DISCUSS: New Captions Workflow in Premiere Pro

[Francis-Crossman]

UPDATE: January 29, 2021

Since the innitial post back in October of last year we have made a ton of progress and some of the details originally posted here are no longer acurate.  I have updated the post to be more accurate to the state of things today.  

Here are some important changes to be aware of

• The Premiere Pro beta is now version 15 (starting January 26, 2021)
• The captions workflow in on by default - no need to enable it
• The beta menu has been removed (because you don't need it anymore - the advanced beta features are always on)
• Applications for speech to text early access has closed and those who have been accepted should have recieved an email.  The email you used to apply needs to match the email (Adobe ID) you use to log into creative cloud. If you did not recieve an email stating that you have been accepted, or if you are logged into creative cloud using a different email you will contininue to see the message stating that speech to text is coming soon.
• Broadcast closed captions are now supported CEA 608/708, OP47, Teletext, EBU Subtitles.
• Exporting is working (burned-in, sidecar, embedded) and queue to Media Encoder is working too now.

Thanks to everyone for testing and for all your awesome feedback! - Francis

The captioning workflow in Premiere Pro is getting a complete makeover and you can be the first to try it out!  We have a new text panel for editing and viewing your captions as text.  Captions now have their own track on the timeline so they can be edited just like video.  Styling uses the power of the Essential Graphics panel so you can make fantastic looking captions. 

Best of all – we will be adding speech to text and auto captions powered by Adobe Sensei – coming later.

 

Some important things to know before you start testing this feature

1. Just like any beta software, we do not recommend using this for mission critical projects since features are likely to change over time. 
2.  The Premiere Pro beta has been updated to the next major version – 15.  This means your projects will NOT be backwards compatible with the current shipping version of Premiere Pro – 14.x.  All projects created in Premiere Pro Beta, even if you don’t use captions, will be saved as version 15. 
3. Opening existing projects in Premiere Pro Beta will ask you to save a copy of your project in the new project version. Take extra care with Team Projects since you do not get a version update warning and you can mess up the project for your entire team!
4. If you have existing captions in a project that gets upgraded, we will convert from the old style captions to the new style.  We will do our best to match the styling, but do not guarantee a pixel-perfect transition. 

So, if you’re good with all that, read on . . .

Enabling the Feature:

1. Update to the latest Beta version - you're done.  It's on by default now

Quickstart Guide: 

Download this sample project to follow along PR New Captions Workflow quickstart.zip

1. Open the sequence The climber - start here and familiarize yourself with the spoken dialog.
2. Open the Text panel from the window menu and make sure it’s showing the Captions tab.
3. Locate the SRT file in the project panel The Climber - subtitles.srt
4. Drag the SRT file into the sequence and drop it anywhere. 
5. A new caption track is created, and all the caption items are placed at the correct time.
6. Place the playhead over one of the caption items to select it.  This should activate the Essential Graphics panel into editing mode.
7. Change the Style in the Essential Graphics panel by choosing a different preset from the Style dropdown.
8. Notice the font, size, color, and background have been updated.
9. Play the sequence and watch the captions follow along in the Text panel.

Play around with visual styles in the Essential Graphics panel and try editing the text in the Text panel.  Read on for more detailed info on the various pieces of the workflow.

The Text Panel
Open the Text panel from the Window menu.  This is where you interact with text and it has two tabs – Transcript and Captions

 

1. Text panel – open from the Window Menu
2. Transcript tab – This is where you can create automatic speech to text transcriptions, navigate the transcript, and create automatic captions.  This is only available to those who been accepted into the eary access program for speech to text.  All others will continue to see the "coming soon" graphics.
   
3. Captions tab – Navigate and edit caption text.
4. Search – find characters, words and phrases in your captions.
5. Next / Previous search result – use to navigate search results.
6. Replace / Replace All – used to replace search results with new text.
   
7. Add Caption – this will place a blank caption at the playhead in the current sequence
8. Caption number – a sequence number to count your captions
9. Timecode – TC start and stop of the current caption item.  This is not editable.  To change the timing of the caption, edit it in the sequence.
10. Caption text – the text of the caption itself.  Double click to edit.

