This document discusses making video captions and transcripts easier. It covers finding videos with good captions on YouTube, editing captions in YouTube, creating video transcripts, keyboard shortcuts for captions, and the .vtt file format for captions. The goal is to provide accessible video content and help people learn how to make their videos more accessible through captions and transcripts.
2. Shared for your use:
Creative Commons Attribution
• You are free to use these slides and
ideas in any way you choose.
• A little attribution is nice, but whether
you do or don’t won’t really affect me in
the grand scheme of things.
• Go forth and be accessible.
• http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
3. Items to cover
1. Finding videos with good captions
2. Editing captions in YouTube
3. Creating video transcripts
4. Captions Keyboard Shortcuts
5. The less easy – .vtt captions file format
http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
5. Basic Definitions
Captions: a text overlay on video representing the
video dialog.
Subtitles: transcription of the captions text into
another language.
Outside North America, these two terms are mostly
used interchangeably.
http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
6. Open or Closed?
Closed Captions: are not visible on-screen until
activated by the viewer.
Open Captions: are embedded into the video,
visible to all viewers, and cannot be turned off.
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7. Online or Offline?
Online Closed Captions: also referred to as live
closed captioning, captions are created on-the-fly for
live broadcasts.
Offline Closed Captions: are part of the video creation
process where there isn’t a live broadcast, giving
transcribers more time and resources to create
accurate captions.
http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
9. YouTube Automatic Captions
“We've combined Google's automatic speech
recognition (ASR) technology with the YouTube caption
system to offer automatic captions, or auto-caps for
short. Auto-caps use the same voice recognition
algorithms in Google Voice to automatically generate
captions for video.
(Nov. 2009)
http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
10. Examples of bad Auto-Caps
• Four examples of bad auto-caps from YouTube video:
• On what are the easiest place if you already have a
track
• Acceded is just you never 18 tracks
• On from your content since canceling a psychology
since the basic structure
• Up in that case study and then I’m going to sleep 6ut
iron cactus
http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
11. Video Example, this is real
Here’s a video to demonstrate how bad
the automatic captions can be. (Also
linked on Resources page)
http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
12. Just for fun…
Here’s a video to demonstrate how bad the automatic
captions can be. (Also linked on Resources page)
http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
13. Finding Captioned Videos
• If you want to use a YouTube video and want to find
one that has good captions, you might want to avoid
the videos with Auto-Caps.
• If a video has voice, then it has captions using Auto-
Caps. However, those captions might be terrible.
However, if the captions have been edited, or a
transcript has been uploaded, then that video might
be much more valuable.
http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
14. CC (Closed Captions) Search Filter
• To find captioned videos that have been “touched” on
YouTube:
1. Enter your search term in the YouTube search field.
2. Add , CC (that's a comma, CC)
• This is the same effect as using the Filters button and choosing
CC
3. Hit Enter or click the magnifying glass icon.
17. Editing YouTube Captions
Options to add or edit closed captions in YouTube:
1. Create subtitles or CC from scratch
2. Upload a subtitle or CC file, containing both text and
time codes
3. Transcribe and allow auto-sync (auto-timings)
4. Use auto-caps (untouched)
http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
18. Check the Auto-Caps
• Sometimes, the auto-caps are
somewhat accurate.
• Sometimes, not so much.
• It is usually (but not always)
easier to edit the automatic
captions rather than starting
from scratch.
19. Editing Auto-Caps
• Here's how you can review automatic captions and make changes, if
needed:
• Click the “Edit Video” blue button below your YouTube video.
• On the “Video Details” page, click the Subtitles” link on left menu.
• If automatic captions are available, you'll see English (Automatic) and
"Published" on the Video Subtitles list.
• Click the blue link “DUPLICATE AND EDIT.”
• Use the caption editor to change or remove any parts that haven't
been properly transcribed. Also adjust timings.
http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
20. Example of Editing Auto-Caps
Let’s try it on the fly. Go to YouTube
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21. Try YouTube’s Auto-Timing (now Auto-Sync)
• “We’re also launching automatic caption timing, or auto-timing,
to make it significantly easier to create captions manually.”
• “With auto-timing, you no longer need to have special expertise
to create your own captions in YouTube.”
• “All you need to do is create a simple text file with all the words
in the video and we’ll use Google’s ASR technology to figure out
when the words are spoken and create captions for your video.”
(Nov. 2009)
http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
22. Finding Auto-Sync
• On Video Subtitles page, click ADD
• Select Auto-sync.
