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How to Quickly Generate Accurate Subtitles for Your Video

Updated over 2 months ago

Tip:
Before viewing this guide, we recommend checking out the guide on text-based editing first.

Getting Started

  1. Open a new project file in Adobe Premiere Pro and prepare your audio and video files in the sequence.

  2. In the top menu of Premiere Pro, go to [Window] > [Extension] > [Cutback] to launch Cutback.

  3. Select the [Auto rough cut] menu.

  4. Configure the settings for video transcription:

  1. Select Range: Choose the range for transcription

    • [Whole sequence]: Generates transcript for all tracks in the current sequence.

    • [Select Clip]: Generates transcript only for selected clips in the sequence.

    • [In/Out]: Generates transcript only for In/Out points set in Premiere Pro.

  2. Select Language: Choose the language spoken in the video. Only one language can be selected at a time.

  3. Preview On/Off: If preview is turned on, you can review the edits before applying them to the sequence.

  4. Speakers:

    • If you have only one speaker, select [One person]

    • If you have more than two speakers, select [Multiple]

      • If each speaker has a separate mic and is recorded on different audio tracks, you can select [Audio separated] and assign names to each track.

      • If all voices are on a single audio track, you can select [Audio not separated] and enter the number of speakers. AI will distinguish them by voice.

  5. Video: Choose the number of video tracks. If there are multiple speakers with separate audio tracks, you can also assign corresponding video tracks.

  6. Script : If there's a script that matches the video exactly, insert it here. We'll use it for initial subtitles, then transcribe only the parts that don't match.

When you’re done setting up, click the [Transcribe video for auto rough cut] button.

Note:

Turning on preview will require encoding time. If you're editing a long video or need faster performance, turning it off can speed up subtitle generation.


Editing Auto-Generated Captions

Cutback's Edit Captions window. You can edit auto-generated transcription for caption in adobe premiere pro
  1. Edit a word: Double-click a word or press the ; key to edit it.

  2. Merge words: To merge with the previous word, press n. To merge with the next word, press m.

  3. Split a word: Double-click or press ; to enter edit mode, then add a space where you want to split, and press Enter.

  4. Merge sentences: Press Delete on the first word of the second sentence you want to merge.

  5. Split a sentence: Press Enter on the word where you want the sentence to break.

  6. Hide captions (without deleting the cut):

    • Press h to hide the selected word’s caption.

    • Press shift + h to hide the entire sentence’s caption.

    • Click the eye icon at the beginning of a sentence to hide its caption.

Use Timeline for more precise control over the cut to create more accurate word by word captions in premiere pro


For more precise editing,
use timeline in the bottom to view the audio waveform while editing.

  • You can collapse the timeline using the X button in the top-right of the timeline.
    When the timeline is collapsed, a [Timeline] button appears in the bottom-left corner of the Cutback panel. Click it to expand again.

After edits, Click [Apply to sequence] to add captions.
You can choose between two types:

  • Premiere Pro Captions – Adds captions as a native caption track.

  • Motion Captions – Adds captions as styled graphic track after selecting the caption effect.


Adjust Caption Format

Caption format window to adjust length, punctuation, multi-line, and lettercase of the caption before applying animation motion presets
  • Max length per line: Set the maximum number of characters or words per line.

  • Punctuation: Choose whether to display punctuation marks like periods, commas, question marks, and exclamation points.

  • Multi-line: Display captions in two lines instead of one.

  • Lettercase: Choose between uppercase, lowercase, or title case.

Note:
The menu to adjust the caption format is located at the bottom left of [Edit Captions]. If you don’t see the menu, try expanding the Cutback panel size.

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