We go through the various ways you can add captions. This guide offers step-by-step tutorials on how to add captions to YouTube videos.
Adding captions to your videos helps increase engagement.
- Don’t miss views and view time on your video because you forgot to add captions! Remember, turning the sound on is not always an option for users.
- Enabling captions on YouTube helps with accessibility i.e. people who are hearing impaired or have hearing loss
- Apart from that, closed captions increase search-ability and help in improving the video’s SEO ranking- especially if you can combine with transcripts on your website or blog where you may put the videos
How to add captions to YouTube?
There are a couple of ways on how you can add captions to a YouTube video. Yes, you can auto add subtitles in YouTube.
The first method outlines the automated using speech to text features within the YouTube studio. The second method is more manual, but gives you more control.
Step 1: Sign into YouTube Studio
Following is a step-by-step guide on how to add captions on YouTube.
- The first step in the process is to “Sign In” your YouTube account.
- Click on your account name on the top right corner, and below you will find the option of “YouTube studio.”
Step 2: Use Captions section and select video
You should see a menu on the left. Navigate to the item that says ‘subtitles‘.
Upload or find a video to which you want to add captions. Then, click on ‘Add’ button to open a dialogue for adding a caption.
Step 3: Select the subtitle option
Choose whether to upload any caption file or type the captions manually. It’s recommended to upload and a SUB or SRT file (with timestamps).
If you manually add captions, you will need to match up the start and end times of the text.
Note: It is important to upload captions in a supporting format. SRT files are commonly used which includes, you can also use .sub, .sbv, .lrc, or .cap.
Make sure to re-watch the video with captions after you’ve added them and make any necessary adjustments to ensure they match up accurately.
There’s an easier way to do closed captions. Use the Imvidu Subtitles Generator.
How to manually add captions to YouTube?
Following are the steps to guide you on how to add captions on YouTube manually:
1. To edit your video, go to a video manager and select the video you want to edit.
2. In the toolbar on the top, you will find an option of “Subtitles/CC.”
3. The next step is to choose a suitable language for your captions and click “set language.”
4. Now click on “Add subtitles/CC” and select the language in the drop-down.
5. Click on “Create new subtitles/CC.”
6. The next step is to adjust the video accordingly with captions. Play and then pause it wherever you want to add captions.
7. On the left of the video, type the closed captions into the text box and click the blue “+” button.
8. You can also drag the new caption to adjust when and how long the captions will be displayed on the screen.
9. Click on “Publish” once you’re happy with the changes
Add and edit captions to your videos. Fast.
Simple as editing a word document.
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How to add captions on YouTube automatically?
YouTube provides us with an option of auto-generated captions through it’s automatic speech recognition.
The quality may differ due to mispronunciation or misrepresentation, but generally speaking, it does a fairly good job.
When you’re in YouTube Studio:
- On the left menu click on “Captions.”
- Select the video in which captions are to be added.
- Below “Subtitles,” choose “more” next to captions you want to edit.
- Edit or remove any part that has not been adequately transcribed.
How to use Imvidu to add captions to a YouTube Video?
To make the editing process easier, you can use Imvidu to add captions to a YouTube video automatically instead. This is how:
- Drag drop or upload the video on Imvidu
- Next, click on generate transcript
- From there, you can edit your subtitles
- Optionally: you can edit or cut your video as well
- Once done, export the SRT file.
- You can render the video with the captions styled and permanently over layed on your video
Pro’s of using the Imvidu online video editor to generate captions:
How to edit captions on YouTube?
To edit YouTube captions, change the text or the timestamps of your caption, follow these simple steps:
- First, Sign in to your YouTube Studio
- From the left menu, click on Subtitles
- Choose the video that you want to edit
- Pick the language from which you want to edit, in the Subtitles, click on edit
- Click on Duplicate and edit. Continue to overwrite the edits required
- Click Publish once done.
Alternatively, if you have the SRT file you can edit the file itself in any text editor.
Adding captions in various languages
Resources confirm that almost 60 percent of YouTube traffic comes from non-English speakers. It is wise to invest money to translate English captions into other languages such as Hindi, French, Arabic, Russian, etc.
This can create more engagement in your videos attracting a global audience. If you’re serving a global audience, then it can be worth having your captions manually translated.
Common questions regarding captions on YouTube
Do you get paid for adding captions to YouTube videos?
You can make money by editing videos for customers and content creators. There are a couple of ways to make money:
- Transcribe videos for customers
- Edit videos for customers
- Create social media content for customers
- Translating videos and captions in other languages
What is the simplest way to add captions?
Auto-generated captions are the easiest. YouTube offers the option of auto-generating captions, but they are often mispronounced or misrepresented.
Using something like Imvidu’s Subtitle Generator to add subtitles to your videos automatically can save you a lot of time. Not only this, but you can also style your subtitles for impact and burn on your video so they remain on the video permanently.
How long does it take to add captions to a YouTube video?
On average, it can take 5-10 times the video you’re adding a caption to. A person who has training in transcription can take about 5-6 hours to add captions on a one-hour-long YouTube video. With time and improved skills, one can excel in adding captions in a short span of time.
Remember if you’re manually creating captions, you may have to repeatedly pause the video, listen to it again… and again.
How to turn on captions for every video?
It is a very simple way to enable closed captioning for the videos you watch every day. Following are the steps that you should follow to allow captions for all the videos.
1. Click on the Account option in the top right corner.
2. From the menu, Go to “Settings.”
3. The next step is to click on “Playback and performance.”
4. After clicking on it, check “Always show captions.”
5. The last step is to click on “Save” so that your settings are changed.
This was the method to always enable captions on your videos.
Can you hard-code subtitles on the video on YouTube?
The best way to hard-code subtitles is to use a video editing software. When you’re hard-coding subtitles you have to ‘burn’ them on top of the video. To make them permanently ‘stick’ on top of the video, you have to render the video.