• Upload your transcript file.
• NOTE: somewhat hidden – click three vertical dots
next to ASSIGN TIMINGS
• Select ”Without Timings” then choose ASSIGN
TIMINGS, then click SAVE AND CLOSE.
http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
23. Fun Tip: Move the Captions Window
• Captions are automatically placed at the bottom of the
screen, with a black background.
• It’s possible that the captions obstruct an important
visual element in your YouTube video.
• Using your mouse, you can drag-and-drop the captions
window anywhere you choose.
• You can do this with any video that has captions
available, not just your own videos.
http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
25. Captions vs. Transcripts
• Captions appear onscreen simultaneously with
the audio and video and follows the same timing.
• Captions exists within the video player, and
typically can’t be referenced outside of the video.
• A transcript is the same word-for-word content as
captions but presented in a separate document.
http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
27. Option 1: Create Video Script First
Unless you’re doing an informal, off-the-cuff video,
creating a script prior to recording your video is a
very useful practice.
Turn on voice-to-text and start talking, experiment
a little, and see what sounds good and what
doesn’t.
http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
28. Option 2: Create Transcript while
Recording Video
No time to practice first?
Okay, make your technology multi-task while
recording your video.
• Record the video as normal
• Also use speech recognition to convert your voice-to-
text.
http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
29. Option 3: Create Transcript from Video
Captions
• Already have your video created with captions?
• On YouTube, you can copy and paste the
captions/transcript to create a transcript that is
not held captive by YouTube.
http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
30. Voice-to-Text Using Mobile Phone
Advantages
• Can be done offline
• My phone does excellent voice recognition and text
conversion (YMMV)
• Easy to edit and save the transcribed text in Evernote,
Google Docs, or similar
• Free (well, already paid for at least)
http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
32. YouTube
Keyboard
Shortcuts
•While on YouTube, you can display
the various keyboard shortcuts
with “Shift + ?”
•Playback shortcuts might be useful
if you watch a lot of videos.
•Captions shortcuts are good to
know if you work with YouTube
captions a lot.
http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
33. Shortcuts are Awesome
Commonly used shortcuts during YouTube playback
Toggle play/pause K
Rewind 10 seconds J
Fast forward 10 seconds L
Previous frame (while paused) ,
Next frame (while paused) .
Decrease playback rate < (SHIFT+,)
Increase playback rate > (SHIFT+.)
Seek to specific point in the video (7 advances to 70% of duration) 0...9
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34. Test out some shortcuts
Here’s a video to demonstrate how bad
the automatic captions can be. (Also
linked on Resources page)
35. Shortcuts for Captions
If the YouTube video supports captions:
Toggle captions ON/OFF C
Rotate through different text opacity levels O
Rotate through different window opacity levels W
Rotate through font sizes (increasing) +
Rotate through font sizes (decreasing) -
http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
37. WebVTT is built for HTML5
• Often abbreviated as VTT, WebVTT is a caption
file format for displaying text tied to an HTML5
element.
• The file extension is .vtt
• Due to improved capabilities for mobile uses, and
being a W3C standard, VTT has emerged as a
popular file format for closed captions.
38. YouTube and VTT
• YouTube accepts VTT caption files, but currently
not all featured are supported.
• Main features currently supported include:
• “positioning” of the captions on-screen
• Adding the following tags to your captions text:
• <b>bold</b>
• <u>underline</u>
• <I>italic</i>
http://bit.ly/Dahlvideo
These slides are available in the Fusion On-Demand course and also online at Slideshare, just search for the session title name.
I share almost everything I do, and typically assign the Creative Commons Attribution type of copyright “protection” which means you are free to use my stuff as you like – but it is nice to get a shout out (or attribution) from time to time.
Resources shared at bit.ly/Dahlvideo
We’re going to try to cover 5 items in this session. Wish me luck.
Before we get too far down this road, Let's make sure that we are all using the same terms
Some people use the terms captions and subtitles interchangeably , however that is not accurate , at least not in North America. As you can see on the screen, captions are a text overlay on the video representing the video dialogue while;e Subtitles: transcription of the captions text into another language.
Then there is the difference between closed captions and open captions.
Many people say the term closed captions even when that's not what they mean.
Closed captions are not visible on your video screen until the viewer turns them on.
Open captions are an integral part of the video and are always visible to all viewers and they cannot be turned off
Another distinction is between online closed captions and offline closed captions.
Online closed captions could also be called live captions, where a human or robotic captioner is converting speech to text on the fly.
