Caption File Preparation

Transcribing, Formatting and Time Stamping Caption Script

Easy to Use Software

CPC captioning software is intuitive and easy to use. You can use any QuickTime MOV, AVI, MPEG, WMV, or most other video file types from your hard drive. Captions can be dragged and dropped to any position in the video window. You do not need any time code card to time stamp the script as is needed by conventional captioning software.

This script area holds all the information on the individual captions - text, formatting, positioning and timing. The software has a number of toolbar icons at the top of the screen (see the Screenshot for details) that let you perform the most frequently used functions with just a simple mouse click.

The software also has toolbar icons which are geared towards specific tasks, such as video control and preview window options. In addition, most icons can be accessed via keystrokes, which can be assigned by the user. (You can assign commands to the keystrokes as you choose.)

Entering the Script (Transcribe)

If you do not have a script of the video, you can get the script in many ways, such as:

• Typing the script on a regular keyboard. If you use a digital video file, you can use a foot pedal control like vPedal to help you transcribe the video. It costs less than $100 and will greatly speed up the transcription process.
• Train speech recognition software such as Dragon Naturally Speaking for a few hours. Then listen to the videotape and repeat the dialogue into the microphone. At the beginning, you are going to get lot of errors. But you can teach the software to fix the errors and down the road you can expect to get about 95% accuracy.
• Use a professional transcription service. This is the easiest but most expensive way to generate the script.

CPC can import scripts from a text file and most word processors, such as Word files.

For some more advice on how to make transcription go smoothly, please see: Transcription Hints.

Formatting the Text

When you import a raw text file into the CPC software, the software breaks the text into captions according to your specifications, e.g.,

• Number of characters per line
• Number of lines per caption
• Number of words per minute (WPM)
• Start a new caption for a new sentence or phrase (using grammar and/or punctuation)
• Etc.

Using the five icons () on the left side of the text area (see the Screenshot for details), you can fine-tune the text in each caption in a very efficient way. For example, the icon is used to push the last word from one caption to the beginning of the next caption with just one mouse click. Highlighting is not needed. The icon is used to square up a multiple line caption.

The formatting of text is done taking into consideration the readability and the aesthetic appearance of the captions.

Link time codes to captions (Time Stamp)

Today, CPC offers a new option: Software that time stamps automatically, dramatically reducing the time it takes to caption your videos.

Manual time stamp process: play the video by clicking on the Play button. When you hear the first word of each caption spoken, press the (+) key. Pressing the (+) key reads the frame counter which is converted to a time code format assuming the first frame of the video as 01 frame. This time code is displayed on the left side of the screen. After assigning time codes to each caption, you are ready to use the time stamped file to add captions or subtitles to any digital video or a video tape. if you make a mistake in timing a caption, you either redo it or simply type the timecode by hand if you choose to.