Creating Text Tracks in Quicktime

The process of creating text tracks -- subtitles -- for videos in Quicktime involves several steps. It begins with transcribing and inputting "time codes" for the video (i .e. times that indicate when a piece of transcript should be displayed) and ends with a self-contained Quicktime movie that integrates the text track with the video and audio. There will be two important products from this process: One, of course, is the subtitled Quicktime movie; the other is a text document (.txt) that contains all the information about the text track -- what, when, and how it is to be displayed. The latter file is important because it will allow for revisions and can be used for other purposes in the future.

1. Time-coding videos
2. Creating a text track .txt document
3. Importing a text track .txt document into Quicktime
4. Adding a text track to video/audio

I. Time-coding videos

1. Create a word document with a two-column table.

• In the first column put the time codes (more on this below). The time codes should be formatted as ab:cd:ef.gh

  where --
  "ab" is the elapsed hours count
  "cd" is the minutes count
  "ef" is the seconds count
  "gh" is the frames count

NOTE: There are colons between each of the counts EXCEPT there is a period between the seconds count and the frames count

• In the second column, put the utterances of the people speaking. We tend to format ours as <speaker>: <things said>
  (e.g. Ball: What do other people think about that?).

Word of advice: Don't put too many words in a single cell -- otherwise the black subtitle box will be huge, covering up a large region of the video.

• For large room presentations: The specifications we use for the subtitle fonts allow for 115 characters in a single subtitle blurb (at most).
• For small room presentations: Our specifications allow for a maximum of 150 characters to be used.

2. After completing the time codes and utterances for the video segment, create one more row at the end of the table with the movie duration entered into the first column where the time code usually goes.

* * * * * * * * * *

Working with Quicktime Time Codes

1. Open your Quicktime movie
2. Select "Get info" under the "Window" menu (or type command-i); a window similar to the one below, should appear:

3. The "Current Time," highlighted with blue underline, is the time code that accompanies the utterances; the "Duration," highlighted with red underline, is the time needed for the last row of the Word document (see step 2 of the instructions for "Time-coding videos").

Navigation Tips in Quicktime:

• To jump to a specific point in the movie, drag the playback head (the small black triangle) in the timeline.

• To step through frame-by-frame, press the Right and Left Arrow keys on your keyboard (NOTE: If this doesn't work, first click the small black triangle in the timeline).
• Other control buttons include: fast forward , rewind , jump to start (of movie) , and jump to end (of movie)
• In addition to the play button , the movie can also be paused and restarted by tapping the space bar.

II. Creating a text track .txt document

III. Importing a text track .txt document into Quicktime

1. Open Quicktime
2. Choose "Import..." under the File menu
3. From within the Import dialog box, navigate to the text track .txt document and click on the "Open" button

   A Quicktime text track movie will be opened -- and, unless it has been customized to have a special appearance, the text track movie will have a black background and white text

IV. Adding a Quicktime text track to a Quicktime video

1. If it is not already open, open the text track movie -- otherwise, if it is opened, click on the text track movie to make it the active window.
2. Under the "Edit" menu, select ""Select All"
3. Under the "Edit" menu, select "Copy"
4. Open the video movie (if it is already open, click on it to make it the active window)
5. Under the "Edit" menu, select "Select All"
6. Under the "Edit" menu, select "Add Scaled"
7. Under the "Movie" menu, select "Get Movies Properties"
8. Click on the word "Movie" in the upper left of the window to display a menu of options: choose Text Track
9. Click on the word "Annotations" in the upper left of the window to display a menu of options: choose Size
10. Click on the "Adjust" button: Red marks will appear on the video, surrounding the text track.
11. Click and hold somewhere within the boundaries of the red marks but do NOT actually click on the red marks; then drag the text track to the place where you like it positioned.

NOTE: If you hold down the shift key (mac) while dragging, the text track will move straight down; you can also use the Up and Down arrows on your keyboard to nudge the text track up or down pixel-by-pixel

12. Return to the "Get Movies Properties" window and click on the "Done" button.
13. Under the File Menu, select "Save as..."
14. Give the new file a name, choose a location to save the file and MAKE SURE to choose the "Make movie self contained" option