Help and tips

Sermosaic turns one recording into a week of content: captioned Shorts and Reels, Instagram carousels and clean audio clips, all in your brand. You add a recording, Sermosaic writes out every word and suggests the best moments, and you make videos and carousels from them.

Yes. Making videos, carousels, music and clean audio is free and unlimited, and nothing you make has a watermark or a Sermosaic mark on it.

Writing out the words uses an online service that is free for you. On a very busy day it may pause for a few seconds and then carry on by itself. You don't need to do anything.

No. Sermosaic runs in your web browser. The first time, it quietly downloads its video engine (about 32 MB), once.

MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC, FLAC, OGG, MP4, MOV and most others, any length. Upload the whole service. Sermosaic finds the good parts, so you don't need to trim it first.

To use your own recordings, yes, and it takes a moment: type your email and we send a 6-digit code (and a one-tap sign-in button). No password, and you stay signed in on that device for 90 days of use. Your brand, looks and saved words then follow you to every device. You can try the 1-minute sample talk without an account.

Sermosaic does the heavy work on your own device instead of on our servers. That keeps it private and free, and a computer does it much faster than a phone. On a computer you also get:

• a big preview while you edit, and room to see your choices;
• your brand folder (Chrome or Edge), where brand videos live;
• keyboard shortcuts;
• long recordings handled quickly, with no screen to keep awake.

Any recent Mac or Windows computer works, in Chrome, Edge or Safari.

1. On your computer: open the recording first. Sermosaic writes out the words once and saves them to your account.
2. On your phone: open the same recording file (for example from AirDrop, iCloud Drive or the Files app).
3. Sermosaic recognizes it, and the words appear instantly. No waiting, nothing to do again.

It recognizes the file itself, so it works even if the file has a different name on your phone. For editing and making videos, your computer is still the better place.

Tap a word to start, then tap where it should end; the selection stretches to it. Hold a word for a moment, then slide your finger to paint over exactly the words you want (the page scrolls by itself at the top and bottom). Double-tap picks a whole sentence. Drag the blue dots, or use the Start and End arrows in the bar, to move either end one word at a time. Scrolling never changes what you picked.

On a phone the studio is one screen. The preview is on top with its play bar, the tool you are in sits in a sheet under it, and the tool strip is along the bottom, under your thumb: Auto, Script, Captions, Footage, Slides, Music, Look, Layers and More (Audio, your saved looks, Make all sizes, Save audio, the captions file and the cover image). Make video is at the top right, next to Undo and Redo.

The sheet has three heights. Drag its handle (the top row) up for more room and down for the video; tap the handle to step between half and tall; tap the lit tool in the strip, or the little arrow, to lower it to a low strip. A swipe sideways on the handle moves to the next tool. The preview stays on screen above the sheet, the same shape, and its play bar is never covered. Tap the video to bring the sheet right down. The sheet scrolls by itself; a pull down on it, when it is at the top, lowers it.

Tap something on the video (the captions, text, a picture, a shape, a slide) and the strip is replaced by a bar for just that thing: Style, Place, Size, Timing, Words, Duplicate, Delete and Done. Each button opens that part of the thing's settings in the sheet. Tap Done, or an empty part of the video, to get the strip back. The same bar shows for a footage block, a zoom or a slide you pick on the timeline.

The timeline is a thin strip above the sheet that shows your slides, zooms, text and footage with the playhead. Tap it to open the real timeline; there, a finger picks a block first and the next touch moves it, so scrolling never moves anything. Tap Done to close it.

Turn the phone on its side and the preview moves left, the sheet to the right, and the strip becomes a column at the left edge. When you type, the sheet goes tall and the strip steps aside.

Signed in on a phone, tap Record now on the start screen. Sermosaic uses your phone's microphone (it asks first), shows a timer and a level meter, and when you stop it goes straight into the words, like an uploaded file. Keep the screen on while you record.

On a phone, Save or share opens your phone's share sheet: choose Save Video or Save N Images to put it in Photos, or send it straight to Instagram, Messages or anywhere else. Carousels arrive as separate pictures, in order. On a computer they download as files.

Because Sermosaic never uploads your recording. That keeps it private and keeps Sermosaic free. Only the written words travel between your devices. Once the file is on your phone, everything else is instant.

