequencer is a desktop helper for video editors who name their shot files by a strict numbering convention. It reads a folder of those files, groups them into shots, draws each shot as a row with a thumbnail of every file in it, and lets you drag shots into the order you want. When you commit, it renames the real files on disk so their numbers match the new order.
The thing it does that hand-renaming in Explorer doesn't: you reorder shots visually and it does the bulk renumbering for you, in one safe batch. Instead of working out which file becomes which number and renaming dozens of them by hand, you drag a row and the app rewrites every affected name at once — and it never lets two files collide mid-rename.
The folder on disk is always the source of truth. The app is a helper, not the boss: you can still rename files in Explorer whenever you like and pull the changes back in. The three things you'll do most are open a folder, reorder shots, and commit the result — each is covered below, along with the smaller tools for grouping, locking, numbering, and tidying up.
Open a project folder
Start by pointing the app at the folder that holds your shot files. It scans the names, lays out every shot it recognizes, and sets aside anything it doesn't. The folder you had open is reopened automatically the next time you launch, so you can pick up where you left off.
Open folder… — Opens a folder picker, starting in the folder you picked last time, so switching to another project doesn't mean navigating your whole drive again. Choosing a folder scans it and replaces whatever was on screen. If you have uncommitted changes, the app asks before switching so you don't lose them.
How shot files are named
Every file the app understands is named with three fixed-width groups of digits — chapter, slot, and version — followed by an optional free-text suffix and the file extension. Written out, the convention is CCSVExtra.ext: CC chapter digits, S slot digit, V version digit, Extra anything you like, .ext the extension.
Those digits are what let the app group files into shots and renumber them without you tracking any numbers yourself — they encode exactly where each file sits in the edit. You mostly just read this convention; the only part you ever change is how many digits each group uses (see Adjust the naming pattern).
With the default widths — 2 chapter digits, 1 slot digit, 1 version digit — 0001.mp4 is chapter 00, slot 0, version 1. 0020E.jpg is chapter 00, slot 2, version 0, with the extra suffix E. Same shot, different files, distinguished by their version and suffix.
Reorder shots to renumber them
This is the heart of the app. Drag a shot to a new position and, when you commit, the app rewrites the shot numbers — and the files on disk — to match the order you see. You arrange; it does the arithmetic and the renaming.
Shots
A shot is one position in your edit — a chapter plus a slot — shown as a single row with a thumbnail of every file that belongs to it. The shot, not the individual file, is what you drag: when you move a shot, all of its files move and renumber together. This is the unit you work with on every drag, so most of your time is spent dragging shot rows up and down.
Chapters
A chapter is the top-level grouping of shots, drawn as a titled section. Renumbering happens within a chapter and, when a chapter fills up, cascades into the ones after it. Keeping shots in chapters makes a large project navigable and bounds the scope of a change — reordering shots inside one chapter leaves the next chapter alone unless the first overflows its digit width.
Organize chapters
Beyond reordering shots, you can manage the chapters themselves.
+ Add chapter — Adds a new empty chapter at the end. Drag shots into it, then commit; an empty chapter you never fill is simply ignored.
Drag to reorder chapter — The grip on a chapter header. Drag it to move the whole chapter — and every shot in it — to a new position among the other chapters.
Collapse chapter — Collapses a chapter to its header so you can focus on the part you're working on; click again to expand it. This only changes what's shown, never the files.
Adjust the naming pattern
If your project numbers its files differently from the default, tell the app how wide each part of the name is. The setting is remembered per folder, so each project keeps its own scheme.
Digit widths
Digit widths are how many digits the app reserves for each part of a name — chapter, slot, and version. They do two jobs: they tell the app how to split an existing filename into chapter/slot/version, and they set how wide to pad the numbers it writes back. They're stored per folder, so one project can use two-digit chapters while another uses three.
Set them once when a folder's numbering differs from the default (2 chapter, 1 slot, 1 version); otherwise leave them alone.
The width fields — Three small number boxes in the toolbar, one each for chapter, slot, and version width (their tooltips name which is which). Changing a width re-reads the folder under the new scheme and pads future names to match. For example, with slot width 1 the app would write 0031.mp4; raise the slot width to 2 and the same shot becomes 00031.mp4, the slot now taking two padded digits.
Keep related files together
A single shot is often more than one file — a clip and its matching still, say. Grouping keeps that set welded together so no drag can split it.
Piles — files that share a version
Within a shot, files that share the same version number form a pile and are treated as one item: move any of them and the whole pile moves. A shot is frequently a clip plus a still that belong to the same take, and piling them means a drag can never separate the pair — they move and renumber as a unit.
For example, a shot made of 0011.mp4 and 0011.jpg (both version 1) forms one pile. Drag either thumbnail and both files travel together, so the clip and its still stay matched no matter where the shot lands.
