Opening Editing and Saving Subtitle  Files from a Text Editor

Video creators and distributors are starting to create subtitle files for their videos. These are transcripts with timecodes included. They are very useful as they can be played on a computer linked with the appropriate video file, so that the subtitles are displayed. They can also be used to create subtitles for DVDs

Translators can use a simple text editor like NotePad, Word Pad, Text Edit etc to open, edit (ie translate) and save the file to a different language version.

In Windows the simplest way to do this is with the NotePad  programme. You can open it in the Applications section of the Programs Menu.

open notepad


When you have opened it you can substitute each line of text with a new translation. Be careful not to alter any of the numbers listed in the first 2 lines of each caption.

9
00:00:48,105 --> 00:00:51,573
But on the other hand, if you say
 that there will be a screening

10
00:00:51,574 --> 00:00:56,656
it's a whole different thing and a lot
more people come.

becomes
9
00:00:48,105 --> 00:00:51,573
Maar als je verteld dat er
een vieo vertoond wordt

10
00:00:51,574 --> 00:00:56,656
dan is het iets heel anders en veel
meer mensen komen er op af.

When the translation is finished you can save the file oncemore with a different name. If the original is

transmission_xvid_700kps_mp3_128_en.srt and you have translated it to dutch you could call it
transmission_xvid_700kps_mp3_128_nl.srt for example. It's good to include as much information as you can in the title of files make for internet distribution.

Be sure to select Text Documents *.txt as you file Type on saving as shown below.


subs


The same theory applies if you are using Word, or Word Pad, or a Mac Text Edit or similar programmes. Just make sure you save as a text file, with the .srt extension.

The file can then be emailed to the Video collective that needs it, or it may be possible to upload it to the page that the original was downloaded from.