The Caption track - working with captions in the Sequence

We have completely reimagined the way captions work in Premiere Pro. If you have used captions previously in Premiere Pro, this is totally different – much better we think. Please tell us what YOU think by leaving a public comment below.

 

Create and delete caption tracks

There are a few ways to create a new caption track.  You can drag an SRT file onto the Sequence or use the “Create new captions track” button in the Captions tab of the Text panel. To delete a caption track, right-click on the caption track header and choose “delete track”

Drag an SRT file on the sequence

Dragging an SRT caption file onto the Sequence will automatically create a new caption track at the top of the Timeline.

Keyboard Shortcuts

To see all the keyboard shortcuts available for captions, open the keyboard shortcuts menu from the Premiere Pro menu and search for "caption".  Here are some notable ones.  There are many other which do not have default assignments.

1. Add a captions track - option/alt + command/ctrl + A
2. Add a new caption segment at the playhead- option/alt + command/ctrl + C
3. Go to next caption segment in the timeline - option/alt + command/ctrl + UP
4. Go to next caption segment in the timeline - option/alt + command/ctrl + down

Captions tracks

 

1. Caption track setting – the CC button

This can hide the caption track area or solo just the active caption track if you have more than one.  It is useful if you want to declutter your timeline. It does not turn off the active caption track from rendering in the program monitor, however. 

• Hide all caption tracks
• Show all caption tracks
• Show active caption track only 

2. Active Track/Visibility – the eyeball icon

This will enable/disable Program Monitor viewing of the Caption track selected. Only one Caption track can be active at a time, so when you make one track active, the other tracks will automatically be disabled. You can also choose to disable all Caption tracks. Inactive Caption tracks will dim making it easier to note your active Caption track. 

3. Label

By default, this will show the caption track format (eg Subtitles, CEA-708, CEA-608, etc.) You can right-click the Caption track header and choose Rename to choose a custom name (same functionality as A/V tracks)

4. Right-click the caption track header

Additional caption tracks can be added by right-clicking in the caption track header – choose “Add Track”. You can also delete or rename a caption track in the same way.

5. Caption tracks area

Caption tracks will always be at the top of the sequence. Additional caption tracks are added on top. This will continue until you have reached 25% of the Timeline vertical space, then the tracks will stop “growing” and scroll bars will appear to the right. Caption tracks will never take up more than 25% of the upper space of the Timeline. This is dynamic, so if you increase or decrease the Timeline panel height, the 25% will adjust accordingly.

6. Track Lock

Lock the track to prevent editing.  This functions the same as A/V tracks.

7. Track Targeting

The Caption track header has a ‘Toggle the track targeting for this track’ button with same functionality as A/V tracks.

8. Sync Lock

The Caption track header has a ‘Toggle Sync Lock’ button with same functionality as A/V tracks.

Editing timing of caption items on the track

You can use all the familiar editing tools that you are used just like editing video and audio.

 

• Select (one or many) You can select multiple Caption track items by Shift-selecting each item or marquee/lasso select items or use Select All (which will also include other items in tracks like video, audio, etc.)
• Trim
• Ripple Trim
• Razor/Add Edit: You can add an edit/razor a Caption item as you would with any Timeline item and Track Targeting is supported. The difference is that when you razor a Caption item, both items will have the same text which you can then modify in the Text panel
• Copy/Paste: paste of Caption item(s) follows Track targeting which allows you to copy and paste captions items between tracks.

Styling with the Essential Graphics panel

Open the Essential Graphics panel from the Window menu.  This is where you choose things like font, size, color and position. Make sure you have at least one caption selected. This will activate the Edit tab of the Essential Graphics panel. If you have created and stylized text in Premiere Pro before, the following should be very familiar to you. However, for captions we are adding small enhancements such as zones, and vertical text alignment.