Group Shots — A toolbar toggle. Turn it on when shots have several files per version and you want them locked together as piles; turn it off to handle each file on its own. The button's label flips to Ungroup Shots while grouping is active.
Protect chapters you don't want touched
Once part of your edit is final, lock its chapter so nothing can disturb it by accident.
Locked chapters
A locked chapter rejects every operation that would change it: no drops into it, no dragging shots out of it, no internal reorder, no renumber, and the chapter itself can't be moved. Locking is your guarantee that a stray drag elsewhere in the project can't shuffle or rename files you've already settled. Lock a chapter when its numbering is done; unlock it when you need to edit again.
Lock Chapter — The padlock on a chapter header. The icon shows the current state — closed means locked, open means unlocked — and clicking it flips the lock. While a chapter is locked the tooltip reads Unlock Chapter to describe what the next click will do.
Control how slots are numbered
Some editors leave deliberate gaps in their slot numbers to make room for later inserts; others want every chapter packed into a tight run. This setting lets you choose, rather than forcing one behaviour on you.
Gap preservation
Gap preservation is a project-wide setting that decides what happens to gaps in your slot numbers. With it on, each shot keeps its slot number and a drop simply fills the nearest free slot — your deliberate gaps survive. With it off, every chapter is compacted to a continuous 0, 1, 2, … run on the next change, so gaps disappear.
For example, say chapter 00 has shots at slots 0, 2, and 5. With gap preservation on, dropping a new shot between the first two lands it at slot 1 and the others keep their numbers. With it off, the next change repacks the chapter to slots 0, 1, 2, 3 and the gaps are gone. Leave it on if your numbering is intentional; turn it off, or use the compact buttons below, when you want gaps cleaned up.
Preserve slot gaps — The toolbar toggle for the setting; it's lit when gaps are being preserved. With it off the tooltip reads Compact slots on drop, describing the behaviour you'd switch to.
Compact slot gaps in all chapters — Appears only when at least one chapter currently has gaps. Clicking it compacts the slot numbers in every chapter at once.
Compact slot gaps in this chapter — The per-chapter version of the same action, shown next to a chapter's lock when that chapter has gaps. It compacts only that chapter.
Bring in unmatched files
Not every file in a folder will fit the naming pattern — and the app won't guess where a misnamed one belongs.
Unmatched files
Files whose names don't match the pattern are listed in a separate Unmatched panel instead of being placed in a shot. The app surfaces them rather than filing them somewhere wrong, leaving the decision to you. When a folder holds files you haven't named to the pattern yet, drag each one from the Unmatched panel onto a shot or a chapter to fold it into the sequence — or rename it in Explorer and re-scan.
Commit or discard your changes
Reordering doesn't touch your files straight away. It builds up a batch you can review, then apply or throw away in one go.
Pending changes and committing
Every reorder queues a pending change rather than renaming on disk immediately. This lets you drag things around freely and check the result before anything is written — and when you do commit, all the renames happen in a single safe pass, so files swapping numbers can never collide partway through. Commit when the layout looks right; discard to abandon everything you've changed this session. You need to clear pending changes (commit or discard) before the app will re-scan the folder.
Commit — Writes all pending renames to disk at once. The button shows how many changes are waiting as a count in parentheses after its label; committing applies them and the count returns to zero.
Stay in sync with Explorer
The folder on disk is the source of truth, so the app is happy to work alongside Explorer. Rename, add, or remove files there whenever it's easier, then pull the folder's current state back into the app.
Refresh — Re-scans the open folder and rebuilds the layout from what's on disk now. It's disabled while you have pending changes — commit or discard them first, so a re-scan never silently throws away work in progress.
Other settings
A few controls don't belong to any one feature.
Help — Opens this help page in your browser, in your current language.
Open settings — Opens the Settings dialog, which has a Display tab and an About tab.
Language — Chooses the language for the app's interface and for the help page the Help button opens.
Theme — Switches the app between a light and a dark appearance.
The header also carries a GitHub button — a small icon that opens the app's source-code repository in your browser, handy for reporting an issue or seeing how it works.
FAQ
I renamed files in Explorer — how do I get the app to see them? Use Refresh to re-scan the folder. The app also re-scans on its own when you bring its window back into focus. If Refresh is greyed out, commit or discard your pending changes first.
A file isn't showing up in any shot — why? Its name probably doesn't fit the naming pattern, so it's been set aside in the Unmatched panel rather than placed in a shot. Drag it onto a shot or chapter to assign it, or rename it in Explorer to match and re-scan.
The app says a new version is available — what is that? On launch the app checks whether a newer release has been published and, if so, shows a banner with links to what's new and to the download. It only notifies — it never installs anything by itself. You can dismiss the banner, or skip a version to keep it hidden until a later one ships.