In the caption editor, you can upload a caption file for the video or let technology do the work for you and automatically generate a caption file (learn more). Once the file is loaded, you can use the editing panel to:
- Change the text
- Change the segment’s start and end time
- Split a segment into two segments
- Delete a segment
- Switch the language
NOTE: if you need to change the timing of the entire file, or of multiple segments, you can use the Shift caption timing feature. You would want to do this if your caption file begins at 00:00:00.00 but the first spoken word in the video begins later. The Shift caption timing feature will match the segments to the video timing. You can read more about it here.
General notes
You can access the caption editor by clicking on your desired video and then clicking on the Video editor button below the player. This takes you to the web editors and here you can click on the CC editor tab
Caption files should be in WebVTT format. If you have caption files in other formats, such as SCC, TTML, or TXT, you can easily convert them to WebVTT format by using one of the many web editors out there in the internet. Subtitle Edit is recommended as it does almost anything with captions. Just upload the file and then click on Download, select the WebVTT (.vtt) file format, and click on Save/Download.
If you have an existing caption file already uploaded and upload a new file, the old file will be replaced. If you don’t want to lose it, just click on the Download icon and save it locally before uploading the new file.
A caption file would be preferable - a VTT file will be generated.
A transcript file would generate plain text without segment timestamps.
The automatic captioning uses machine transcription of the audio track. It’s not perfect. The timing is generally spot on, but background noise, mumbling, people speaking at the same time, and other factors reduce the accuracy of the output. With the help of the editor, you can clean up the most important parts of your captions.
Publishing Captions
Captions need to be published for them to be visible to the public. To do this, press “Save”:
Also, clicking on Published on the top right corner, will make the captions visible in the player and in the transcript panel on the public page.
If you need to hide the captions, just click on Unpublished and the captions will be hidden. You can edit captions in either state, Published or Unpublished.
Changing a caption segment’s text
Click on the caption segment that you want to edit. The text will appear in the edit box below the player. Inside the edit box you can make your changes and see how they appear in the player. Move to the next segment and the previous one is saved automatically.
The chars/sec displayed above the edit box give you feedback on whether you have too much text for the duration of the segment.
TIP: Using the player's keyboard controls to review segments makes it a bit easier to listen to the video while making edits. The left and right arrows jump the player back and forward by 10 seconds.
Changing a segment’s start and stop time
Sometimes you’ll need to adjust the duration of the segment because you’ve moved words to another segment or the timing of not synched with the video. You can use the Start and End time fields to adjust the individual segment. You can only adjust until you bump into the previous or subsequent segment.
If you need to slide all captions from a particular segment onward, then use the Shift caption timing feature.
Splitting a caption segment into two segments
If you have too much text on the screen, you will want to split the caption segment into two segments and edit the text and timing. Select the segment that you want to split and click on the Split segment icon above the edit box.
The segment will be duplicated, and the duration will be halved. Now you can make your edits. If you want to revert, press “Discard changes” on the top right corner.
Deleting a caption segment
You may want to delete segments that contain background conversations or dialog that are not relevant to the video. Just click on the segment you want to delete and then click on the Delete icon below the player. The segment will be deleted and the surrounding segments will be unaffected.
Changing the Language
When creating the captions, you were able to select a desired language. The editor allows you to submit as many CCs for different languages as necessary.
Just add another caption file, select a language, and upload it.
Captions generation currently supports the original media transcription. Consider uploading the translated CC to the editor. The Subtitle Edit mentioned earlier would do the job via the “Auto-translate” option.
When the caption file is submitted for a new language, it is automatically saved. You can manage it by pressing “Select language version”:
As a result, users will be able to select the language via the “CC” button of the player: