The WordPress training team helps people learn to use, extend, and contribute to WordPress through synchronous and asynchronous learning as well as downloadable lesson plans for instructors to use in live environments, via learn.wordpress.org.
GitHub issues – Learn.WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ site functionality
This guide will show you how to add captions and transcripts to workshops using Otter.ai for English videos and Sonix.ai for all other languages (available list here). If you prefer another tool or you are transcribing from a language that Sonix does not support, follow the WordPress.tv subtitle instruction (all Learn workshop videos are on WordPress.tv) and just complete steps 6 and 7 of this page.
In order to proceed, you will need to have edit access to workshops on Learn WordPress. If you can open this link and see the workshops listed then you’re all set. If you need access to that page please email [email protected] to indicate your desire to assist.
On the edit screen, click on the blockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. at the top of the post that contains the video. In the block toolbar click on the ‘Edit URLURLA specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org’ button (pencil icon). This will display the WordPress.tv URL of the video inside the block – copy and paste that URL into a new tab.
If there is no block for the video, check the ‘Workshop Details’ metaboxMetaboxA post metabox is a draggable box shown on the post editing screen. Its purpose is to allow the user to select or enter information in addition to the main post content. This information should be related to the post in some way. in the right sidebarSidebarA sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. and you will see the URL in the ‘WordPress.tv URL’ field.
On the video page that opens, there’s a download link for the video on the right sidebar. Download the medium quality MP4 file. If your internet connection is particularly slow, you can download the low quality file, but medium quality will contain clearer audio making the transcription more reliable.
To start using either Otter.ai or Sonix.ai, send an email to [email protected] and tell us that you’d like to help transcribe Learn WordPress videos. You will be given the login details for the Learn WordPress account on either platform at the discretion of the Training Team.
Once the transcript has been generated, go through for any mistakes or corrections, as well as making sure to identify the speakers if there are more than one (you don’t need to identify speakers if there is only one person presenting in the video).
Once you have verified the accuracy of the transcript you can export the captions by going to the 3-dot menu near the Edit button, and click “Export text.�?
Select to export in SRT format and click ‘Continue’ to download the file. If needed, you can tweak the max character per line depending on the language, but the standard settings should be as follows:
In addition to captions, we are also going to export the full transcript of the video. Use the same ‘Export text’ option as above, but select CLIPBOARD as the export format – this will ultimately copy the full transcript to the clipboard without you having to download a file. If you would rather download a file and copy from there, then select TXT. Either way – the settings for download must look like this:
If the video has more than one speaker, then switch on the ‘Include speaker names’ option.
Once you have the transcript copied to your clipboard, either from Otter directly or out of the text file you downloaded, go back to the edit page for the workshop and see if there is a ‘Transcript’ heading at the bottom of the post content (this was not part of the original template, so workshops added before April 2021 will not have it). If there is no ‘Transcript’ heading then add a new heading block with the word ‘Transcript’ and create a new paragraph block below it.
Paste the transcript content from your clipboard in the new paragraph block and you’ll be all done – the paragraph breaks should remain in place, but scroll through the pasted content to confirm before hitting update to save the content. For reference, here’s an example of a workshop with a transcript.
If the video is recorded in one of the 40+ languages that Sonix supports, then login to Sonix.ai. You can choose to use Sonix for English videos too, but Otter is cheaper so unless you have a valid reason for going with Sonix please rather use Otter when transcribing English videos.
After logging into Sonix, click the blue ‘UPLOAD’ button at the top of the page:
Upload the video file from your computer and wait for it to be uploaded by Sonix. Select the language the video was recorded in under the ‘Step 2: Details’ heading and click the ‘Transcribe in [language]’ button:
You can wait on this screen for the transcription to be generated – it can take more than a few minutes, depending on the length of the video – or you can leave this page. Either way, an email will be sent to learn@wordpress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ when the transcription is complete. You can even upload another video while you wait!
Once transcription has been completed, click on the video title in the list or the link in the email.
Once you have verified the accuracy of the transcript you can export the captions by clicking the blue ‘EXPORT’ button at the top right of the page. Select the “SubRip subtitle file (*.srt)” as the file format with the default settings:
If the video has more than one speaker, select to show the speaker names ‘as entered’. Click the ‘DOWNLOAD’ button and wait for the .srt file to download.
In addition to captions, we are also going to export the full transcript of the video. Use the same ‘EXPORT’ button as above, but select ‘Text file (*.txt)’ as the export format keeping the default settings in place:
If the video has more than one speaker, switch on the ‘Include speaker names’ option.
Open the .txt file that has downloaded and copy the entire contents of the file (except for the first line that includes the video file name). Go back to the edit page for the workshop and see if there is a ‘Transcript’ heading at the bottom of the post content (this was not part of the original template, so workshops added before April 2021 will not have it). If there is no ‘Transcript’ heading then add a new heading block with the word ‘Transcript’ and create a new paragraph block below it.
Paste the transcript content from your clipboard in the new paragraph block and you’ll be all done – the paragraph breaks should remain in place, but scroll through the pasted content to confirm before hitting update to save the content. For reference, here’s an example of a workshop with a transcript.
Return to the WordPress.tv video page, and click on the “Subtitle this video” button at the bottom of the sidebar.
On the next page, choose your file for upload, select the subtitle language from the drop-down selector (if the subtitles are in English, then just select “English” and not a regional variant), and click the Submit button.
After uploading, the file needs to be approved by a WordPress.tv admin. You can request approval in the #wptv or of #training channels, or by emailing [email protected].
Error Message: “Invalid File Type”
If you are using an Apple computer, the file extension (.xml) may be hidden by default–even if it appears in the name of the file. This may result in an upload error during this step. When you try to rename the file, the extension won’t change. To show the full extension on an Apple machine, follow this guide. Once you change this setting, when you change the extension name of a file from .XML to .TTML, a pop-up will appear and ask you if you want to change the file-type. Select “Use .TTML”.
Once you have confirmed the subtitle is working, edit the workshop post (you should still have this open in a tab from earlier) and add the subtitle language in the “Workshop Details�? section in the right sidebar. This is an autocomplete dropdown field, so start typing the language name and select it from the list.
If you’re not quite happy with the timing or line breaks, you’ll need to use a subtitle editing tool to readjust the timing. You can follow the WordPress.tv subtitle upload instruction for more information about this if needed.
