Important Guidelines: How to Transcribe Video to Text
For whichever purpose you are using a service to transcribe video to text, the method, value, and style remain the same. This could be for presentation transcriptions, your popular vlog or a blog to video transition. When captioning videos, you are opening up another world of accessed information, but it needs to be done correctly, so there are guidelines.
There’s more than meets the eye when taking advantage of a service to transcribe video to text for your captions, but along with these best practices, you’ll be captioning correctly in no time.
Restrict Your Lines
When transcribing your video to text, keep a definitive rule as to how many lines you use when captioning. At the time, this can also be fairly obvious when inputting captions on top of your video. Two to three per caption is aesthetically perfect. However, if you feel you need more because of the context, then you can try to prolong your imagery into other slides to make it look neater.
Time Your Timing
Your video to text captioning should appear and disappear where and when the script is spoken. However, consider the length of which the average reader can read your subtitle, and allow it to stay on screen for long enough. All text can be cut to a specific time frame, the minimum restriction of time to display is 1 second for short, one worded answer dialogs like “Sure!”. And if there are repeated words, like the lyrics in a chorus, signal a “blink” effect which creates a gap, to focus in on the repetition.
Identify Your Speaker
When a conversation arises, or if someone else decides to join in the audio, then consider variation that will help the reader identify the change. This is only required if it’s necessary for comprehension – for example, if a conversation is off-screen, and the capture is focused on one person talking. Colour codes work perfectly well, but the viewer may have to distinguish who they belong to and could cause confusion. Name labels are ideal. When used, assure capital letters, with a colon, and a space.
CHARLOTTE: Would you like some toast?
JOHN: No, thank you.
Perfect Your Punctuation
The video to text transcript will use punctuation, but it’s common to not use punctuation at all in captioning. So whether you use them or not is your personal preference. However, some find it easier to watch when they see a full stop or a signal which sends their eyes back to the video. Otherwise, question marks and exclamation marks are near enough mandatory for expressions.
Video to text transcriptions are important for those with loss of hearing, and setting a scene is the most important element. Like any other video transcription, your captioning should also be proofread for any unnoticed mistakes.
Along with your accurate video transcriptions and these guidelines, your videos should be easy to follow. Your viewer will be understanding your video effortlessly, without having to fast forward or pause. Check out our super cheap pricing plan for your pay as you go or monthly package. Starting at $0.15 per minute, it won’t be a chore having to caption your videos. Transcribe now for 2 hours of audio totally free when you sign up.