Captions option is greyed out (Premiere Pro 14.9 and earlier)

[sceball2]

Hello,

I'm working in Premiere 2017.1.2 on a MAC Pro OS X El Capitan 10.11.5.

I received a Project file from my team in Taiwan who created English subs for their piece. The subs were created in Premiere via the captions panel.

When I go to export the captions as an XML or SRT file so that I can upload them to YouTube, the Captions option is greyed out so I can't select it.

Please help!

Thank you,

Serg

[Kevin-Monahan]

Ever solve this issue, Serg? Let us know.

Thanks,
Kevin

[kristenw58222281]

I'm not sure if Serg ever found an answer, but in case anyone else needs the help, one reason that I was having the problem was because I had two monitors.

Meaning the option for captions would be greyed out if you were trying to open the File > Export >Captions menu and the Project panel was on a different monitor. Once I clicked File on the appropriate monitor, the problem was immediately resolved.

I've attached some photos for reference.

[petetas]

legend - thanks

[FOTORAKO]

Thank you!!!

[Artychoke]

Before exporting, select your captions.srt file in your project panel, that solved it for me.

[JacLib]

This helped me. My project panel is in the lower right, and the timeline is on the right. I previously kept selecting the Caption segment of the timeline instead of the filename on the left. Now I can export the captions with the File > Export > Captions!

Selecting the Captions in the Project panel (filename list) instead of the timeline.File > Export > Captions now shows in the menu! After selecting Captions filename in the Project panel.

[Stan Jones]

Thanks for reporting what helped. Since this thread, we learned a couple more things:

1) If you make changes to an imported caption stream in the timeline, and then export by selecting the CAPTION STREAM in the Project Panel and File -> Export -> Captions, the timecodes will be from the caption stream, not the timeline. You can also select the SEQUENCE (where you have the caption stream) in the PROJECT PANEL and use File -> Export -> Captions, and it will a) have the timecode from the sequence and b) will combine any cuts/moves of the caption stream in that sequence.

2) in the newest versions, you can also now export Open Captions as a sidecar using File -> Export -> Media and make your selection in the Captions panel.

Stan

[Mandrila Films]

Thanks! You saved me. I'm working on version 2019 and i had to make edits in the SRT, changing complete sutbtitle scenes form one timecode to another and selecting the sequence was the only way to embed the cuts in a new SRT file. 

Nico

[paulm225258]

For me, when exporting Media, in the captions-tab, the "sidecar-File-option" wasn't available.

I've found out, that my captions were open captions. By using closed captions 708 (I think the standards should all be fine), it worked out. I can now easily export .SRT or .XML files or my subtitles, which are cut it more different parts, and moved in the timeline like a simple video or audio clip.