Using captions in your videos benefits everyone by:
The first video you’ll see in your download has captions embedded or burned into the video. These are hard-coded and cannot be edited by you, and the words won’t be picked up by a screen reader or closed captioning. Because of that, this option doesn’t allow the viewer to turn the captions off. These are useful for live presentations, or instances where the video player you’re using doesn’t have the option to use closed captions, so the video will display the hard-coded captions in English.
The second video in your download comes without hard-coded captions, and it includes a separate side-car file with the captions. This is called an SRT file, and it’s great for when you’re using a video player that supports closed captions. It can also be translated and used as subtitles in other languages. This gives you more flexibility and options to make your video more accessible to a wider audience. We’ll go over how to use the SRT file in the sections below.
An SRT is a text file that includes timestamps that align with the timing of the audio and visuals of a video. It’s not a video or audio file, but some video or multimedia players allow you to upload this text file in addition to your video and display the text over the video (i.e., “closed captions”).
Not every media player supports SRT files for closed captions (QuickTime uses a different file format) but two common softwares that do are Windows Media Player and VLC.
The two main things you need to get your captions to work with these media players:
To play the video with captions:
Upload the SRT file onto your video through the platform. There should be an option or settings in the same place you uploaded your video. If you want to read more detailed instructions for a particular platform check out these guides on their customer support pages:
PRO TIP: If you’re presenting the video live, be sure to turn on the captions in the display settings before playing the video!
Using the video and separate SRT file gives you options for translating subtitles into different languages.
Whether you decide to use an internal translator or a translation service, you can translate the SRT file directly by using any basic text editor, e.g., WordPad or Text Edit. Just make sure you keep the timestamps and formatting intact (here’s a guide on the formatting).
When you’re ready to use the translated SRT file, save the file in the same folder as the video (and make sure it has the same title). Then, you’re ready to play the video with captions using the translated SRT file!