CTL GuidesTeaching and Learning ToolsCamtasiaCamtasiaHow do I add captions to my Camtasia video file?

How do I add captions to my Camtasia video file?

You will learn about several ways on how to add captions to your Camtasia video.

For help adding Captions into YouTube, head here: How do I add Captions to YouTube?

For TechSmith's guide on Captioning your Camtasia video, head here: Captions

Creating captions in the video

To manually add a caption to your video, click the + Add Caption button. This will place a 4 second Blank Caption in your video where you can enter  your text.

  1. Click these captions to edit their text.
  2. Change the text settings, such as font size or color,  by clicking the drop down arrow.
  3. Change the duration of a caption by dragging the slider.
  4. Quickly jump between captions by using the arrows.
  5. Move captions or change their duration by dragging the edges along the timeline.

There are also 4 other ways to create captions in your video.

4 way to caption a video: sync, import, export, speech-to-text
Sync Captions

Sync Captions simply allows you to manually line up your captions with the video by clicking the words to create a new caption as they come up in the video. This may take some time, but will be helpful if your captions are only in one text box.

How to sync your caption by clicking on words in the editor.
Import Captions

Importing Captions requires you to have a file that is compatible (.srt  .sub  .sbv  .smi) for subtitles. The most used is .srt, which is usually created after exporting captions for a video. If you have a usable subtitle file, import it by going to File< Import Media and it will sync up with your video.

Camtasia File< Import Media location
Export Captions

Exporting Captions creates a .srt or .smi file of the captions you have in your video. It is highly recommended that you create a .srt file, as it can be used for future uses and will automatically set its timings in the video.

Saving caption file as .srt file type
Speech-to-Text

Speech-to-Text automatically transcribes your video by recognizing your voice. For best results, you will need to 'train' your computer to recognize your voice by speaking several lines, which takes several minutes. However, it isn't required. Clicking continue will attempt to transcribe your video, but will most likely contain a fair amount of errors that you can edit out later.

Tips for Speech-to-Text

Keeping Captions on your video for future use

Select share in the navigation and then custom production in the drop down menu

Click Share at the top left, and choose Custom Production -> New Custom Production

Select MP4 in Production Wizard Window

Select MP4 - Smart Player and click Next

In Production Wizard window, select Options then chose your caption type.

Go to the Options tab and check the Captions box. There are three types of Captions you can have in your video.

  • Closed Captions: This choice allows Captions to be toggled on or off in the video. It is the recommended choice.
  • Burned in Captions: These captions are 'burned' into the video, always being displayed during the video. They can't be turned off.
  • Under video Captions: These captions create a small, blank space under your video where the captions will be displayed. This does increase the height of your video by a little bit.
In Production Wizard and under Output file type in your production name.

Give your video a name and click Finish. Your video should open up in another window, allowing you to preview it.

Production results window, select Open production folder

A folder will be created in Camtasia Studio with your video in it.  You can find it automatically by clicking Open production folder after it is complete.

The VLC media file (orange cone) is the basic video file, which is in the .mp4 format. If you want to upload your video onto Canvas or another site, this is the file you will be using.