Subtitles are very useful for primary and secondary students when you have found (or made) an appropriate video but want to provide additional listening support. Subtitles are also a great addition when videos are used for Flipped Classes or with EdPuzzle activities.
This unit introduces a few FREE solutions for adding subtitles to your videos, either the ones uploaded to YouTube or in your local discs.
1. Movie Maker
Movie Maker 2011-12 was an ‘Accessory’ application installed with Windows OS. There are many versions, with the more recent ones increasingly user-friendly.
Here is a short tutorial on adding subtitles. This tutorial may be a bit outdated, and the newest version of Movie Maker is even easier to use to add subtitles. You can find additional tutorials on YouTube for this and other video editing software.
Here is an example of a Sesame Street video that took about 30 minutes to add subtitles using Movie Maker. To try it out, I found this video on YouTube and downloaded it using the software FreeMake Video Downloader. I handwrote the dialogue first. Then I typed each line of dialogue into a Word Doc. Following the tutorial above, I cut and pasted the dialogue into the video.
Please note that Movie Maker has not been available for download since 2018 according to Microsoft. If you are using Windows 10, you might find other alternative apps with similar features.
2. YouTube
YouTube allows you to create new subtitles for the videos you uploaded in your account. You can simply type and edit your subtitles on your YouTube page or upload a subtitle file for your video. Check out the tutorial below about adding subtitles to an uploaded YouTube video:
If you choose to upload a subtitle file to YouTube, also check out the file types supported by YouTube. The common file format such as SubRip (.srt) are compatible.
3. Aegisub
Aegisub is an easy but powerful tool for creating, modifying and styling subtitles. It can also export different file formats to cater different purposes. If you have got a great amount of subtitle work, Aegisub might save you time with its professional features. Check out how to create subtitles in Aegisub below:
Also, there are some advanced features supported by Aegisub like creating subtitles in karaoke mode:
If you have any experience or problems with adding subtitles, feel free to share with us in the blog.