Styles

• Create Master Text Styles for consistent styling across the entire captions track. A style saves all the settings made in the Essential Graphics panels, including font, alignment, color and more. Setting a Master Text Style to one caption applies it to all captions on the track. You can have different styles for different tracks.
• Sync from Master Style and Push to Master Style: When changing the look of a caption you may want to push this change to the entire track for consistency, that’s were Push to Master Style comes into play. Or you might want to revert an edit to a caption back to the Master Style. Then use Sync from Master Style.
•  

Text

• Font: Set font, font style and font size.
• Paragraph Alignment: For horizontal alignment use Left align text, Center align text, Right align text and Justify. We have now also added Vertical alignment with Top align text, Center text vertically and Bottom align text. This defines how a caption grows when adding additional lines. As an example, there is a good chance you will want a caption to be bottom aligned, this way a single line caption and the second line of a two-line caption will always be in the same vertical position.
• Tracking: Loose or tighten the space between characters.
• Leading: Loose or tighten the vertical space between lines.
• Faux Styles: Bold, Italic, All Caps, Small Caps, Superscript, Subscript, Underline.

Align and Transform

• Position captions with zones: You can choose from different zones to position your caption in different areas on screen, e.g. bottom center.
• Fine tune position: Through Set Horizontal and Set Vertical Position you can add an offset to your zone setting.
• Change the text box size: If you want to shrink or expand the text box size you can do this through Set Horizontal Scale and Set Vertical Scale. This will affect text wrapping and paragraph align settings.

Appearance

• Fill: Change the color of your captions.
• Stroke: Add single or multiple strokes. The Graphics Properties menu under the wrench menu gives you more control over stroke styling.
• Background: Add a background box. You can choose the color, add additional padding and change the opacity.
• Shadow: You can add a shadow and fine tune with controls such as opacity, angle, distance and more.

Transcribing the dialog into captions

You have three options for transcribing your audio and creating captions: speech to text, use a third-party service, or do it by hand.

Speech to text

• Text Panel > Transcript tab
• Only available for those who have applied and been accepted to the speech to text early access program.  Other will not have access to this feature.

Use a third-party service

If you already have a workflow that uses a third party transcription service, you can bring in that file.  SRT is the best option.

1. Import the SRT file into your Premiere Pro project just like any piece of media
2. Drag the SRT from the project panel into your sequence and let go anywhere
3. A new caption track is automatically created, and the captions are placed on the track

Do it by hand

For short sequences, doing it by hand may not too much trouble.

1. Open Text panel from the Window menu
2. Go to the Captions tab of the Text Panel
3. Press the “Add Captions Track” button – a new captions track is added to your current sequence
4. Place the playhead at the beginning of your first piece of dialog (hint – use the waveforms in the audio to help align)
5. Press the “+” button near the top of the Captions tab of the Text Panel to add a blank caption
6. Double click on <Type your caption here> to go into edit mode
7. Type out the caption text
8. Trim the end of the caption in the timeline to align with the end of the spoken dialog
9. Repeat for each caption you wish to add
10. See the other sections on Working with captions in the Sequence and Styling with the Essential Graphics panel for more details on editing and styling.

Exporting your sequence with captions

There are three options for exporting captions: burned in, sidecar file, or embedded into the video file.  

1. Make sure the caption track you want exported is visible by toggling the eyeball on (Toggle Active Captions Track).
2. Choose File > Export
3. Open the Captions tab in the export settings and choose burn in, sidecar or embedded
4. Burned in and sidecar are supported with any encoding preset
5. Embedded is limited to pro codecs like MXF OP1a, DNX, and Prores and requires that the caption track format be set to one of the broadcast standards like CEA-608
6. Click Export
7. Sidecar files will be saved next to the video file with the same name
8. Queueing to Media encoder is supported too

Happy captioning!  Once again, we welcome your feedback.  Please leave comments below.

[default55wgy530xj50]

Georgi and Rob. I think Adobe is using AI for this forum of replies because I posted a similar issue on the board and it automatically filtered me under you both! Creepy but cool. 

