The first step in choosing a format is to decide how you want the final subtitles or captions to display in the video. There are two ways to display captions on video content:
Open captions are always on and cannot be turned off.
Open captions are only available through our in-house subtitling team, Amara On Demand.
Closed captions allow the viewer to turn them on or off.
Closed captions are a separate file played with the video, so you can add multiple subtitle files for viewers to choose from.
The standard option on Amara is closed captions or subtitles.
Subtitle Formats Available For All Amara Users
All Amara users have multiple formats to choose from on the Amara subtitling platform:
Additional Subtitle Formats Through AOD
Amara On Demand (AOD) is Amara's in-house subtitling service. In addition to the subtitle formats listed above, AOD provides ITT, SCC, CAP formats and open captions embedded in the video.
Send us a request and we'll be happy to help with your projects.
If you order from AOD, your professional subtitles will be delivered in a private file in the format of your choice.
Captions for Social Media
Tips for the most common media sites.
Facebook and Instagram both use unformatted SRT files.
Neither platform supports positioning, special characters,or text formatting.
YouTube, Vimeo, Brightcove, or Kaltura use WebVTT files.
These online platforms allow some styling to your subtitle files.
Download Subtitles
You might want to download subtitles to add to a video that you are watching on your computer or edit offline using other subtitle editors.
Download Subtitles from Amara Public Workspace or Simple Teams (Plus, Community)
Go to the video page for the subtitles you want to download.
Click the Download button to the right of the Subtitles header.
Select the language and the file format you want from the dropdown lists, then click Download.
Download Subtitles from Collaboration Teams (Enterprise, Community Enterprise)
Go to the video page for the subtitles you want to download.
Click the subtitle language under the Completed Subtitles or Incomplete Subtitles header.
Click Download under the subtitle language header.
Select the file form you want from the dropdown menu.
The selected subtitles will be downloaded to your computer. You can now view or edit the file in a text editor on your computer or upload them to a video player.
When downloading subtitles, make sure to save them directly to disk rather than let the browser open them with the default application.
For more tips and tricks about subtitle formatting, check out this blog post about subtitle formats available on Amara.
Set up automatic subtitle export from Amara
You can automatically export completed subtitles from Amara to your channel or account on video hosting platforms.
Automatic Export from Amara User Accounts
Automatic Export from Amara Teams (Admins only)
Upload Subtitles From the Video Page
You can upload subtitles or untimed transcripts to Amara and make edits if needed.
First, the related video needs to be added to Amara.
Amara creates a page for your video.
Upload Subtitles to Videos on Amara Public Workspace or Simple Teams (Plus, Community)
On the video page, click the kebab menu next to the Add/Edit Subtitles button
Then select the Upload subtitles item from the dropdown menu:
Note: The kebab menu for Amara Public Workspace videos might have additional menu items than Team videos.
Important: For videos on Collaboration Teams (Enterprise, Community Enterprise) you can only upload subtitles from within the Editor. See the Upload Subtitles in the Editor section below.
When you upload subtitles, you have to select the language of your subtitles.
If there are already subtitles in that language for your video on Amara, those subtitles will be replaced by the uploaded version.
View different versions of subtitles in a language by clicking the language under the subtitle list on the right side of the video.
Uploading subtitles on the video page will automatically mark them as complete.
If you have an integration set up to YouTube, Vimeo, or another video hosting site, the uploaded subtitles will be visible on that site.
If you want to make edits before your subtitles export, upload them in the Editor following the steps in the next section.
Upload Subtitles in the Editor
You can upload subtitles for videos on Amara Public Workspace or Simple Teams (Plus, Community) from within the Amara Editor.
Go to the video page and click on the Add/Edit Subtitles button.
Select the language that you want to add and open the Editor.
Note: For videos on Collaboration Teams (Enterprise, Community Enterprise) you can only upload subtitles from within the Editor. On those teams, first you must take on the Transcription or Translation Request, then enter the Editor by choosing to edit the subtitle language.
In the Amara Editor click the Subtitle tools button and select the Upload subtitles item from the dropdown menu:
Choose the subtitle file, then click on Upload.
If you had had any unsaved changes in the Editor prior to uploading, you may see another dialog warning you about abandoning those changes. If you continue with uploading, unsaved changes will be lost.
Using YouTube ASR captions
Both Amara Free users and Amara team Admins can upload YouTube ASR captions on Amara.
Any Amara user can download and upload YouTube ASR manually and edit the subtitles on Amara.
Amara Team subscriptions like Amara Community, Amara Plus and Amara Enterprise teams have the additional option of automatically importing YouTube ASR captions when they integrate their Amara team and YouTube channel.
Uploading Untimed Transcript (.txt) Files
You can upload an untimed text transcript, and use the Amara Editor to synchronize its timing and make any necessary edits to the transcript.
For example:
Hello, this is my first line of the subtitle transcript.
And here is my second line of the transcript, but it's exceptionally long,
so I separated it into a third line.
Your transcript file needs to be in TXT format (filename.txt).
If your file isn’t in TXT format you can copy and paste the text from your file into a new document with Notepad++ (Windows PC), Geddit (Linux PC) or TextWrangler (Mac).
When saving your TXT file, make sure that UTF-8 Encoded is selected and save it with the extension .txt
Then follow the steps in the Uploading Subtitles section above.
If you have any questions or suggestions please share your feedback.
Simply click No in the Did you find this helpful link below to submit a quick ticket.
Thank you for your contributions to support an inclusive and accessible media ecosystem!