Most processes for captioning YouTube videos rely on using Google’s speech recognition software. Google, however, is not able to process ASL video, so for a video without any spoken English translation, you need to follow a different process to include captioning. (Note, I am working between ASL and English, but technically, the captioning could happen with any written language that YouTube supports.)
This post is to designed to show how to caption an ASL video that doesn’t have an English soundtrack, like the one below:
Step 1: Create an English Translation
In a text editing program that allows you to save as a .txt file, such as Text Edit on a Mac or Notepad on Windows, create an English translation of your video. Here is a translation for the above ASL video.
This test video is designed to help you learn how to create captions. I hope this resource will help you learn how to take an English translation and turn it into captions that appear at the bottom of the video screen.
Step 2: Create Segments in the English Translation
Next step is to break the English translation into readable segments. A few tips:
- Create breaks around ideas or cohesive parts of a sentence. You should try to use natural breaks in the language. For example for this sentence, it makes most sense to break it at the conjunction.”Create breaks around ideasor cohesive parts of a sentence.”
- Limit the number of characters per line to 40. This limit generally allows the subtitle to stay on one line and not risk blocking the other parts of the video. It also allows the caption to be long enough that it will be on the screen for a longer period of time. This number also isn’t definitive, because different characters take up different amounts of space, but it is a good practical guideline. As you practice, you will also get a sense of how long a caption you can have and stay on one line.
For more information on what makes subtitles readable, you can check out the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design.
Example:
Here is the original translation broken into lines
This test video is designed to help you learn
how to create captions.
I hope this resource will help
you learn how to take an English translation
and turn it into captions
that appear at the bottom of the video screen.
Step 3: Create a Text file with Time Codes
YouTube accepts a variety of file formats with time codes to be turned into captions. I have found that the easiest format to work with is the SubViewer (.sbv) format. (Note: you do not need to download the SubViewer app. You can use any program that can edit a .txt file such as Notepad or TextEdit.)
Basic structure of the .sbv file
START TIME CODE FOR CAPTION,END TIME CODE FOR CAPTION
Text of caption
START TIME CODE FOR NEXT CAPTION,END TIME CODE FOR NEXT CAPTION
Text of second caption
Repeat as often as necessary.
Format of Time Code
The format of the time code is:
H:MM.SSS,H:MM.SSS
So, the time code “0:00:01.500,0:00:03.750” means that a caption would start at the 1 and 1/2 second mark in the video and end at the 3 and 3/4 mark.
Example with Time Codes:
The first step that I do is copy one line of time code and paste it above the first caption.
First Two Caption Segments
0:00:01.500,0:00:03.750
This test video is designed to help you learn
Now watch the video and decide what the appropriate start and stop times are. Depending on what video player you are using, you may have to estimate the fraction of a second. For the most part, having captions change at the exact millisecond is not that important. In general, I usually only use the 1/2 (.500) or whole second (.000).
I also watch the entire sentence in ASL and see where the natural breaks are, and then split the English captions into time segments that will be reasonable. So, if you watch the above video, you will see the ASL sentence that is translated in the first two caption segments goes from .5 seconds to about 6.5 seconds. So, I would split that 6 second segment into 4 & 2 second segments based on the length of the captions.
So, it would look like this.
0:00:00.500,0:00:04.500
This test video is designed to help you learn
0:00:04.500,0:00:06.500
how to create captions.
The Complete Captions
I then simply copy the time code line and paste it above each of the other captions. If you want the captions to show up without break, make the start time for the next caption the same as the end time from the previous caption.
If you want a pause, you can make the next start time happen a little later than the end time of previous. (Be careful not to have a caption start before the previous caption ends. Those mix-ups with time codes are a common problem with this type of captioning.)
0:00:00.500,00:00:04.500
This test video is designed to help you learn
0:00:04.500,0:00:06.500
how to create captions.
0:00:07.000,0:00:09.500
I hope this resource will help
0:00:09.500,0:00:12.500
you learn how to take an English translation
0:00:12.500,0:00:14.500
and turn it into captions
0:00:14.500,0:00:17.000
that appear at the bottom of the video screen.
Saving Your File
In Notepad or TextEdit, save your file as a .txt file. (If it is helpful, you can copy the above captions with time code and paste it into a .txt file. Then simply edit the captions and time codes to fit your ASL video.)
Uploading Your Caption File
I have created another tutorial which will guide you in uploading this file and publishing the captions.
Go to Tutorial for Uploading Caption File
The Result
Once you have completed these steps, you should have a video that has activated and well-timed captions, like the one below: