How to add captions in QuickTime?

Is this a question you’ve asked your friends, Google and nerdy cousin? We have the answer! We offer you a simple guide to add captions in QuickTime. Forget the jargons and workarounds. This is a simple and straight guide to adding captions on QuickTime…

Transcribe your audio

One of the first things you need to do is create a neat transcript. Listen to your audio and create a transcript or hire a transcriber. Save your text file, and format it, according to how you want your captions to appear.

If you are a Mac user, use the Edit File option. Use the Notepad if you are a Windows user. Create a new line depending on the number of words you want to appear on screen. Every line is a caption. Breakdown your lines according to how you want your captions to appear on screen.

Export your text file

Export your file to QuickTime and click open. Check the number of words you have per caption and the size of the black box your caption appears in. If there are any formatting changes you need, make a note of them. It makes the editing process easier.

Save your settings

Navigate to File>Export. Choose the “Text to text” option in the dropdown menu. Select the “Options” button that is situated in the right hand side of the “Export” dropdown menu. In the “Text export settings” box choose the “Show Text, Descriptors and Time” option. Navigate to the “Show time relative to show of” option and select the “Movie” option. Click “OK” and save your setting.

Editing; where the real work starts!

Now that you have transcribed your file, have a basic idea of how you want your captions to appear and saved your preferred setting, start editing your file. When you view your exported text file, you can see a breakdown of your file and codes. You can edit the codes and change the height and width of your captions and the size of the black box your text appears in. Change the height and width value of your text by changing the codes into the small brackets.

Determine how long you want your captions to appear

Beneath every single line of text a small box containing time codes appears. Change the time codes depending on how long you’d like your captions to stay on screen.

Synchronizing you text file

After you’ve saved the changes, open your file in QuickTime Pro. Select your footage by using the handlebar. Drag the slider and select the entire footage. Go to the “Edit” option and select the “Copy” option in the dropdown box to copy your footage. Open your video and your captioned file. With the time code at the point where you want your captions to start, navigate to the “Edit” button and select the “Add to movie” option in the dropdown box.

Place the captions

For moving the captions in the screen and make changes go to Window > Show Movie Properties. Ensure that the Text Track option is enabled and choose the “Visual settings” option. Edit the captions and change the placement of your captions on the screen. You can view your video with the captions on, to make further edits and changes.