Some phone videos are saved in a format only some browsers can show. You can still make a captioned video with a background. To use your video's own picture, open Sermosaic in Chrome or Safari and add the video again.

On a phone, yes. Phones pause a page when you switch apps or the screen locks, so keep Sermosaic open until your video is ready. On a computer you can use other windows; just keep the Sermosaic tab open.

Your logo, colors, fonts, pictures and favorite looks. Sermosaic uses them in everything it makes, and it learns your taste from what you heart and the videos you finish, so its first ideas get closer to your style over time.

Yes, as many as you like. That's useful for several churches, campuses, ministries or clients. Use the brand switcher at the top right, then New brand.

Each brand is kept completely separate: its own logo, colors, fonts, looks, history and its own folder on your computer. Switch between them any time from the same menu.

Switching reloads Sermosaic into the other brand so nothing mixes between them. Your recording's words are saved, so opening the file again is instant.

On a computer in Chrome or Edge, Sermosaic can keep your brand in a folder (it makes "Sermosaic Brand" in Documents). Your brand videos live only there, on your computer, and never online, so there is no size limit. Drop files into its Pictures, Videos or Fonts folders and they show up in Sermosaic.

Those browsers don't let websites use a folder. Your logo, colors, fonts and pictures still follow you to every device through your account. Videos you add on a phone stay on that phone.

Switch to it, open its brand page and choose Remove this brand at the bottom. Its looks, hearts, history, pictures and fonts are deleted from Sermosaic and your account. Its folder on your computer is never touched. (Your first brand can't be removed.)

Tap your account circle at the top right and choose Forget saved words. They are removed from every device. You have a few seconds to undo.

Tap your account circle and choose Sign out on all devices.

Everything. Unlimited videos, carousels, audio clips and brands, with no watermark, ever, and the same quality as Pro. Your brand files live in your own brand folder on your computer, and you save each finished video or carousel to your computer yourself.

Pro is coming soon, so it is not available yet. It will be $7 a month or $70 a year, and it adds priority transcription and Brand Cloud. You can ask to be told when it opens on the Pricing page.

Pro adds two things. Priority transcription gives you words in about a minute even at busy times, never moved to the backup engine, with 30 hours of audio a month included. Brand Cloud keeps your pictures, footage and fonts on every device, including your phone, with 10 GB included and no folder to set up.

No. Free and Pro make the same videos, with the same quality and no watermark.

Free uses a shared free online service. It usually takes about a minute for an hour of audio, and it can be slower at busy times. Nobody is cut off: heavy use moves to a backup engine that is a little less precise.

Yes, but a computer is much faster. On a phone, your brand's pictures and footage stay on the computer where your brand folder is. With Pro, Brand Cloud puts them on your phone too.

You are never cut off. Extra storage is $0.05 per GB a month and extra transcription is $0.25 per hour. If you hit a cap you set, Sermosaic simply switches back to the free way for the rest of the month.

Trim footage to the few seconds you will reuse before you add it, prefer pictures over long video clips, keep one clean logo file, and remove footage and looks you no longer use. Fonts and logos are tiny. Long videos are what take space. There are more tips on the Pricing page.

The studio opens on Auto. Press Make it for me: it cuts the pauses, cleans up the voice, and picks a look, a title from your strongest line, music, matching footage and slides. Press it again for another idea. Undo everything Make it for me did puts it all back.

Under the button are six tiles: Captions, Footage, Slides, Music, Zoom (your own video only) and Clean up. Each says what is on right now. Tap a tile to open its tools, or tap its switch to turn it off and on. Switching a tile off keeps what it was, so switching it on again brings the same thing back. Below them, Start from a look opens a row of finished looks (and yours); rest on one to see it on your video, tap to keep it.

Every tool shows the few things most people need, and keeps the rest one tap away under More options. Nothing was taken out. Open a fold and it stays the way you left it on this device, tool by tool. If you would rather see everything, press Open every More options at the bottom of the Auto tab (it says Back to short lists to undo it).

Anywhere a list is long you can search it: looks, caption styles, slide looks, backgrounds, elements, the sounds, your layers and the lines in Footage "By hand". Search also knows words that mean the same ("peace" finds "calm").

