Add captions to a video

Captions in Rooster are built from the transcript, so they are timed to the word and they follow your edits: a cut in the script is a cut in the captions.

Generate captions

1. Make sure the project is transcribed. See Transcribe a video on your Mac.
2. Open the Captions section of the rail on the right. It says Choose a style to generate captions.
3. Under Generate captions, click a style:
   • Classic, readable white text on a dark box;
   • Clean Paragraph, unboxed text that keeps the picture clear;
   • Bold Highlight, short, heavy cards for sound-off viewing;
   • Karaoke, which highlights each word as it is spoken.

The cards appear on the canvas and in a list under Cards, each with its time and, if you labelled speakers, who is speaking. One Undo (⌘Z) takes them away again.

Captions need a transcript with timings. A script you typed has none, and the panel says so; transcribe the video instead. Karaoke needs word timing from a transcription made on your Mac to light up each word.

Change how much is on each card

Under Cards, change Characters per line and Lines per card. Changing either rebuilds the cards. There is no separate words-per-card setting: the two together decide it.

Fix a word in a caption

Caption cards cannot be typed into. Fix the word in the script instead, with Correct: the transcript and the caption change together, in one step you can undo, and the video is untouched. See Correct the transcript.

After you change the transcript

If you transcribe again, the cards still say what the old transcript said, and the panel shows These cards were built from an earlier transcript. Press Rebuild cards from the transcript. Rebuilding keeps your style and card sizes.

Remove captions

Press Remove captions, below the style controls and above the list of cards. Undo brings them back.

Captions in an export

Captions are drawn into the video when you export, unless you turn off Burn captions into the picture in the export sheet. They can also be saved as a subtitle file. See Export SRT or VTT subtitles.