We hope the following guide helps you get your Amara Plus team setup quickly. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions and we’ll be happy to help!
Amara Support
For any questions email us at [email protected] and the first available staff member will reply.
Please include the following information to help us help you faster.
Team name.
Team Owner email address linked to the account.
Details of your question or issue you are having trouble with.
Keep reading below to learn how to manage your Plus team:
Integrate an external video hosting site with your team.
Manage Members.
Manage Videos.
Manage Subtitles, including setting Workflow for Review, and Subtitle ordering of Automatic Captions and/or from Amara on Demand.
Change Plan options.
Getting Started
Log into amara.org with your free Amara.org username.
Please note: your Amara.org username is independent of your team, which allows you to belong to multiple teams with a single username.
Go to your Amara Plus team using either option below:
Select Team Workspace. On the Team Workspace page you can click on the Go to team link or you can search for teams.
Or you can select your Amara Plus team in the dropdown under your username.
Integrate your Amara Plus team with your video hosting site
Integrating your team with an external video hosting site provides benefits that help save you time by automating several steps:
Import videos automatically from the site to your Amara team (YouTube only).
Import subtitles automatically when you add a video from your channel to your Amara team.
Export subtitles when marked complete on Amara.
Important note: Log into the external hosting site account in a separate browser window before starting the integration process.
Be sure to integrate your channel with your Amara Plus team, not your personal Amara username.
The integration can be added either to your personal Amara profile or your Amara Plus team, but only one can be integrated at a time.
Go to your Amara Plus team.
Select Settings.
Select Integrations.
Select Add Account.
After the host site is integrated you can see the subtitle export history for all completed subtitles.
Manage Members
Team Admission Settings
There are three types of team admission: Open, Application, and Invitation.
Open: Any Amara user can find and join a team with an Open admission policy.
Application: For teams with Application admission, Amara users can find the team but must apply and be approved by team Admins before they can join a team.
Invitation: For teams with Invitation admission, the team is not visible to anyone except team members, and a team Admin has to invite a user to a team.
Adding members to your team
Anyone who wants to work on your team, whether they are a vendor or a member of your in-house localization team, must first create an Amara account. It’s free to sign up!
The basic Amara Plus subscription includes 2 team members.
You can send invitations or add members directly to your Amara Plus team.
Send an invitation with the username.
Send an invitation with the email address.
Add members directly to your team.
Enter their Amara free username.
Select the role for the user.
Permissions for each role can be selected on the Settings tab under Permissions.
Add more seats to your Team Subscription
You can add more seats to your subscription at any time.
Go to your Amara Plus team.
Select the Plan tab.
Select Change Plan Options to add or remove users.
Each additional user seat is $12.00. The amount will be prorated for the number of days the users are added to the team.
Select Change Payment Method to update your credit card details.
If you need to cancel your Amara Plus subscription just email us at [email protected] and share the details below:
Owner username and email.
Team name.
Manage Videos
Videos Page
Add videos, filter, sort, and search for team videos on the Videos page:
Switch layout between List or Grid View.
Search for videos by title.
Filter and sort team videos by:
Video language;
Needs subtitles;
Completed subtitles;
Project;
Duration;
Uploaded videos;
Sort by date added, video title, and number of completed languages.
Add videos manually to the team.
Click the checkbox next to a video in the list to display a slide up menu with options to order captions and subtitles; remove the video; move the video to a different team or project; edit the video title, language, or thumbnail; and download subtitles.
Add Videos Manually
Only Owners and Admins can add videos to an Amara Plus team.
You can always add videos manually to your Amara Plus team, even if you have integrated a host channel with your Amara team (or if you have integrated with Vimeo or Kaltura that does not automatically import new videos to the team).
Acceptable video formats include: Vimeo, YouTube, MP4, WebM, OGG, and MP3.
You can add single videos, or add multiple videos at once.
You can add video URLs from a hosting site such as YouTube or Vimeo.
You can add video URLs from Dropbox.
You can add videos from your local system or GDrive storage.
Add Videos
Go to your Amara Plus team.
Select the Videos tab.
Select the Add videos button.
Select one of the following:
URL
From a public hosting site like YouTube or Vimeo, or to add a video from Dropbox.
Multiple URLs
File Upload
For videos saved to your local system.
Google Drive
For videos stored on your private Google Drive.
Note: Amara Plus teams have 50 GB of storage for videos uploaded from your local system and Google Drive.
Add a URL from a Hosting Site (YouTube, Vimeo)
Copy the URL in the browser window on the video page on the host site.
Note: the URL of the video on YouTube and Vimeo is found in the address bar of the video page:
Select the Videos tab on your Amara Plus team.
Select the Add videos button.
Select URL.
Select the language spoken in the video.
Paste the URL in the Video URL field.