Under the video, Make video is the one button. More beside it holds Make all sizes, Save audio, Captions file and Cover image.

The two volume sliders sit together in the Music tab, under the sound picker: Voice and Music. (The Audio tab keeps cutting the pauses and cleaning up the voice.) The music slider wakes up once a sound is picked.

Open Script to see what was said, line by line. Type in the search box to find a place; it matches as you type and also finds words that mean the same ("peace" finds "calm" and "rest"). 1 of 3 with the arrows steps through the matches, and the video jumps there.

Tap a line (or click it): it plays from there and a row of buttons opens under it: Slide here, Footage here, Zoom here, Text here, Play from here. Slide here lets you pick the kind (the best fit for the words is first). Footage here shows the three clips that fit these words best. Whatever you add is a normal slide, zoom, footage or text: it shows on the timeline and in Layers, and you can change it like anything else. Every add has an Undo.

To act on just a few words, drag across them with a mouse. On a phone, tap the line, then tap a word, then tap another word to stretch to it; or touch a word, hold for a moment, and slide. Small chips on a line show what is already there (a slide, footage, a zoom, text); tap one to pick it.

On a computer: / or Ctrl/Cmd+F goes to the search, ↑ ↓ move between lines, Enter plays, and S F Z T add a slide, footage, a zoom or text on the line you are on.

Aim for 20 to 60 seconds that make one clear point. Start with a suggested moment, or tap the first word and the last word in the transcript. Search the transcript for a phrase you remember.

Switch on Clean up in the Auto tab, or in the Audio tab turn on Cut out the pauses. Gentle keeps a relaxed pace, Tight suits most clips, and Punchy is for Shorts and Reels. Tick "Also cut ums, uhs and breaths" for an even cleaner clip. No words are cut.

Turn on Clean up the voice. Auto listens first and picks the right strength. Choose Max for a noisy room or a phone recording. Turn it off and on to hear the difference.

In the Footage tab, Sermosaic matches clips to what is being said. Pick how many shots: 1, 2, 3 or 4, or back to back. Under More options, By hand lets you choose the clip for each line yourself (and search the lines), and Transition and Footage brightness live there too. Heart clips you love and Sermosaic picks them first.

Tap anything on the video to pick it. Drag to move, drag the corner to resize, and drag the round knob to tilt. A bar appears under the video with Edit, Copy, Delete and Done. On a phone the bar replaces the tool strip and has Style, Place, Size, Timing, Words, Duplicate, Delete and Done (see The studio on a phone).

On a computer: Backspace deletes, the arrow keys nudge, [ and ] tilt, and Ctrl/Cmd+D duplicates.

Open the Layers tab (or the stack button on the preview). Captions, slides that fill part of the screen, your logo, and your text, pictures and shapes are all layers, front one first. Tap one to pick it, tap the eye to hide it, the lock to keep it from being moved by accident, and drag the grip to put it in front of or behind another. Add text, a picture, or a shape: rectangle, circle, line or arrow with your own fill, outline and rounded corners.

Pick several with Shift or Cmd/Ctrl and a click, by dragging a box around them on the video, or with Select several. Then line them up or space them evenly, or move them together. Hold Alt while dragging to switch the snap guides off. On a phone, the first touch picks a layer and the next one drags it, so scrolling never moves anything.

With a layer picked, its folds are closed until you open them (and stay as you leave them): Look, Size and place, When it shows, Animation, Motion and In front or behind. When it shows has the exact seconds to type, or drag its bar on the timeline: drag the bar to move it and either end to trim it. It snaps to the spoken words.

Animation has how it comes in, how it goes out and something it does all the while (pulse, float, shake, bounce, wiggle), with easing and speed. Motion makes it travel: pick a quick start such as Push in or Drift right, then change the Start and End, or add a stop at the playhead and set where it is, how big and how see-through. While motion is on, dragging the layer on the video changes the stop at the playhead. The video you save matches the preview.

Press Ctrl/Cmd+Z to undo the last change to a layer (moving, resizing, timing, animation, order, removing) and Shift+Ctrl/Cmd+Z to redo it. Removing a layer also has an Undo button on the message. Copy, paste and duplicate are Ctrl/Cmd+C, V and D; Ctrl/Cmd+] and [ move a layer forward or back.

