Captions open up your content to a larger audience, including deaf or hard of hearing viewers or those who speak other languages. Learn more about the benefits of captions in this YouTube video
Caption file vs. transcript
In order to add captions to your video you’ll first need to create a caption file or transcript:
Caption file: this file contains both the text and time codes for when each line of text should be displayed. Caption files may also include position and style information which is especially useful for deaf or hard of hearing viewers.
Transcript: this only contains the text of what is said in the video, and no time code information. Since the text is automatically synchronized to your video, the transcript must be in a language supported by our speech recognition technology, and in the same language as is spoken in the video. Transcripts are not recommended for videos that are over an hour long or have poor audio quality.
Note that both caption files and transcripts may incorporate sound cues like [music] or [applause] to identify background sounds.
How to add caption files or transcripts to your videos
- Visit your Video Manager and click the drop-down menu next to the “Edit” button for the video you’d like to add captions to
- Select Captions
- If you haven’t added captions before, click the Add captions button. Or, if you’ve already added a caption, click the Add a new track button and select Upload caption file or transcript
- On the next page, you can choose to either: add a Caption file if your file includes time codes or Transcript if it doesn’t
- After following the steps above, enter a track name if you wish
- Click the Upload timed caption file button
- Select the file you want to upload
- After following the steps above, enter a track name if you wish
- Type your transcript directly into the Video Transcript box or click Upload transcript and select the file you want to upload
- Click Sync