Optional: select the team Project.
Click the Add video to your team button.
Add a video URL window.
Add a URL from Dropbox
You can upload a Dropbox video to Amara using the URL of the video, but there is an important part of the URL that must be changed in the Add Videos >> URL window:
the last part of the URL string must be changed from dl=0 to raw=1
For example:
Original URL: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5nu5ears8679wpi/WIN_20200608_09_27_36_Pro.mp4?dl=0
Edited URL: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5nu5ears8679wpi/WIN_20200608_09_27_36_Pro.mp4?raw=1
Copy the Dropbox URL to your computer's clipboard: in Dropbox, click on the Share button, then click on Create and copy link that appears in the popup window.
Select the Videos tab on your Amara Plus team.
Select the Add videos button.
Select URL.
Select the language spoken in the video.
Paste the Dropbox URL into the Video URL field.
Change the last part of the URL string from dl=0 to raw=1, for example:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5nu5ears8679wpi/WIN_20200608_09_27_36_Pro.mp4?raw=1
Optional: select the team Project.
Click on the Add video to your team button.
Add Multiple URLs
Select Multiple URLs from the Add Videos drop down.
Enter the URLs of any compatible videos. Enter one URL per line.
Remember that if you are adding Dropbox URLs you must change the end of each URL from dl=0 to raw=1.
To designate titles for the videos, add a space after a URL and enter the title after the space.
Note that if you don’t specify titles in this window, then the titles for the team videos will be populated either with information from the videos at the host site, or the titles will be the URL.
Select the source language.
Note that when adding multiple videos they must all have the same source language.
Optional: select the team Project.
Select the Add Multiple button.
Add multiple video URLs window.
File Upload from Your Local System
Select the Videos tab on your Amara Plus team.
Select the Add videos button.
Select File upload.
Select the source language.
Note that when uploading multiple videos they must all have the same source language.
Drop or choose file(s) to upload.
Note the following:
The file size limit is 4 GB per file.
Amara Plus teams have 50 GB of storage for videos uploaded from your local system and Google Drive.
The remaining storage space shown is your current storage space available. The remaining storage space will decrease after you finish adding videos in the File Upload window. The next time you open the File Upload window, you will see the new remaining storage space reflected in that window.
You can select up to 10 files to add from within this window. If you need to upload more files, repeat the steps to import from your local system.
Optional: select the team Project.
Click the Add video to your team button.
Add a video file from your local system.
After you drop or choose files you will see icons for the files you added, and depending on how many videos and/or the size of the videos you may see a status button saying the system is processing the uploaded videos:
Processing the upload of video files from your local system.
Important:
The remaining storage space will decrease after you finish adding videos in the File Upload window. The next time you open the File Upload window, you will see the new remaining storage space reflected in that window.
Click the Add video to your team button to finish adding the videos from your local system:
Finish uploading videos from your local system.
Note that the URLs for videos added through File upload will look similar to this URL:
Upload from Google Drive
Select Google Drive from the Add Videos drop down.
Select a Google account, if prompted, then click Allow in the Google access window.
In the next window:
Select the source language.
Note that when uploading multiple videos they must all have the same source language.
Optional: select the team Project.
Click the Select from Google Drive button.
Note the following:
The file size limit is 4 GB per file.
Amara Plus teams have 50 GB of storage for videos uploaded from your local system and Google Drive.
The remaining storage space shown is your current storage space available. The remaining storage space will decrease after you finish adding videos in the Import from Google Drive window.
You can select up to 10 files to add from within this window. If you need to upload more files, repeat the steps to import from Google Drive.
Click the Add video to your team button.
Upload video files from Google Drive.
When you click on the Select from Google Drive button, the Select a file window opens.
Select videos from within the Folders on your Google Drive.
Select the Videos tab to select individual videos not in Folders.
Toggle between List or Grid view.
Change the Sort Order.
Click on the Select button after selecting videos.
Select video files on your Google Drive to upload to the team.
Important:
Note the remaining storage will decrease after you finish adding videos in the Import from Google Drive window.
Click the Add video to your team button to finish adding the videos from your Google Drive:
Finish importing videos from Google Drive.
Note that the URLs for videos added through Google Drive upload will look similar to this URL:
Filter to search for Uploaded Videos
You can search for videos that have been uploaded from either your local system or from Google Drive.
Amara storage is private and secure. You can delete videos anytime to free up storage space to add new videos.
On the Videos page, click on Filter and sort and choose Uploaded Videos:
In the Video uploaded to Amara storage window, click on Yes, then Apply:
Manage Subtitles
Start Subtitling or Translating
Any team member can start subtitles as soon as a video is added to the team. There are a number of ways that you can subtitle or translate team videos.
Go the team Dashboard.
Click on the Transcribe [language] or Translate [language] button under a video and you will enter the Editor.