Open Captions. Four styles come first (rest on one to see it on your video, tap to keep it); Show all has search and groups: Clean, Bold, Karaoke, Pop, Cinematic, Minimal, Quote and Fun. Heart the ones you like and they come first. The Show captions switch at the top turns the words off for the whole video and the files you save.

Under More options: Size, and Customize, which has how many words and lines show at a time, ALL CAPS or Title Case, letter spacing, the font, text color or a gradient, an outline, a shadow and a pill or box behind the words. Save to my brand keeps your version in the list under Yours, on every device.

Position has Top, Middle, Lower and Above app buttons (above where Shorts, Reels and TikTok put their buttons), or drag the words anywhere on the video.

In Customize, Key words colors the words that carry the point (grace, never, love, the words after "the truth is") and Emoji puts one beside the right words (a flame by fire, hands by prayer). Both are automatic and you can change any of them.

To change one word, tap it on the video (on a phone, tap the captions once to pick them, then tap the word), or open Words in the Captions tab and tap it in the list. Change its text, color or size, make it a key word or not, or give it an emoji. The change stays on that word when you cut pauses or pick a different moment, and the captions file has your spelling too.

In the Layers tab, press Elements (it opens the list under More options, next to Title styles and Logo). Search or pick a group: Audiogram, Progress, Calls to action, Scripture, Names, Shapes, Lines, Stickers and Picture frames. Tap one to add it as a layer, in your brand colors; it can be moved, resized, timed, animated and put in front or behind like anything else.

The audiogram moves with the voice in your recording, so a teaching with no video still looks alive. A progress bar, ring or countdown fills over the time the layer shows. The subscribe button taps itself. The scripture card picks up a verse slide if you have one. Pick a picture on the video, then a picture frame, to put it in a circle, rounded corners or a polaroid.

Open Footage, then More options, then Transition. Off keeps straight cuts. Auto gives every shot its own transition, picked to suit the feel of your look (calm looks get soft fades and dips, bold ones get pushes, whips and zooms), never the same one twice in a row, and never right next to a full slide. One for all uses the same one everywhere: cross-fade, dip to black, white or your brand color, push (four ways), zoom, spin, wipes and more.

To change one place, tap the small round marker on the timeline where two shots meet (or where a shot begins or ends). Pick Automatic to go back. It plays a moment so you can see it. Make it for me turns on Auto. When the looping background comes round, and where a pause was cut out of your own video or two parts were joined, Auto and One for all blend the seam too.

Tap a shot on the timeline. Under Speed pick Slow-mo 0.5x, Quicker 1.5x or Fast 2x, or use Any speed (a quarter to four times). Ease into the speed and back out starts and ends at normal speed. Hold the picture here freezes it at the playhead for half a second to three. Play it backwards runs it in reverse. A shot can be no longer than the footage allows at that speed.

The background has its own speed under Look. With your own video, open Look and use Speed of your video: Slow 0.5x, Fast 1.5x or Fast 2x for the whole video, the part you picked, or five seconds from the playhead. The voice speeds up or slows down with the picture and keeps its own pitch, and the words, captions, slides and footage move with it. One Undo takes it back. You can also hold your picture still for a moment while your voice carries on.

Open Look. Under Color, tap a filter: Natural, Warm, Cool, Cinematic, Faded film, Black and white, High contrast, Soft glow, Vivid, Moody dark, Sunrise or Sanctuary. Rest on one to see it on your own video. Strength makes it gentler. Under Adjust the color are contrast, saturation, warmth, tint, fade, glow, vignette, film grain and sharpen. It colors the background, footage and your own video, never the words. The Color switch in Auto picks a gentle filter that suits the look.

Under Look, Finish, switch on Fade the video in and out: the picture and the sound fade together, and you see it in the preview. In the Music tab choose how long the music fades in and out, and under Lower the music while someone speaks choose A little, Medium or A lot.

In Auto, under More options, press Looks (or the shuffle button on the video). You get six whole designs drawn on your own words: the look and background, caption style, slide look and how it comes in, how footage cuts and changes, color, music and zoom. They come from what you heart and use first, then the library, and are matched to how the words feel (quiet and reflective, warm, bright or bold).