Yes I am having the same issue with no beta tab but I think it was because I had done this step during the max conference when they were featuring it. SO I think it dissapeared for my upgrade yesterday to 15.0.

Totally an interface bug I think.

[주연5FFD]

Same issue in Korean version too. 

[default55wgy530xj50]

I recently was approved for the early access captions but had enabled captions on a previous version of Preimere pro beta, so now that I upgraded a couple days ago, the beta tab is no longer present and my captions still say it is coming soon. I'm sure this is probably a weird bug, interface issue from me doing part of the steps ahead of schedule. I am currently running PPB 15.0. Any help would be appreciated.

[Stan Jones]

My guess is that with the update to 15.0.0, the "enable" features option (that had the effect of uprating your project type to V15) is not longer needed.

I saw the "approved for transcribe" email, it didn't work, I updated to 15.0, and I see "transcribe sequence" in the Text Panel.

Stan 

[Georgi Petrov]

Hey, Stan. I have 10.0 so maybe is removed as you mention, but I don't understand why transcript is not available for me. I have transcribed sequence, but all I get is to apply for early access when I click on it.

Georgi

[Trent Happel]

Sorry for the Speech to Text access issues! This is being investigated.

Regarding the Beta menu, this has removed in 15.0 beta, as New Captions Workflow is now enabled by default in 15.0 beta builds. I have requested for the initial post to be updated to reflect this change. Sorry for the confusion.

[Neil Pringle]

Hi just tried transcribing to French and Spanish...I guess this is a work in progress becuase just a couple of random sentences appeared (in the right language though!!). Have you an idea when this functionality might be working?

Thanks again.

Neil

[nbechere]

Hi Neil, 
the functionality should work. Just to check - did you try to transcribe a sequence with "French/Spanish" audio or did you transcribe a sequence with English audio and expected a translation? The current feature does not have a translation component (yet). We're aware that this is of high interest but are focusing on accurate transcriptions in the "source" language first. 

      Greetings, Nico

PS: If your original audio was indeed French/Spanish - would it be possible to give me access to the files and the Transcript you got? I'd be happy to run some tests. 

[Georgi Petrov]

Hi, Neil. Sorry to interrupt but can you point me in the right direction. My transcript sequence is not working. It asks me to apply for early access, but I am already approved for one.

No idea what I can do.

Thanks

Georgi

[Oaktown]

I'm able to create the transcript using the new speech to text engine and it seems to work quite well BUT when I'm not able to create captions from the transcribtion.

Once the transcribtion is done, I'm using the Create Captions button, selecting subtitles and the style I created (tried with no style as well) but nothing happens even though the wheel spins for a few moments so maybe I'm missing an obvious step!

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi OTP,

Try trashing preferences and starting a new project rather than updating one. I had the same trouble, but resolved it doing these two things.

Regards,
Kevin

[Georgi Petrov]

I think they fixed the issue. It's working now. I try with a new file, so maybe this is what helps. 

Thanks

Georgi

[Oaktown]

Thanks Kevin, that worked perfectly!--
Frédéric O. Boulay, MBA Oaktown Productions -- W: 510.629.1625 C:
510.385.5662 F: 866.857.2057

[Chris_Olson]

I'm not sure if this is a bug, or intended design. If it is intended design, I would imagine this is going to get very confusing for a lot of users. 

If your playhead is over a caption and you click "merge segments" it will merge that segment with whatever is to the left of your playhead. Even if you highlight two completely different segments, the function will only merge whatever is to the left of the playhead. 

Video for demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7Tqc3pAz_s&feature=youtu.be

A few other bugs I've noticed:

1. The way editing transcripts works could be improved. Right now if you single click a word, it highlights and takes you there on the timeline. When you double click, it highlights the whole text box. I would prefer if double clicking immediately highlighted the word you clicked on. Right now I'm having to double click and then hunt down the word in the big text box to find what I'm looking for.

2. In the future will we be able to specify for transcripts how many words or charcters we want per line?

Right now it often puts too few words on a line and is only doing one line.