3. Or you can go to the Videos page and click on the video you wish to subtitle or translate.
If no subtitles exist in that language yet, click on the Add/Edit subtitles button.
Select the language in the Add new subtitles dropdown, then click on the Add button.
Or if subtitles for the language already exist, click on the subtitle language from the Incomplete Subtitles or Completed Subtitles list.
Optional Subtitle Workflow: Review
To maintain greater control over subtitle quality you can set the Subtitle Workflow for Review. Go to the team Settings page >> Subtitle Workflow, then check Enable review:
Note: The same team member should not perform the Subtitle and Review Workflow steps. One team member can create subtitles, then a second team member should perform the Review step.
Completing Subtitles
When subtitles are completed by a team member in the editor:
If you have not enabled Review in your Subtitle Workflow, then the subtitles are considered complete and published.
If you have enabled Review in your Subtitle Workflow, then when subtitles are completed by a team member, the subtitles will show as being ready for Review:
Other team members will see the Review available on their Dashboard under a video thumbnail:
Click on Review to enter the Editor. Watch the video, verify that the subtitles are correct, then click on Publish to complete the review and have the subtitles marked as Complete:
Note that team members can edit subtitles at any time, including completed subtitles.
Upload Subtitles
You can upload subtitle files from either the video page or from inside the editor.
On the Videos page click on the three dots to the right of the Add/Edit subtitles button, then click on Upload subtitles.
- Or you can select Add/Edit subtitles in any language to enter the Editor and upload from within the Editor:
Select Subtitle tools.
Select Upload subtitles.
Note that uploading subtitles will overwrite any existing subtitles.
Download Subtitles
There are a number of ways that you can download subtitles. We recommend downloading VTT file type for most use cases.
Download from the Video Page
When viewing a video page, click on the download button to the right of the Subtitles header and choose the Completed or Incomplete language and the file type you wish to download.
Or click on any language that you want to download from either the Incomplete Subtitles list or the Completed Subtitles list.
Click on the Download dropdown under the subtitle language header and choose the language and the file type you wish to download.
Download from the Subtitle Page
From the subtitle page for a set of subtitles not only can you download subtitle files, but you can view activity for team subtitles and compare subtitle revisions.
Go to the Videos page.
Either click on the video from the Video column, and select the subtitle language from the Completed or Incomplete Subtitles sections of the page;
Or click on the area to the right of the video title to expand information about the video and view subtitles, start new subtitles, or edit incomplete subtitles for a video.
The subtitle page opens, and from the subtitle page you can download the subtitles, compare revisions, edit the subtitles, and follow the subtitle set for updates.
The menu bar below the video has options to view the following subtitle details:
Subtitles shows current subtitles and their timestamps.
Subtitles Info shows video information.
Activity shows all activity by team members.
Subtitle Notes shows notes left by team members in the Amara Editor.
Sync History shows the status of subtitle export attempts to the video’s hosting site.
Compare Revisions, Rollback Revisions
The Compare revisions link on the subtitle page allows you to view the progress of the subtitles, compare two revisions of the subtitles, or rollback to previous versions of the subtitles.
Click the Compare revisions link and select two revisions to compare, then click the Compare button:
In the compare revisions window you can scroll through the revisions to see the differences between two subtitle versions.
You can rollback to a previous version of the subtitles by clicking on the Rollback to version # button.
Subtitle Orders: Free Automatic Captions, and order from Amara on Demand
The team Owner can order captions and subtitles right from the Subtitle Orders tab on your Amara Plus team. There are two options available:
Automatic captions (Amara Plus teams get 60 free minutes per month).
Professional, human crafted captions and subtitles.
Free automatic captions to help get you started!
You can order automatic captions to give your linguists a head-start.
Your Amara Plus team subscription includes 60 minutes of free automatic captions per month.
Auto captions available for the following languages: English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese Brazilian, Italian, and Dutch.
Order professional, human crafted captions and translations!
You can also submit a video to our Amara On Demand team of professional linguists.
Manage Plan Options or Cancel Team Subscription
Manage Plan Options
Only the team Owner can access the Plan page to change plan options such as the number of seats (team members) or the payment information.
If the team ownership needs to be updated or changed, the current Owner of the team/ billing credit card should send an email to [email protected] requesting the ownership change.
Canceling Team Subscriptions
If you have a team with a paid subscription and would like to cancel your subscription, please contact [email protected].
Please note that deactivating your personal Amara user account will not cancel Paid Subscription Plans. If you have any questions regarding your team on Amara please contact us at [email protected] and we will be happy to help!
Happy Subtitling on your new Amara Plus team!
If you have any feedback to share we would love to hear from you, email us at [email protected].
Your experience is very important to us and we appreciate any ideas or suggestions you may have to help make Amara.org even better!