All our virtual Fusion sessions have a live captioner, so this presentation has online closed captions.
Offline closed captions is where the captions have been produced and published prior to the video being viewed, such as what we will look at for your YouTube videos.
Up first – Finding videos created by others that have good captions.
So let's assume that you want to find a video to use in your class, but you don't want to take the time to make it yourself.
In many cases you'll find a useful video that someone else has created and made available for your use.
We won't look at copyright implications right now, since that is not what this presentation is about, so let's assume that they have given rights to use such as Creative Commons licensing.
YouTube is the motherload of online videos, so that’s where I’ll concentrate my ideas today.
It’s been 11 years since YouTube implemented auto-caps – which is short for automatic captioning service.
Auto caps on YouTube videos mean that any video with spoken word has captions.
The auto caps are usually created in the first hour after a video is uploaded.
Luckily, it's easy to find videos where the captions are potentially better than just the auto captions.
Four examples of bad auto-caps from YouTube video:
On what are the easiest place if you already have a track
Acceded is just you never 18 tracks
On from your content since canceling a psychology since the basic structure
Up in that case study and then I’m going to sleep 6ut iron cactus
Here’s a quick example of what happens to me every time I put a video on YouTube.
Here’s a fun video to demonstrate how bad the automatic captions can be. (Also linked on Resources page)
Rhett and Link are YouTube stars. One of their bits is Caption Fail. Search for Lady Gaga Putt-Putt Rally for a fun example of how bad the auto-caps can be.
If you want to use a YouTube video and want to find one that has good captions, you might want to avoid the videos with Auto-Caps.
If a video has voice, then it has captions using Auto-Caps. However, those captions might be terrible.
But, if the captions have been edited (or touched as I like to call it), or a transcript has been uploaded, then that video might be much more valuable.
To find captioned videos that have been “touched” on YouTube:
Enter your search term in the YouTube search field.
Add , CC (that's a comma, CC) - This is the same effect as using the Filters button and choosing CC
Hit Enter or click the magnifying glass icon.
The first image indicates 73,600 search results for the search term “debits and credits” in YouTube.
The second image shows the same search filtered by the closed caption requirement.
Now there are 1,950 search results to choose from, and all those videos have captions that have been “touched,” so maybe they have better captions.
You still need to view the video with the captions turned on and make sure that the captions are fairly accurate and well-timed.
Our second topic – Uploading your own videos to YouTube and then fixing the AutoCaps
As you can see on the screen there are four main options for adding or editing closed captions in YouTube.
You could create your subtitles from scratch, which is probably not what I would choose to do at least not very often.
You can have a text file of your captions and upload that into YouTube and that text file could contain text and timing codes as number two shows,
or your transcript could be text only and let YouTube auto-sync using their Auto timings tool for the time codes.
The fourth option is to let YouTube create the auto caps and then just leave them. That actually might work sometimes, if you speak clearly, don't use jargon, and if you get really lucky.
The first thing that I would typically do after uploading a video to YouTube is to check the auto caps. Remember you may have to wait 30 to 60 Minutes for those Auto caps to appear.
Usually I want to edit the auto caps but, since some of them will be useful. I find that easier than starting from scratch almost every time.
Similar to the example with the monkey video, here's where the auto caps said that this is very dull, which I then corrected using the YouTube caption editor
To edit the auto captions on YouTube, you might have to poke around just a little bit. I'm going to give you instructions that worked yesterday, but they do tend to change the interface frequently.
On your video page, you will see a blue edit video button, if you own the video anyway.
That brings you to a video Details page where you should be able to access the subtitles in at least one way.
if you see captions on the list that have language and then automatic, and published, that means that your video does have the automatic captions currently available.
they give you a link to duplicate and edit and that's when the fun begins.
Let’s go to a video with lousy captions. I just so happen to have one.
Our third topic – Creating transcripts for videos without typing them out word for word
Our fourth topic – keyboard shortcuts for YouTube videos and captions
There are many keyboard shortcuts on YouTube and some of them can be very useful.
Most people are aware of using the forward arrow and back arrow keys to jump 5 seconds ahead or backward. Those are commonly-used keyboard shortcuts.
Here are some others for general YouTube video viewing.
Here’s a quick example of what happens to me every time I put a video on YouTube.
Our last topic is something that is relatively new to me. As I was working on some updates to this presentation, I went down this rabbit hole and stayed there for a couple of days.
Most people use SRT file format captions. But let’s take a look at captions in the VTT format