[Parker Gibbons]

Thanks for the feedback, Chris. We currently have a bug filed on the merge behavior, so look for improvements there in an upcoming build. I understand what you're saying about entering into the text field taking too many clicks, so we will investigate that further. 

As far as the transcript segmentation, we are exploring ways to customize that, but it is not available for now. For now, Transcript > Subtitles will be segmented using our Sensei process that takes into account natural breaks in the speech to segment and Transcript > Closed Captions will segment based on the allowed formatting of the chosen closed caption standard. 

[nigelw75248945]

This feature will save me hours round tripping audio files to transcription service and hours placing captions. I'm really impressed with this feature at some point I'm assuming this will be premium feature that cost more. Well done Adobe.

[SpikeSpiegel]

Tested out the transcription feature in Premiere beta, works a treat! Quite amazing how accurate it is! But big question, how do I spit out the transcribed page of text into a text file? I can't even select anything to copy paste it. 

I'm not interested in captions, i'm interested in the overall text that got transvcribed. Why does premiere not have any ability to COPY paste the master text that was transcribed from the timeline??

[Ann Bens]

Moved to beta forum.

[vilacron]

I just did a test of the beta speech-to-text workflow. The transcription is pretty accurate, so it's a very helpful feature so far. After the transcription is completed, I split segments of the dialog in the 'Transcript' tab before creating the captions track, thinking it would create the captions based on the splitting I already did, however it did not. It would be intuitive if the 'Create Captions' would reflect the splitting I've done the step before.

[Francis-Crossman]

Hey there all.  I updated the original post with some updates but I will post them here too. 

Since the innitial post back in October of last year we have made a ton of progress and some of the details originally posted here are no longer acurate.  I have updated the post to be more accurate to the state of things today.  

Here are some important changes to be aware of

• The Premiere Pro beta is now version 15 (starting January 26, 2021)
• The captions workflow in on by default - no need to enable it
• The beta menu has been removed (because you don't need it anymore - the advanced beta features are always on)
• Applications for speech to text early access has closed and those who have been accepted should have recieved an email.  The email you used to apply needs to match the email (Adobe ID) you use to log into creative cloud. If you did not recieve an email stating that you have been accepted, or if you are logged into creative cloud using a different email you will contininue to see the message stating that speech to text is coming soon.
• Broadcast closed captions are now supported CEA 608/708, OP47, Teletext, EBU Subtitles.
• Exporting is working (burned-in, sidecar, embedded) and queue to Media Encoder is working too now.

Thanks to everyone for testing and for all your awesome feedback! We are still looking into why certain people cannot access the speech to text functionality even though they have been accepted into the program. Thanks for your patience while we resolve these issues.  - Francis

[SpikeSpiegel]

amazing feature! I have a feature request. How do we "Copy " the automatically transcribed text on the text panel? We produce content for channels worldwide and all our clients want a finals cript. The premiere software's automatic transcription is AMAZINGLY accurate, kudos to you guys. BUT, how do we COPY the auto script that is generated? I'm not looking for a SRT/caption file, i'm looking to simply copy paste what the auto transcription generated.. PLEASE ALLOW a copy-ing feature from the text panel or an export to pdf or word for people that need full transcription of their content!! Unless i'm missing another route any insight into this really really appreciate. You haveNO idea how much time you are saving us, (well, maybe you do :P)

[5C80]

I have been given access to the new captions workflow, however in the text panel in the Beta version (just updated) for transcription I'm still being asked to apply to gain access. All the directions in the email from Adobe I received telling me I have access say to activate the new features in the Beta menu, but that, as you state, is no longer there. Is there something more I need to do? Or some other step?

[Georgi Petrov]

I had the same issue, but after cleaning my cache and opening a new project, everything works. I am not sure if there is a bug not allowing the speech to text to work on previously edited files.

Try with a new project and see if to works for you.

Regards

Georgi

[Jarle_Leirpoll]

I’ve given the new Captions workflow a spin, and it's going to be a huge improvement over the existing workflow. Here are some thoughts, in no particular order.

