Adding subtitles to videos

Subtitles are written transcripts of spoken words and short audio descriptions shown in time to a video.

Subtitles, also known as closed captions, are vital for hearing-impaired individuals, and they can also be a huge benefit for individuals attempting to watch a video in a very quiet or very loud environment without headphones.

Who can use this feature?

👀 Creators, primary admins, and admins

🏳️ Available on all plans

Contents of this article:

• Add subtitles to your video
• Tips for creating .vtt files and saving vtt files
• Structuring text files as closed captions

To add subtitles to your video:

1. Navigate to the editor view of your block.
2. Select the video section of your block.
3. In the left-hand sidebar, navigate to the Subtitle heading.
4. Select 'Browse media library' or 'Upload file here' to add a subtitle file.

❗ Note: The selected file must be a .vtt file.

Tips for creating .vtt files:

• Some video editing programs such as Adobe Premiere allow you to create a subtitle track and download the file separate to the video.
• Youtube is capable of auto-generating editable subtitle tracks for uploaded videos.
• Paid professional services are available online that will create subtitle tracks and deliver a .vtt file.

Saving your .vtt files from text files:

1. Open your text editor, such as Notepad
2. Select 'Save as'
3. Enter a file name and include .vtt filename extension and enclose the entire name in quotation marks, ie "mycaptions.vtt"
4. Select 'Save as type' and change type to All files (*)
5. Select 'Encoding' and ensure this is set to UTF-8

Text files saved using this process can be uploaded to HowToo as caption files.

Structuring text files as closed captions

The first line in the file must be:

WEBVTT

Subsequent entries in the file are called "cues," and they consist of:

• A time marker such as 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:05.330 (beginning time and end time, separated by an "arrow," -->).
• Text that needs to appear on the screen during that particular segment of time.

Note: Each time marker is designated in the following format: hh:mm:ss.ttt  

• hh = hours
• mm = minutes
• ss = seconds
• ttt = thousandths of a second

Example

WEBVTT 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:05.330 
Good day everyone, my name is Judith Hays. 
00:00:07.608 --> 00:00:15.290 
This video teaches you how to build a model plane.