Captions

Captions display onscreen text within a video to provide additional or interpretive information for viewers. Caption text may include:

• Transcription of the spoken dialogue or narration
• Speaker identification
• Manner of speaking
• Sound effects
• Music description

Add captions to your video when:

• Viewers are deaf or hard of hearing
• Viewers are in an environment where audio is not available
• Viewers are nonnative speakers, cannot understand the speaker's accent, or the speech is not entirely clear (subtitles)

Add Captions

1. Click the Audio FX tab.
2. Drag the Captions audio fx onto an audio clip on the timeline.
3. The caption track appears on the timeline. By default, captions are divided into four-second segments and span the entire duration of the audio clip. Click the first caption segment. The Caption Editor appears over the canvas.
   
4. As the audio plays for the caption segment, type the caption text. The playhead stops at the end of the current segment.
   
   • To repeat (loop) the audio for the current caption segment, press Enter or click the Replay Segment button.
     
   • To move to the next caption segment, press Tab or click the Next Segment button.
     
   • To learn how to write ADA compliant captions, see Caption writing tips.
5. To adjust the duration the caption segment displays within the video, drag the Duration slider in the Caption Editor. The duration (in seconds) for the selected caption segment appears under the slider. The default duration is four seconds.
   
6. Continue steps 3-5 until captions are added for the entire audio clip.

Change the Caption Duration

By default, captions are divided into four-second segments and span the entire duration of the audio clip. The caption duration must be between two and seven seconds to be ADA compliant.

1. Click to select a caption segment. The caption editor appears.
   

2. Drag the Duration slider in the Caption Editor. The duration (in seconds) for the selected caption segment appears under the slider.
   

Export a Video with Captions

If the timeline includes captions, the captions appear in your final video by default. The type of caption display depends on the export option you select.

• With closed captioning, viewers have the option to turn the captions on or off. Closed captions are available in the YouTube, Flash and local export, and Screencast.com share options.
  
• With open captioning, the captions are always visible or "burned-in" to the video. Open captions are available in the iTunes and Advanced Export share options.
  

Disable Captions:

By default, captions are automatically exported in the supported file formats. To disable captions when exporting a video, select Edit > Captions > Disable Captions. With this option, captions are still saved to the Camtasia project, but are not included when exporting the final video.