I want to supply my own transcript: Captioning-Only requests

Closed Captioning your files with CaptionSync allows you to submit your own formatted transcript. This article shows how.

NOTE: Captioning-Only requests are not available for submissions made via List of URLs, or 3rd-party integrations.

How do I format my own transcript?

An accurate transcript is the basis from which our automated captioning process generates captions. So please follow these guidelines:

• If your audio content is of poor quality, try to submit a copy of the media file with improved audio instead.
• Ensure the transcript matches the audio content in the media file, and format it according to our transcription guidelines. More information about our formatting guidelines is available in our Sync Marker Summary, Caption Results Not in Sync and Getting Sync Markers to Work articles.
• We recommend using Notepad, Word or TextEdit to create the transcript file.
• Save your file as a plain .txt format. It's also possible to save your transcript from a .doc file.
• For English transcripts, we recommend that it contains only standard US ASCII characters.
• If you wish to submit in other languages (Spanish, French or German), choose UTF-8 as the encoding.
• If you wish to submit a transcript containing lyrics of songs, please read our article on including lyrics in the transcript.
• If you prefer to not have to format your own transcript, you can request Transcription too and send your existing text as guidance for the transcriber. Our transcribers are trained to generate well-formatted transcripts that yield optimal results with our automated system.

A sample of a formatted transcript is attached at the bottom of this article.

Make the request:

• Go to Caption/Transcribe -> New Captioning Submission, and choose Captioning Only, under Step 2:

NOTE: If you also need to request Audio Description for your video, you can add that service to your order under Step 3, in the New Captioning Submission page.

• Browse for your transcript and for your media file. Then check the Advanced Settings to ensure you choose the correct language, outputs, etc:

• Finally, click Start Upload.

Additional Notes:

• Captioning-Only requests are not available for submissions made via List of URLs, or 3rd-party integrations.

• If you receive error messages or warnings when uploading the transcript, check out our troubleshooting tips.

• If your audio content is "sweetened" (i.e., has sound effects, background music, noise, music, poor quality, cross-talk, etc), you may require additional sync markers in your transcript. To have your Captioning results reviewed by us, you can select our Result Review service, under the Advanced Settings, when making your request or after the captions are generated (Result Review is a service with an extra cost; you can see pricing in the Supplementary services price sheet pdf, on the Help page, in your account). More information is available in our Result Review tutorial.