How to create a .vtt file for video captions

To add closed captions to a video in your eCatholic LIVE archive, you'll need to generate a .vtt (WebVTT) file. Here are a few ways to create a .vtt file for video captions:

1

Hire someone to do it

Manually creating captions for your videos can become very time consuming, especially for long videos, homilies, and presentations. To save yourself some time, consider using a video captioning service. 

GoTranscript.com is one reputable company you can hire to create video captions and deliver them in a .vtt file format. Just Google "video captioning services" to explore other paid options.

• Use this link to access information on GoTranscript.com's video caption services: https://gotranscript.com/closed-captioning-services

2

Use a free online tool

Subtitle Edit Online is a handy (and free) online captioning tool you can use to create a .vtt video caption file yourself. As a free service, the tools can be a bit clunky. However, it can be used if you'd like to try to create a .vtt file yourself.

• Use this link to access Subtitle Edit Online: https://www.nikse.dk/SubtitleEdit/Online#
• Use this link to see step-by-step instructions for using Subtitle Edit Online: https://support.streamspot.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011231293

NOTE: If you already have a caption file in the .srt format, you can use a conversion program to convert the file to the .vtt format.

3

Use a text editor

You can always resort to creating captions the old-fashioned way: with a simple text editor. If you're using a Mac, you can use the TextEdit app to type out your captions and timestamps. (TextEdit should be pre-installed on your Mac.) PC users can create the file using Notepad.

NOTE: There are specific formatting rules you must follow when manually creating a .vtt file in a text editor. Check out How to Create a WebVTT File for complete instructions for Mac and PC.

Downloading a video from your eCatholic LIVE archive

If you choose option #1 or option #2 listed above to create your video caption file, you may need to first download the video from your eCatholic LIVE archive, then upload the file to create the captions.

Here's how to download a video from your eCatholic LIVE archive:

1. Log in to your eCatholic LIVE Admin Portal.
2. Go to eCatholic LIVE Tasks > Archive Management.
3. Click Download on the archived video you wish to download.

The file will be saved onto your computer as an .mp4 video file.