Highlight reels

A highlight reel is one video made from your highlights, in the order you choose, with subtitles and participant labels. Download it as MP4, or share a link that needs no sign-in.

Make a reel

1. Click the Highlights tab, then Reels. The button shows once the study has highlights.
2. Under New reel, type a Title.
3. Under Start with, choose No clips, I will add them, or the highlights with one tag. Or tick Or start with all to use every highlight.
4. Click Make the reel.

A reel holds up to 40 clips. See Highlights, or keep moments from AI analysis.

Add and arrange clips

• Add highlights: on the right, choose All or a tag, then click Add next to a highlight.
• Order: use the up and down arrows on a clip.
• Trim: for a video or voice note, set From and To, such as 1:05. Leave them empty to use the times of the highlight. A clip is at most 2 minutes long.
• Text card before it: optional text shown on its own card for 2.5 seconds before the clip, to separate parts of the story.
• Remove: tick it to take the clip out.

Changes are kept when you click Save or build the video.

How each clip looks in the video:

• a video is fitted to the reel's shape, over a blurred copy of itself
• a photo shows for 4 seconds
• a voice note shows as a sound wave
• a written answer, choice or rating shows as a quote card, for 4 to 9 seconds depending on its length

Settings

• Shape: Wide 16:9 for slides and screens, or Tall 9:16 for phones.
• Subtitles: in the study's main language (translated), As said, or None. Subtitles come from the transcript, so a clip without one has none. See Transcripts and search.
• Label on each clip: participant code and day, code, first name and day (only when the study shows first names), or no label.
• Title card and closing card: the title card shows the reel title, the text Under the title, and "Prepared by" with your agency's name. Under the title starts with the client name. The closing card shows your Closing card text. It appears only if you write one.

Build the video

Click Save and build the video. The page shows a progress bar and updates by itself. It takes about a minute for every few clips.

When the video is ready, it plays at the top of the page. If you change the reel later, click Save and build again to update the video. The Reels list shows each reel's status, such as Ready or Build failed.

Download and share

• Click Download MP4 to save the video.
• Click Make a share link for someone without a Zolensa account. Anyone with the link can watch and download the reel without signing in. Click Copy to copy it. The page shows how often the link was viewed.
• Click Turn the link off to stop sharing. The old link stops working at once. A new share link gets a new address.

Share it only with people allowed to see the participants.

Delete a reel

At the bottom of the reel, open Delete this reel and click Delete the reel. The highlights stay.

When participant data is deleted

When you delete a participant's data, their highlights are deleted too, so their clips leave every reel. Each reel that showed them loses its built video and its share link. It goes back to Not built yet with the message "A participant in this reel was deleted. Build it again." See When a participant stops or asks for deletion.

When a study's participant data is deleted at the end of its retention period, its reels are deleted.

Copies you downloaded are not affected. Delete them yourself. Removing a highlight on the Highlights page also takes it out of every reel.

Who can do this

Owners, researchers and moderators can make, build, share and delete reels. Clients can open reels, watch them and download the MP4.