Article#2035122180

Created By Taylor McCauley

Closed Captioning is a tool that allows users to understand what is being said in a video without having to use audio. This is a best practice for deaf and hard-of-hearing faculty, students, and staff, but is also utilized by many other users as well. It is highly suggested that any videos that you produce for classes or for training purposes utilize this tool. 

Things to Note Before Producing Your Video:

Finish editing your video footage before creating captions. Captions should be your final step in the video production process, in order to ensure clean transitions and accurate information. 

When you caption a video, this results in two files: a file containing the audiovisual content, and a caption file that contains the audio transcript, as well as encoded time stamps. These captioning files are typically a .srt file (SubRip Text). 

Speech-to-Text or auto-captioning programs have improved over time and have a high level of accuracy, but they are not perfect. Make sure to ALWAYS go back through the captions that come from these programs to make corrections and edits. 

Adding Auto-Generated Captions to Studio Videos 

  1. Create or upload your video into Studio as usual. Captioning occurs after the video is uploaded in and processed. 

  2. In your Studio account, locate the video that you want to add captions to and click the “View” link. 

  3. Click the Captions tab that will appear below the video. 

  4. If the media file does not already have a caption file attached to it, you can select the “Captions Request” tool. 

  5. Click the “Which language is spoken?” drop-down menu and enter or select the language spoken in the file. 

  6. To confirm your request, click the “Request” button. (Note: THIS IS A REQUEST. YOU WILL RECEIVE AN EMAIL NOTIFICATION WHEN STUDIO HAS COMPLETED THE CAPTION TRANSCRIPT. YOU WILL NEED TO REVIEW THE CAPTIONS BEFORE THEY ARE UPLOADED) 

 

Viewing Pending Captions on Studio Videos 

To see if your generated captions are ready in Studio, navigate to the video you requested captions for in your Library and select “View,” followed by the “Captions” tab. Your captions will be listed as “Studio-generated,” and will either say that they are queued (not completed) or they will say to “Review and Publish.” A queued request will send you an email notification when Studio has completed the caption transcript. 

 

Reviewing/Editing Caption Files 

  1. In your Studio account, locate the video that you added captions to and click the “View” link. 

  2. Click the captions tab that will appear below the video. 

  3. Under “Manage Captions” you will see your generated captions that have been completed with a “Review & Publish” button. You must review and publish the file before captions will display in your media.
     

  4. Review the transcript generated by the Caption Request tool. To edit the text for a timestamp, click to select the text field and edit the text. 

  5. To publish your transcript, click the Publish button. (Note: You can still edit your captions after they have been published. Follow the same directions as above but the button will say “Published” instead of “Review & Publish.” Alternatively, click the three dots on the right-hand side of your captions  to see more options, and select “Edit”) 

 

Adding a Caption File to Studio Videos 

  1. Create or upload your video into Studio as usual. Captioning occurs after the video is uploaded in and processed. 

  2. In your Studio account, locate the video that you want to add a caption file to and click the “View” link. 

  3. Click the Captions tab that will appear below the video. 

  4. In the Upload section, select the language used in your caption file. Click the “Show More” button to view additional language options or to add a language that is not displayed. Click “Submit.” 

  5. Locate and select the file on your computer, then click the “Choose” or “Open” button. 

  6. Once your file is uploaded, the caption file will display in the “Manage Captions” section.
     

Managing Caption Files on Studio Videos 

  1. In your Studio account, locate the video whose captions you want to edit, download, or delete. Click the “View” link. 

  2. Click the Captions tab that will appear below the video. Your caption file should appear here. 

  3. On the right-hand side of the caption file, click the three dots to see more options. From here you can download the caption file, replace the caption file, or delete the caption file. (Note: caption files will download in the same file format that they were uploaded in: SRT or VTT. After downloading, most computers will allow you to convert caption files into word processing files) 

Request automatic Captions from Canvas Studio

  1. Create or upload your video into Studio as usual. Captioning occurs after the video is uploaded in and processed. 

  2. In your Studio account, locate the video that you want to add captions to and click the “View” link. 

  3. Click the Captions tab that will appear below the video. 

  4. If the media file does not already have a caption file attached to it, you can select the “Captions Request” tool. 

  5. Click the “Which language is spoken?” drop-down menu and enter or select the language spoken in the file. 

  6. To confirm your request, click the “Request” button. (Note: This is a “REQUEST.” You will receive an email notification when Studio has completed the caption transcript. You will need to review the captions before they are uploaded. )

Viewing Pending Captions on Studio Videos 

To see if your generated captions are ready in Studio, navigate to the video you requested captions for in your Library and select “View,” followed by the “Captions” tab. Your captions will be listed as “Studio-generated,” and will either say that they are queued (not completed) or they will say to “Review and Publish.” A queued request will send you an email notification when Studio has completed the caption transcript. 

 

Reviewing/Editing Caption Files 

  1. In your Studio account, locate the video that you added captions to and click the “View” link. 

  2. Click the captions tab that will appear below the video. 

  3. Under “Manage Captions” you will see your generated captions that have been completed with a “Review & Publish” button. You must review and publish the file before captions will display in your media. 

  4. Review the transcript generated by the Caption Request tool. To edit the text for a timestamp, click to select the text field and edit the text. 

  5. To publish your transcript, click the Publish button. (Note: You can still edit your captions after they have been published. Follow the same directions as above but the button will say “Published” instead of “Review & Publish.” Alternatively, click the three dots on the right-hand side of your captions  to see more options, and select “Edit”) 

Adding a Caption File to Studio Videos 

  1. Create or upload your video into Studio as usual. Captioning occurs after the video is uploaded in and processed. 

  2. In your Studio account, locate the video that you want to add a caption file to and click the “View” link. 

  3. Click the Captions tab that will appear below the video. 

  4. In the Upload section, select the language used in your caption file. Click the “Show More” button to view additional language options or to add a language that is not displayed. Click “Submit.” 

  5. Locate and select the file on your computer, then click the “Choose” or “Open” button. 

  6. Once your file is uploaded, the caption file will display in the “Manage Captions” section. 

 

Managing Caption Files on Studio Videos 

  1. In your Studio account, locate the video whose captions you want to edit, download, or delete. Click the “View” link. 

  2. Click the Captions tab that will appear below the video. Your caption file should appear here. 

  3. On the right-hand side of the caption file, click the three dots to see more options. From here you can download the caption file, replace the caption file, or delete the caption file. (Note: caption files will download in the same file format that they were uploaded in: SRT or VTT. After downloading, most computers will allow you to convert caption files into word processing files) 

If you have any questions concerning your videos, please visit: https://ithelp.stjohns.edu and click “Report an Incident.” 

Articles referenced when creating this how-to guide: Best Practices for adding captions to your Panopto videos, How do I use the Canvas Studio Caption Request Tool to add captions to a media file? , How do I upload a caption file to Canvas Studio media?   , Canvas: How do I upload a caption file to Canvas Studio?  , Canvas: How do I use the Canvas Studio Caption Request Tool?