Using the Subtitle Editor

So, you've found an available talk you'd like to work on! Once you’ve claimed the subtitling project, you will be automatically directed to the subtitle editor. You'll likely be spending the majority of your time in the editor, so be sure to review this page to help familiarize yourself with the new tools.

CaptionHub's editor is divided into four main areas:

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Editor Layout

The subtitle editor has four display modes. You can toggle through these different displays by selecting the four buttons above the Translation Pane.

Default Mode
Wide Screen Mode
Cinema Mode
Hide Video

Video Pane

This is where you'll see the video that's being subtitled. Any changes you make to the captions will appear here immediately. Your username is watermarked into the top right-hand corner of the video, but this is only visible to you within the editor on CapitonHub.

Translation Pane

Creating Subtitles

To start editing, simply type your translation in the empty subtitle lines on the right side of the editor. The left side shows you the original captions (i.e. transcript) line by line. Any changes you make to the subtitles will automatically appear on the video player above.

Auto-saving edits

CaptionHub automatically saves your work as you type. A “Saved” indicator will appear above the translation pane after any edits made to the subtitles. No need to take any additional steps to save – you can exit the editor at any time.

Reference Transcript

The Split, Merge and Delete buttons will affect the reference transcript in the subtitle editor. However, the published original transcript will not be affected.

AI-translated Draft

For 26 supported languages, you will find the AI-translated draft adjacent to the original captions on the right-hand side. You can start by editing the provided draft. Alternatively, should you wish to create a translation from scratch, click on the "Clear all subtitles" button under the gear icon.

Pivot Language

You can use an alternative set of captions as the source for translations. Select an available pivot language in the "Source language" dropdown menu to change the reference transcript. To return to the original captions, click the ‘x’ on the right side of the dropdown menu.

Captions that have not been approved are marked with '(unapproved).' Please avoid using them as the source for your translation, as their accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Pivot language in the metadata editor will be available soon.

Icons & Shortcuts

Character Count Indicator

The top box refers to the first line, whereas the bottom box refers to the second line. If there is an error with the line, these boxes will show red.

Caption Duration

Click on the box to change the display to “WPM (Words per minute),” or “CPS (Characters per second).” If the CPS exceeds 21ch/sec, an error message will show.

Merge

This button merges the current subtitle box with the box directly beneath it.

Keyboard Shortcut:

Cmd/Ctrl + M

Split

This button splits the subtitle boxes and creates a new, blank box above the current box.

Keyboard Shortcut:

Cmd/Ctrl + K

Note

This icon lets you leave notes on specific subtitle lines. You can leave questions for the reviewer or suggestions for edits when you send back the assignment.

Delete

This icon lets you delete the entire caption. Deleting a subtitle line will adjust the reference transcript by merging associated lines.

Keyboard Shortcut:

Shift + Backspace

Text Editing Area

Edit next subtitle

Keyboard Shortcut: Tab

Edit previous subtitle

Keyboard Shortcut: Shift + Tab

Undo

Keyboard Shortcut: Cmd/Ctrl + Z

Help & Shortcuts

On the bottom right corner, you can find the "?" (Help) icon. Click on the icon to see a list of all keyboard shortcuts you can utilize in the editor.

Timeline

Audio Waveform

The new editor features an audio waveform – a visual guide to sound, subtitle start and ending times, where footage was cut (orange line), and where your cursor is (green line). Also, users can control video playback directly from the waveform.

Adjusting captions in the timeline

Drag the edges of the captions to reposition them on the timeline. The waveform shows you exactly where the audio starts and ends. Click and drag in the middle of the caption to reposition an entire caption.

Captions will turn red if they exceed the limits for minimum or maximum duration, if they overlap, or when reading speed is over 21 CPS.

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Keyboard Shortcuts

Here are a few keyboard shortcuts to utilize when adjusting the timeline:

Spacebar — Toggle playback of video
Ctrl/Cmd + Spacebar — Toggle playback of video while editing a caption
Home — Jump to the beginning of video
End — Jump to end of video
. (Period) — Seek 3 seconds back in video
, (Comma) — Seek 3 seconds forward in video
[ (Left bracket) — Snap ‘in’ of current caption to mouse cursor
] (Right bracket) — Snap ‘out’ of current caption to playhead
Alt / Option + , (Comma) — Jump to ‘in’ of previous caption
Alt / Option + . (Period) — Jump to ‘in’ of next caption

Project Pane

Submit, reject, or leave a set of subtitles

Submit Subtitles

Once you’re done creating subtitles, you can submit them to be reviewed. Before submitting, you must fix any issues that have been automatically identified by the subtitle editor.

Leave Subtitles

If you change your mind about a project, you can click “Leave.” It will remove the talk from your assigned project and allow the subtitles to become claimable by another user.

Caution: Do not select "Leave" if you would still like to work on this set of subtitles. In that case, simply click out of the editor.

Approve or Reject subtitles (Reviewer Only)

Reviewers and Language Supervisors can either “Approve” a set of subtitles for publishing, or, send it back for additional changes by selecting “Request Changes.” This will send the subtitles back to the last linguist who submitted the subtitles.

By clicking “More actions,” reviewers/LSs can “Decline” or “Leave.”

Caution: “Decline” will delete all the subtitles and send the assignment back to the linguist pool.

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Amend Subtitles (Language Supervisor Only)

Language Supervisors have permission to post-edit subtitles after approval. On the talk page, select the gold “Amend” button for the approved subtitle language. This will un-approve the subtitles and allow you to make any necessary edits. Once you are done, be sure to click the green “Approve amends” button to re-approve and publish the new subtitle version.

Caution: Language Supervisors should never attempt to amend, unapproved, and reapprove original transcripts TED provides on TED-original videos.

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Flagged issues

A red "Issues" button will appear when key subtitling rules aren’t followed and flag any subtitles that need to be fixed. You can quickly access a flagged subtitle in the editor view by clicking the issues button and the specific subtitle you’d like to fix.

Caption Limits

Within the subtitle editor, you will see red issue markers over subtitles that do not meet the preset limits. These limits are as follows:

Minimum caption duration (in seconds): 1
Maximum caption duration (in seconds): 7
Maximum character count: 42
Maximum line count: 2
Maximum reading speed (Characters Per Second): 21

Editing Metadata

To add your translation of the talk’s title, speaker's name, and description, click the tag icon beneath the talk title.

Group Notes

Aside from leaving line-specific notes, you can leave general notes by clicking the same chat bubble icon in the Project Pane area. These notes will be accessible by other volunteers working on this project.

Snapshots

A snapshot shows what a particular set of captions looked like at that point in time. Users can take a manual snapshot by choosing the “Create Snapshot” button on the Snapshots page. There are also four specific events that trigger a new snapshot automatically:

Submit (for review)
Approve (for publication)
Handover (send back to the previous linguist)
If the source text has changed

To access snapshots, select the "List snapshots" from the gear-box. Here, users can view the changes made between snapshots. You will find the newer version on the right and the older version on the left with additions highlighted in green and removals highlighted in red.

You can also select and compare non-sequential snapshots by selecting the version(s) you want to view at the top of each snapshot.

Importing Subtitles

Click the gear icon beneath the talk title and select “Import timed text.” You can then upload any timed text file in the following formats: VTT, TTML, iTT, or SRT. If you want to preserve the paragraph breaks in the subtitles, please use VTT format for importing and exporting.

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