How to Write Closed Captions for YouTube

Last Updated: August 10, 2021

YouTube allows video owners to add closed captions (or subtitles). These can be useful to viewers for all sorts of reasons. They are not the same as annotations! Special software is available to create these closed captions files but you only need a text editor (such as notepad) to write the file.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Creating YouTube Closed Captions With a Text Editor

1
Open a text editor.
2
For each caption write its number on a separate line (in order) - begin with 1 .

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3
On the next line write the time you want the caption to appear in the video - in HH:MM:SS,MS e.g. 00:00:01,60 is 1 second 60 milliseconds.
4
On the same line write --> with spaces either side.
5
On the same line write the time you want the caption to disappear - in HH:MM:SS,MS e.g. 00:00:04,90
6
On the next line, write the caption you want to appear.
7
For more captions leave a blank line and begin with the next number in sequence (2, 3, etc...).
8
Save the file as whatever you want as long as it is a text file (.txt).
9
Upload your captions.

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Creating Youtube Closed Caption files with uTranscribe.

1
Create a free account at www.uTranscribe.tv.
2
Create a new project.
3
Copy your YouTube URL.
4
Start typing and time stamping your video.
5
When complete save and output a SRT, WebVTT or TTML closed caption file for YouTube.
6
Upload your Closed Caption file to your corresponding YouTube video.

Warnings

Closed captions are not the same as annotations! They have different uses.

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Unless community contributions are turned on, you cannot add closed captions to videos somebody else has uploaded.

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