Limecraft Subtitling Editor includes a tool for creating subtitles manually and align them with the video. In certain scenarios the AI transcription and subtitling might not be an option. The audio of the video might pose challenges for the AI or the language of the video is exotic and not supported by ASR. This article explains how to use the manual subtitling tools of Limecraft Subtitle Editor.

Before getting started, make sure to have media content available in your Limecraft Library. This article explains in detail how to access the Subtitle Editor.

To start with manual subtitling, choose the option 'Start writing subtitles from scratch' and click 'start writing'. 

If there are subtitle presets defined for your production, select the correct one at this stage. This will define the styling for your subtitles. The timing will be created manually while making the subtitles, as will be shown below.

Use the subtitling tools above the player bar to create subtitles manually.

1. Play your video until there is speech that needs to be subtitled.

2. Click SET IN or the shortcut F9 to select the appearance time for your subtitle. The player keeps on playing, and the control buttons change to indicate a time range is being “recorded”.

3. Click SET OUT to select the disappearance time for your subtitle

Note: Clicking on '+ Add Subtitle' automatically starts recording the time range for the next subtitle. 

4. Click '+Add Subtitle' in the bottom right of the subtitling pane to type the content for your subtitle. The application will show a live preview of the subtitle over the player.

Note: You can further edit the position, color etc of your subtitles as is explained in this article. 

5. Save your subtitle by clicking anywere outside the subtitle eding box or shift key + Enter. 

Tip: You don’t have to wait for the player to reach the desired OUT point to start typing your subtitle.

The fastest way to create subtitles for a clip is to use the keyboard shortcuts.

Press F9 (SET IN), which starts “recording”. You can press F9 again a couple of times if you want, to move your IN point with the playhead. Type the subtitle text you hear and press F10 when you reach the desired OUT point. Continue typing the subtitle text and press Shift+Enter to save the subtitle.

If you are using a mac (and on some other devices), the shortcut is fn+F1, fn+F2, … So you have to press and hold the fn key while pressing the F1 key (and similar for F2, F3, …). As this is a bit clunky, you might consider configuring your Mac to use F1, F2 etc. as standard function keys as explained here.

Download the cheat sheet, print it, and hang it on your wall! Download Subtitle Editor Cheat Sheet