Storykit has a feature for automatically creating ".SRT" (SubRip Subtitle) files in the Storyboard Editor. These files are the standard sidecar format for subtitles for videos online and can be consumed by many platforms and players – both online and on the desktop.
These files are text files that hold video subtitle information: Time codes, sequential number of the subtitles, and the subtitles themselves. Please take note: There is no video or audio content in these files; they are text files meant to accompany a generated video file.
This is how you use it.
- Click on the "Settings" button in the Storyboard Editor's top menu.
- Click on "SRT Subtitle Maker".
- Set source language (the text language).
- Set target language (the desired language for the SRT file, choose from 90 languages).
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Generate subtitle.
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Download the file to your computer
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Download the file to your computer
Good to know!
- You can input an explanatory text first and then copy-paste the slide text into the "Alternate Text" field. Then you would get both things in the .SRT.
- You could also add an extra slide in your storyboard, perhaps a Player Slide, before the slide with the text, and add the explanatory text to that slide. Since it has no other text, the alternate text will be visible only when using the .SRT.
- You can also remove all text for a slide (slide text and alternate text) by using the "Ignore all text" checkbox in the "Alt Description" part of the right panel. This will skip the text content for this slide when generating the .SRT file.
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You can generate multiple translations at the same time. (This utilizes Google Translate, so the output is what you would get from that service.)
- The files are designated by their language code – which you are NOT TO CHANGE since this is needed to designate the language when uploading and using the SRT file.
- You cannot choose the same target language as source language.
- Read here how you can use your SRT file in your Storyboard.
How does it work?
The function in Storykit takes the written text content from the storyboard – there is no automatic transcription of sound, of course – and outputs an .SRT file true to the storyboard's slide layout. Please note that this function will output the text as written; we are not making any "Teletext compatibility" phrasing – since we believe that one of the primary use cases for these files is for accessibility and screen readers. The other case is for quick translation projects, which demand linguistic accuracy more than broadcast spec phrasing.
But to make this function even handier – we output two versions of each language. One that strictly follows the text as it's written and one that is phrased with something very close to "Teletext compatibility" phrasing. So you will get the choice of how you want to use your .SRT files. The "non-split" version (has that in its file name) is perhaps best used when you want your .SRT file to be consumed by a screen reader. The other version may work better for actual closed captioning. We are giving you the choice of both.
You can, of course, use the non-split version for quick translation projects, which puts a higher demand on linguistic accuracy than broadcast spec phrasing.
You do not have to create a video from the storyboard for the subtitle function to work – this means that it's also a great way to extract the text from your storyboard for proofreading.
Not sure if you have access to this feature?
Check out what's included in your plan or contact our support.