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Often understanding the audio of a video in a language other than your native language in unfamiliar accent can be difficult. Therefore adding subtitles to videos becomes a necessity. Similarly, if you are into video production and often need audio dictation for tutorials among others then subtitles comes in handy. You can add subtitles to videos easily within few minutes with free tools.

We can either make separate subtitle files or embed subtitles into the video. The former comes in handy if the video is being played on computers or device supporting external subtitles. Second options is useful if the video playing device is old or simply doesn’t support external subtitles.





The post is divided into three segments. 1) Creating subtitles for videos 2) Adjusting/editing subtitles 3) Learning to embed subtitles into videos. You can quickly go to the segment which you are looking from by scrolling.

How to create subtitles for videos

Download and install the freeware subtitle software from here. Portable version would fine as well. We used portable version for the tutorial so be rest assured. Upon opening the application, a window will appear Open the video from Video drop the menu or simply drag and drop it into the window. It will take some time to load depending on the size of the video file. You can also add subtitles before hand and then add video later on. Start adding subtitle text for the display time-stamp from start to end. Particularly, for the period you want to show a particular subtitle text.

You can change fonts, color, size, etc of subtitles. Quickly go to Edit option given right above the subtitle text edit box.



After you are done adding or adjusting subtitles, go to file drop down menu and save subtitles as. The subtitle will be save in “.ass” extension short form for Advanced SubStation Alpha subtitles. Add subtitles to videos, the one you created using above tutorial. You can create subtitles on Mac based OS as well. All you have to do is download OS X setup from the download link.

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How to adjust/edit subtitles

Skip to step 4 of the tutorial given above to edit subtitles.

Add new line in the bottom subtitle timeline from the right click option. Head over to editable box on the right, where you can either adjust time period for a text to appear for a particular period of time. When you are done editing and adjusting subtitles, click on Save Subtitles from the File drop down menu. This will save the edits to the same copy.

If you don’t want to make any changes to the original subtitle file, then it can be done as well. Chose Export Subtitles from the same menu to get a separate copy.

How to embed subtitles in a video

Often from time to time, we come across such video playing devices which either don’t support certain subtitles formats or no subtitles support at all.

To overcome that obstacle of sans subtitle video watching scenario, embedding subtitles is the solution. What some people refer as “hard coding subtitles to videos”. It can be easily done with a freeware named Handbrake. Follow the easy way to embed subtitles to videos from the below given tut.

Download Handbrake and install it on your computer. If you want to embed subtitles in Mac then select OS X setup while downloading. Open the application and head over to Source button given on left top. Open the desired video to be embedded with subtitles. Now your video is loaded into the panel. Import subtitles from the Subtitles menu given in lower part of the window.



Before starting the process of subtitle embed into the video, you can change format of videos, codecs. If you are unfamiliar about the

perfect settings, then go ahead with preset settings. It is given on the right side bar for popular devices Click on the green Start button given at the top, right next to Source button.

It will take an hour or less depending upon the size of the video files. Computer’s processor power plays a major role as well. You will now be able embed subtitles in a video. If ballpark is to be provided, then around 40 minutes for video file of size 1.5 GB is normal.

Your turn

Enough of learning, time to try. You can easily add subtitles to videos from the tutorial given above. Also, embed subtitles in videos without any hassle. First time experience with creating subtitles from scratch can be hectic, so make sure you take necessary breaks at intervals.