Rest on one to see it on your video, tap it to use it (Undo is on the message), or tap its heart to keep the whole design as a template. Six more looks gives six more, never one you have already seen for this video. Nothing big is downloaded until you pick one.

In Auto, under Templates, press Save this whole design to my brand. It keeps everything except what belongs to one recording: look, captions, slide look, transitions, color, music, zoom, your logo and the name bars, frames and calls to action you added, with their places. Rename it, delete it, or press the star to make it the one a week of content uses. Your templates are saved to your brand and sync with your account.

Apply one to a new recording and it adapts: your name comes from your brand, the title comes from the new words, captions and slides are made from the new transcript, and everything is fitted to the shape you are in. There are eight starters: Sunday recap, Scripture short, Quote card, Teaching clip, Announcement, Testimony, Devotional audio and Worship moment.

Pick a different shape under Look, Shape. Titles, pictures, shapes, elements, slides you placed, the logo and your own video are laid out again for the new shape, not stretched: things stuck to a side stay there, a stack that is too tall gets a little smaller, and nothing sits on the captions or on each other. A message tells you what was resized, with Undo.

What you change in a shape is remembered for that shape, so going back finds it as you left it. Make all sizes uses each shape's own layout.

When a better opening line is said later in your clip (a question, a bold claim, a number), Auto shows it under A stronger start. Start with this line opens the video with it as a card and makes it the title, with its key words lit in the captions. Just make it the title only adds the title. Start the video at this line trims the beginning. All of them can be undone.

For a clip over a minute and a half, Auto shows the places where the talk changes subject, with a short title for each. Add chapters puts a chapter card at each one. Copy the list gives you the times and titles to paste into a YouTube description.

In Auto, press Make a week of content from this recording. Sermosaic finds the best five to seven moments, puts your default template on each (or the starter that suits it best), and shows them in one sheet with a picture of each. Untick any you do not want, choose one shape or all of them, and press Make. They are made one after another, then saved together: on a phone through the share sheet, on a computer as one zip. Your own moment and design are put back afterwards.

In the Music tab (or the Music switch in Auto), pick nature sounds or music, or Make your own: music made right there for your clip, royalty free and exactly as long as it is. Heart a vibe and Sermosaic reaches for it next time. The music dips when someone speaks. The Music tab also has the Voice and Music volume sliders, and under More options the soft sound on slides. Search the nature sounds and music by a word.

In the Saved tab (Your looks), press Save this look. Sermosaic also builds your signature look on its own from what you heart and finish. "Make it for me" uses it first.

From your recording, Sermosaic builds a carousel from your best lines: a hook, the Bible verse if one was read, the main points, a question and a closing slide. Press Design it for me for a finished look, or choose from the templates.

Double-click (or double-tap) the words to edit them. Drag across a few words to give just those a different color, font, bold or effect.

The Text and Background tabs have a switch: "Every slide" changes them all, "Only this slide" changes just the one you are on.

Drag a photo from the Photos tab onto any slide (on a phone, tap it), or drop files from your computer straight onto a slide.

Slides with moving backgrounds download as short videos and the rest as pictures. Instagram takes both in one carousel; post them in order, slide 1 first. A caption is written for you underneath.

It usually arrives within a minute, from signin@sovereignheadquarters.com. If it isn't in your inbox, look in Spam or Promotions and mark it Not spam; after that, codes land in your inbox. On Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud and Proton the sign-in screen has a button that opens your mail straight to it. You can tap Sign in on this device in the email instead of typing the code; if it opens in the same browser, the Sermosaic tab you started in signs in too. After 30 seconds you can send a new code.

The online word service is busy for a moment. Sermosaic waits and carries on by itself; keep the page open.

Keep the tab open (on a phone, keep the screen on). If it really stops, Sermosaic notices within half a minute, stops it, and tells you, and you can press Make video again.

Try a lighter cleanup level, Light or Auto, or turn cleanup off to compare. Max is for very noisy recordings.

Tap Reload. Your brand, looks and saved words are kept, so a recording you had open opens again instantly.

Reloading the page fixes most things. Your brand, looks and saved words are kept, so you lose nothing but the moment you had open.