The word Master should not be used in Adobe software going forward

Create Master Text Style, Sync from Master Style and Push to Master Style should be changed.

https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/multi/terminology-changes-video-products.html

Language support

I need support for Norwegian language in Transcription. The existing number of supported languages is not very impressive, and would leave a lot of users out. I’m guessing that the number will increase before launch, but that many languages will still be left out. Living in a country with few people, my hopes are not very high.

Nice things

Transcript accuracy for English is impressive.

Converting a legacy project to the new format is also very smooth and intuitive.

I love the styling options in the Essential Graphic panel.

But the new Text panel still needs some work.

UI and Functionality issues

The Text panel opened in a very small size when first launched. Of course, it needs to be part of the new Workspaces before release date.

Normally, when text is highlighted in blue, I can edit the text. Not in the Text panel. Why? I need to double-click it first, even though it's highlighted already? Not intuitive, and one extra step for every change I need to make.

I need to be able to edit my captions using only the keyboard, and I need a fast way to move from caption to caption while editing them.

Custom Keyboard Shortcut for Edit Selected Caption Text works from the Timeline, but not in the Text panel. Why the difference?

In the current state, I would refuse to use multi-line captions in Premiere Pro. I don't want a huge block behind my text is one line is narrower than the other. I need the option to make the background on each line to look at the line it's behind (as Richard TOULON said in October). One big box should be one of two or several options.

After hitting + (for New Caption), why do I need to double-click the caption to edit it? You know I want to type, so just open the caption text and highlight it so I can start typing.

Same goes for Replace With. Why do I have to select the Replace with field? You know I'm going to type a word or a phrase, so just make it happen.

Question:

When in text editing mode, how do I quickly jump to the next caption to edit it? Tab key would be the obvious/logical choice, but it doesn’t work. Using a custom keyboard for Go to next caption segment does not work in text editing mode.

Bug

Select a word in a caption. Make it bold or something using the faux styles. Pr immediately jumps to the next caption. Please don’t! I need to see my changes!

Feature Requests

Please add Convert to Graphic Clips. This will enable users to add transitions, blend modes, etc. to their texts and backgrounds.

Please add TAB and Shift+TAB for quickly moving from segment to segment in text editing mode.

That’s all, for now. 😊

[Pierre Louis B.]

Jarle makes some excellent observations!

Regarding the bug he mentions:

Bug

Select a word in a caption. Make it bold or something using the faux styles. Pr immediately jumps to the next caption. Please don’t! I need to see my changes!

I am seeing a different bug on the latest version (v15.0.0 build 14[R]).  IF a word is entered in the Captions tab's search bar, after changing a caption's text to faux bold, italyc, etc in the EGP, Pr automatically jumps to the first caption that has an instance of the text in the search field.  If no caption contains the search field's text, the focus remains on the caption that was just edited.

I've found a couple bugs of my own:

BUG 1: Shift+Letter shortcut for 'Edit selected caption text' changes caption text to capital letter in shortcut.  Example: Setting the shortcut to 'Shift+c' changes the caption's text to 'C' when entering edit mode in the Program Monitor.

BUG 2:  The tooltips for the Up, Down and Replace buttons don't display correctly when the 'Replace with:' text bar is displayed.

BUG 3: The characters in the tooltips for the 'Split Segment' and 'Replace' buttons are slightly cropped off on the bottom.

BUG 4: If I select part of a caption to bold, italycize, etc, the entire text in the caption gets bolded, italycized, etc.  I'm not sure if this is actually a bug or happening because this functionality hasn't been added yet, but either way, it's essential that users can adjust of the properties of individual characters within a caption.

SUGGESTION:

 The interface for deleting a text block is poorly implemented. When selecting a caption with 2 or more text blocks, they all get highlighted, making it unclear which of the highlighted text blocks will get deleted when clicking on the "Delete text block" context menu option.  I suggest removing this option from the context menu and replacing it with 'x' symbols next to each text block. (see illustration)

That's it for now.  Hope this feedback helps!