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Video Subtitles

This article goes over how to add subtitles or captions to your uploaded videos, in multiple languages if desired.

Overview

NOTE: Auto-generated and uploaded subtitles are only available for videos within courses.

Adding subtitles or captions to a video can offer additional accessibility and engagement to your content.

Teachable offers two ways to add subtitles to your course videos: auto-generated subtitles or manually uploaded subtitle files.

  • Auto-generated subtitles are the quickest option and can save time when you need subtitles for multiple videos or languages. However, automatically generated subtitles may contain errors, including incorrect words, punctuation, or timing. We recommend reviewing auto-generated subtitles for accuracy before relying on them as a final transcript.

  • Manually uploaded subtitles give you more control over the accuracy and timing of your subtitles. You can create or edit a subtitle file yourself and upload it as an .srt or .vtt file.

If you want a faster starting point, auto-generation can help create a first version that you can review and refine as needed. If accuracy is especially important for your content, manually creating and reviewing your subtitles gives you greater control.

You can automatically generate subtitles for your videos that are recorded in the following languages:

  • Arabic (العربية)

  • Dutch (Nederlands)

  • English

  • French (Français)

  • Italian (Italiano)

  • Portuguese (Português - Brazil)

  • Spanish (Español)

If your audio is not recorded in one of the 7 supported languages for auto-generation, you can manually add .srt or .vtt files to your uploaded video content.

Auto-generate and translate subtitles

For an entire course

  1. From your course's Information tab, toggle to the Video settings section.

    course subtitle settings.png

  2. Select the language the video is recorded in (Arabic, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish).

  3. Click Generate. This may take several minutes to generate depending on the size of your video files.

  4. Optionally, select the additional language you would like your subtitles to be auto-translated from the second drop down menu

  5. Click Save subtitle settings.

Repeat to add any additional language available in the drop down menu. Click Save in the top corner when done.
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For an individual lesson video

  1. From your lesson video block, click the Settings icon (gear icon) and scroll to Add subtitles section.

  2. In the Choose subtitles source drop down menu, select Auto-generate.

  3. Select the language the video is recorded in (Arabic, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish).

  4. Click Generate. This may take several minutes to generate depending on the size of your video file. Make sure to choose the audio language spoken in the video.

  5. Once the subtitles have been generated, your students will have immediate access to them on your videos.

  6. To also translate your subtitles in up to 70 languages, click the Translate icon next to the generated subtitles and use the drop down menu to select additional languages and begin the generation flow.

NOTE: Translation will only be available when using auto-generated subtitles from one of the supported 7 languages. (Arabic, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish).

Add subtitles manually

If you would prefer to manually add subtitles, you can upload your .srt or .vtt file to each of your videos. This type of file contains video subtitle information like the start and end timecodes of text and the sequential number of subtitles.

To manually upload a subtitle file to a course video:

  1. From your lesson video block, click the Settings icon (gear icon) and scroll to Add subtitles section.

  2. In the Choose subtitles source drop down menu, select Upload .srt or .vtt.

  3. Select the Language of file from the drop down menu. Click Upload subtitle.

  4. A popup will appear to upload your file.
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    lesson subtitles manual files.png

Delete video subtitles

CAUTION: Please note that deleting a subtitle file is permanent and cannot be undone.

  1. Within the lesson's video block, select the Setting icon (gear icon).

  2. Under My subtitles, click the three dot icon next to the subtitle language.

  3. Click Remove.
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    delete subtitles.png

Frequently asked questions

Click to view the answers:

Can I automatically generate subtitles for other videos in my school?

At this time, auto-generating and manually uploading subtitles is only available in course products. For videos on other pages, like sales and coaching, we recommend adding subtitles to your videos using a video editor prior to uploading.

Why am I receiving an error when manually adding subtitles?

Errors often occur when the file is formatted incorrectly. It is important that the file is saved as either an .srt or .vtt file before uploading.

How can I create a subtitle file to manually upload?

If you want to manually add subtitles to your videos, you can create a subtitle file in .srt or .vtt format using a variety of tools. You can use an auto-captioning tool such as YouTube, Descript, or Otter.ai and edit the generated captions before exporting them, use the captioning features in your video editor, or create and time the subtitles manually with a dedicated subtitle editor.

For more details on each method, see Create video subtitle files (.srt or .vtt).

What are the 70 languages that are supported for video subtitle translations?

  1. Albanian (Shqip)

  2. Amharic (አማርኛ)

  3. Arabic (العربية)

  4. Armenian (Հայերեն)

  5. Assamese (অসমীয়া)

  6. Azerbaijani (Azərbaycan dili)

  7. Basque (Euskara)

  8. Belarusian (Беларуская)

  9. Bengali (বাংলা)

  10. Bosnian (Bosanski jezik)

  11. Bulgarian (български език)

  12. Burmese (မြန်မာ)

  13. Catalan (Català)

  14. Chinese Simplified (中文, 简体)

  15. Chinese (中文 - Hong Kong)

  16. Chinese (中文 - Macau)

  17. Chinese (中文 - Singapore)

  18. Chinese (中文 - Taiwan)

  19. Croatian (Hrvatski)

  20. Czech (česky)

  21. Danish (Dansk)

  22. Dutch (Nederlands)

  23. Dutch (Belgium)

  24. Estonian (Eesti)

  25. Farsi (فارسی)

  26. Finnish (Suomi)

  27. French (Français)

  28. Galician (Galego)

  29. German (Deutsch)

  30. Greek (Ελληνικά)

  31. Guarani (Avañe'ẽ)

  32. Hebrew (עברית)

  33. Hindi (हिन्दी)

  34. Hungarian (Magyar)

  35. Icelandic (Íslenska)

  36. Indonesian (Bahasa indonesia)

  37. Italian (Italiano)

  38. Japanese (日本語)

  39. Kashmiri (कश्मीरी)

  40. Kazakh (Қазақ тілі)

  41. Khmer (ភាសាខ្មែរ)

  42. Korean (한국어)

  43. Latin (Latine)

  44. Lithuanian (Lietuvių kalba)

  45. Latvian (Latviski)

  46. Malay (Bahasa melayu)

  47. Maltese (Malti)

  48. Māori (Te reo māori)

  49. Mongolian (монгол)

  50. Nepali (नेपाली)

  51. Norwegian Bokmål (Norsk bokmål)

  52. Polish (Polski)

  53. Portuguese (Português - Brazil)

  54. Portuguese (Português - Portugal)

  55. Romanian (Română)

  56. Russian (Русский)

  57. Serbian (српски језик)

  58. Slovak (Slovenčina)

  59. Slovene (Slovenščina)

  60. Spanish (Español)

  61. Swedish (Svenska)

  62. Tagalog

  63. Thai (ไทย)

  64. Tibetan (བོད་ཡིག)

  65. Turkish (Türkçe)

  66. Ukrainian (українська)

  67. Uzbek (Zbek)

  68. Vietnamese (Tiếng việt)

  69. Zulu

  70. Urdu (اردو)

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