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Here you will learn how to add subtitles in iMovie in just few steps to make videos feasible even for those who don’t know the language of the video.
Let’s get in detail now…
Are you in love with watching movies? Well, I would only call you a movie buff, if you love catching up a cinema, irrespective of its language. The world is replete with classics from different maestros, from every part of the world. If you have decided to catch them up, language might be an issue.
Every year, beautiful movies are released in different languages. If you think, mere inability to understand the language will be a hindrance, you are mistaken.
The best way to understand videos or movies of any language is by adding subtitles to them. Your Apple devices will easily help you to do so.
Apple iMovie app will help you to add any text to the videos, a well as movies, which you can use as subtitles. You can also customise these subtitles, as per your liking.
iMovie is an easy-to-use interface, and whether you have done any video editing or not, it is very easy to add the subtitles.
Read Also: How to Add Music to iMovie on iPhone without iTunes?
Are you Able to Add Subtitles in iMovie?
If your interest lies in knowing whether you can add subtitles in iMovie and whether it is worth the trouble, you have to go through this article to know the answer.
iMovie allows you to add text which can be used as the subtitles of a movie. But, these subtitles are not the standard SRT files for subtitles. These act as a series of texts on the already existing videos, as per technicality is concerned.
You can add subtitles in iMovie using the title tool. This is entirely a manual process which requires you to insert the individual text blocks into the iMovie timeline. The burn-in titles are the open captions that always appear on the videos, and you cannot turn them off.
Before you actually start creating titles in iMovie, you should check whether you have an *.SRT captions file to reference throughout the entire process of captioning workflow.
How to Add Subtitles in iMovie: Step by Step
Open iMovie to the movie or the video file where you want to add the captions or the subtitles and then go for the following steps:
- Select the clip in the Timeline where you want to add the text.
- Click Titles in the browser at the top.
- Choose your style for the title.
- Once you select the clip in the Timeline, you can double-click on the title you want to pick and add.
- Later you can go up to the Viewer where you can see the text box for the title and then enter the text you want to insert.
That’s it, this is how you can add subtitles in iMovie manually.
How to Add More Captions and Adjust in iMovie?
Once you add the title you want to insert as a caption or a subtitle, you may need to adjust its duration.
For a single clip, you may want to add more captions and subtitles, also. Suppose you have a 5-minute long clip, but you want five subtitles, in that single minute clip. Let us see how you can do this too.
Adjusting the Duration
You can add or shorten the length of the text that comes on the screen. You can select the clip in the Timeline and do any one of the following:
- Drag one of the edges which you want to shorten or add length to. You can see the change of the duration as you do this.
- Click the Clip Information or the small letter I button which is there above the Viewer. Then you can enter the number of seconds you want to add as the duration.
Changing the Text Style
You can change the style of the font, the format, the colour and the alignment of the text in the caption, as well as the subtitle. Then you have to click the Title clip in the Timeline and click the Title Settings button, again above the Viewer. Doing this will allow you to see all the options that you have to adjust.
Adding More Captions and Subtitles
If you have to add more captions and subtitles, you have to follow the same steps, as mentioned above, by just double-clicking or dragging and dropping a Title onto the clip in the Timeline.
How to Add Subtitles to Videos in iMovie 10?
If you use iMovie 10, some steps may differ. Version 10 will be a little different in the way the app works.
- Open the app.
- Start a new project or edit from an existing one.
- On the screen where you edit, you have to make sure that the video you want to insert a text with, is already available in the Timeline. If it is not already, you can drag it over to the Timeline and add there.
- Click on Titles which is there under the Content Library and accordingly you can choose a style for the subtitles.
With the help of the Titles feature, you can very easily add captions and subtitles to videos, movies and images or other iMovie projects. But, Apple has decided to create an official feature for this in future, making it more comfortable.