Two Ways To Add Subtitles To Video Effortlessly

If you have recorded awesome videos for getting good views on social media. Remember one important thing to get great results – add subtitles.

Video subtitles, which are usually displayed at the bottom of the screen can help both native speakers and foreigners to understand video content better. First of all, we’ll take a look at some reasons you should add subtitles to your video, so you won't be surprised why subtitles are so important. Later, we will also talk about how to add subtitles to videos.

Some Facts to Show You Why Your Video Needs Subtitles

Subtitles improve understanding. A survey reveals that most people prefer to turn captions on when watching videos, movies and TV show.
Not everyone speaks your language. By translating video captions into any language, more people can watch and understand your videos easier. For the foreign language learners, subtitles are helpful for them to increase reading speed and listening comprehension.

Sometime when people don’t or can’t turn on audio when using their smartphones, iPad on the bus, in the dorm, or in some noisy environments, they can read the clear captions to understand the content of your videos.

There are over 350 million people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Without captions, they cannot comprehend the videos well.

Method One. Add Subtitles To A Video with Free Software

You can do a little search and find some good software to add captions (or subtitles) to video. For example, you can use VLC, or you try the Windows built-in tool, Windows Movie Maker, to add subtitles to your videos. However, it it no longer available for download. You may have noticed that many forum users have encountered many problems like Windows Movie Maker is not working normally.

Here we will show to how to use the best, free Movie Maker alternative, MiniTool Movie Maker to add text to your videos.

How to Add Subtitles to Video MiniTool Movie Maker on Windows 10/8/7?

MiniTool Movie Maker is a free and powerful video editing tool foe beginners and semi-pros to add subtitles to video free, add text to photo and do basic video edits easier than ever.Here is a step-by-step guide for how to add subtitles to a video.

Step 1. Import Your Video Files To The Software.

Download and install MiniTool Movie Maker on your computer.
Launch this free add subtitles to video program.

Click the Import Media Files option to import y our video files into it, and then drag these imported files to the storyboard.

This tool supports importing different 4K, HD video formats including.mkv, .rmvb, .mov, .avi, .flv, .mp4, .mpg, .vob, and .wmv.

Step 2. Add Subtitles To Video

Click the Text option on the toolbar.

In this window, you can see a lot of different text fronts, including title, caption and end credits. (For instance, if you want to add a title to your video, you can drag and drop a suitable title mode to the storyboard, and then enter your text.)

To add subtitles to video free, you only need to select a suitable caption mode, and then drag it to your video on the storyboard. Now you can enter your text.

After that, you can change sizes, fonts, colors, outlines, and alignments of your subtitles to get the result that you need.

Step 3. Export The Video With Subtitles

Finally, you are allowed to save your video file in different formats including .mkv, .ts, .wmv, .mp4, .avi, .mov, .f4v, .3gp, .mpeg2, .webm, .gif, and .mp3 audio.

This add subtitles to video software not only can help to add text to your video but also can help you create stunning video with pictures and/or videos.

Also read: “The Best Free Slideshow Maker – MiniTool Movie Maker (2019)” to learn more about how to use this freeware to create your own movie.

Method Two. Add Subtitles To YouTube Video Online

Here are 2 ways for you to add text to YouTube videos.

Way 1. How to Use YouTube Tool to Add Subtitles

Step 1.

Step 2.

Select a video that you want to edit, then click the drop-down menu next to the Edit button, and choose the Subtitles/CC option.

Step 3.

Please click the Add new subtitles or CC.

Step 4.

Now select your subtitle language.

Step 5.

Select Create new subtitles or CC to continue.

Step 6.

Enter a subtitle, drag it to change its starting point, and then adjust the length of the subtitle.

Step 7.

At last, press the Publish button and then your subtitles will be uploaded to the video.

Way 2. How to Upload Subtitles for Adding them to YouTube Video

Step 1. Create an SRT file to be used as your video subtitles

Open a text editor (you can use Notepad if you do not have other text editors).
Create your subtitles in a specific format: subtitle number, timestamp, and text – each occupying a different line. And timestamps use an “hour:minute:second.millisecond” format.
For example:

0
00:00:03.00–> 00:03:55.00
This video is about my impression on New York.

00:08:15.00 –> 00:11:55.00

How have you been?

Step 2. Save the edited subtitles to your computer.

Now you could click File, select Save As to save the subtitle file. Enter a filename and end it with “.srt”. Select All Files from the drop-menu of Save As Type, at last, click the Encoding menu and select UTF-8.

Step 3. Add subtitles to video on YouTube

Select your target video, click Edit drop-down arrow, and then select Subtitles and CC.

Click Add new subtitles or CC button and select Upload a File to choose Subtitle File.

Browse for the file you created, and select Upload.

Adjust the subtitles if necessary. At last, you can publish your video with subtitles.

Final Words

An easy-to-use and intuitive free video editing software is helpful for you to add subtitles (captions) to videos, without requiring much technical knowledge and professional expertise. MiniTool MovieMaker offers a shortcut to do a variety of basic video editing operations, like adding subtitles, trimming, spitting, add music, apply video transition, and more. This is a simple and powerful free video editing software that can meet the needs of most people and will save a lot of time for those who are looking for quick results.