ThankView makes it easy to add closed captions to videos, helping you deliver accessible content to every recipient. We strongly recommend incorporating closed captions into your campaign-building process to support viewers who benefit from captioned content. 

Below, we will guide you through how to add closed captions, cancel caption processing, and manage captions once added. Let’s get started!

---

Adding Closed Captions

You can caption your ThankView videos in one of three ways:

1. Enable free auto-captioning: Our automated captioning tool provides quick, machine-generated captions at no cost. This option is best when you need fast turnaround and are comfortable reviewing and editing for accuracy.
2. Purchase paid human captioning: Professionally transcribed captions are available for purchase. These are ideal when you want the highest level of accuracy with minimal editing. 
3. Upload your own caption files: If you already have a caption file, you can upload a .vtt or .srt file directly to your video.

No matter which option you choose, adding captions starts the same way. Let’s walk through the steps!

Step 1. Open a Video Preview

To begin, open a video from either your Video Library or a campaign’s Videos step.

Step 2. Click Captions and Select Get Captions 

Click the Captions button in the video player controls, then select Get Captions. 

Step 3. Apply Free Automated Captioning

In the Add Captions popup, click Free Automated Captioning. These captions are roughly 80% accurate and generate in under 2 hours.

Once processing is complete, you will receive an email notification. You can then edit captions as needed.

Note: If your captions seem stuck or are taking longer than expected to process, you can cancel caption processing and try applying them again. 

Apply Captions to All Future Videos

If you want all future videos to be auto-captioned, an admin for your portal can enable this setting. 

To do so, navigate to your ThankView Settings and open the Video Captions page. Under the AI-Generated Video Captions section, select Yes and click Update.

Once enabled, captions will automatically generate for all newly recorded videos in your portal.

Step 4. Apply Paid Human Captioning

For the highest level of accuracy, select Paid Human Captioning from the Add Captions popup. These captions are 99% accurate and generate in under 24 hours. They cost $1.25 for the first minute of video, then prorated by the second. 

Note: You can send the captioned video to as many recipients as you would like! 

If your portal’s caption balance is low, a Paid Captions Settings popup will prompt you to add funds. Click Add $50 to Balance and enter the appropriate credit card information. 

If you have enough credit, an Are You Sure? popup will appear. Click Continue to confirm your purchase.

You will receive an email notification once your captions are ready. 

Note: While our paid captions are highly accurate, you can still edit them if needed! 

Step 5. Upload Captions

If you have a caption file on hand, select Upload Captions after clicking the Captions icon. In the Upload Captions popup, click Select File and choose a .vtt or .srt file from your device. 

Once processing completes, captions will appear alongside your video. You can edit uploaded captions as needed.

---

Cancelling Closed Captions

If your free automated closed captions are taking too long to process or appear stuck, you can cancel the processing step and try again using the same or a different captioning method. Since ThankView campaigns cannot deliver until caption processing completes, this feature comes in handy when caption processing is holding up a campaign send. 

Let’s take a look at how this works! 

Note: This cancellation option is only available for the Free Automated Captioning method.  

Step 1. Open the Campaign's Sends Page

After applying Free Automated Captions to a video, head to the Sends page in your campaign and click the All folder to view a table of all ThankViews included in the campaign.

Step 2. Locate the CC Processing Status

Find the videos with a CC Processing label in the table’s Status column. Click the Minus (-) icon next to a video with this status.

Step 3. Confirm Cancellation

In the Cancel AI Captions Processing popup, click I Understand to confirm the cancellation.

The video’s status will change to Recorded, indicating it is ready to be sent. You can now try applying captions again or send the video as-is. 

Note: When you apply or cancel captions for a video, that action applies to all of the video’s recipients. For example, cancelling captions for one video being sent to 10 recipients will cancel them for all 10.

---

Managing Closed Captions

Once captions are applied, you can manage them by editing, replacing, downloading, or deleting them.

Below, we will take a closer look at the available management actions. Open a video from either your Video Library or a campaign’s Video step, and dive in!

Step 1. Adjust Caption Settings 

Control whether captions appear by default for recipients. Click the Captions button in the video player controls, then select Caption Settings. In the Caption Settings popup, select your preference and click Save. 

Step 2. Edit Captions

To edit your video’s caption text, click the Captions button and select Edit Captions. In the Edit Captions popup, you will see caption segments broken up by time stamp. Make your changes, then click Update.

Note: 

• You can only edit the text of captions in ThankView. If you want to adjust timing, download the captions file, edit the timestamps in a text editor, and re-upload the updated file.
• ThankView does not currently support automatic closed caption translation. However, if you’d like to provide translated captions, you can copy and paste the text into a tool like Google Translate, then manually update the caption segments with the translated text. 

Step 3. Replace Captions

To replace existing captions with your own caption file, click the Captions button and select Replace Captions. In the Upload Captions popup, click Select File and choose a .vtt or .srt file from your device. 

Step 4. Download Captions

To download your video’s captions, click the Captions button and select Download Captions. A new browser tab will open with the captions displayed in WebVTT format. To download this .vtt file to your device:

• Right-click anywhere on the page and select Save As, or
• Use your browser’s menu to choose File > Save Page As

Step 5. Delete Captions

If you want to delete your video’s captions, click the Captions button and select Delete Captions. In the Are You Sure? popup, click Confirm to finalize the action.

---

If you have additional questions, please reach out to your Customer Success Representative or support@thankview.com.