Automatically created closed captions

Studio facilitates the creation and publishing of closed captions. You can upload a pre-made caption file or let Studio automatically generate captiona based on the spoken language. If you have translated captions into multiple languages, you can upload several caption files.

Tips for creating effective captions

To improve the quality of automatically generated captions —and reduce the need for editing—it’s helpful to follow these recommendations before recording your video:

Choose a quiet room with minimal background noise, and consider using a headset.
Prepare a script, even for short videos.
Speak clearly. The clearer the speech, the more accurate the captions will be.

Upload video and review and publish captions

In this video (3:39 min) Carina Bois will show you how to upload an existing video and review and publish captions.

To see the section on reviewing captions please forward to 1:30 min. (This video is published using the code for a public video from Canvas Studio. See the same video below published directly via Studio Library.)

Video embedded from Studio library

You will note that on this video, embedded via the Studio library, students (you the participants in this course) can download a transcript of the video by clicking on the three dots in the top right-hand corner. This gives a text file - not the srt file for students to use as notes (UDL multiple formats).

Text guide

Go to your Studio Library. Find your video that you want to review captions for. Open the video details by clicking on the video title or on the video card.
Now you will see the four tabs for Details etc. Click the Captions tab. Newly created captions are unpublished by default. Before publishing, you need to review and, if necessary, edit them before actively publishing them. Click the three dots on the right (see image below), then select Review and publish. Alternatively, click directly on the language shown in the window, for example English:

Review your captions here

In the edit view, you'll see the captions on the left and the video on the right. Here you can play the video to check that the captions are correct.
Select a caption line to edit the text. Changes are automatically saved WHEN you click back on the selected text on the left (1)
You can search and replace a word that occurs incorrectly several times (2).
You can also edit the time intervals when the caption row appears in your video.
To remove the subtitle line, select the line first, and then click Delete.
At the bottom, you can click the + Insert Line button to insert a caption row.

Publish your captions

When you're happy with the captions, click Publish in the top right corner.

If you need to edit the captions again at a later date, select Edit in the Captions tab. When you have edited the captions a second time then you just click Close. Any changes you've made and saved will be available the next time you open the caption editor.

We recommend publishing your videos using the Extra Large player to ensure the Captions Toggle button is visible.

Please note that the button used to toggle captions on and off is not the same CC button as the one on KI Play or in the Media Gallery.

Update to Canvas Studio 19 April 2025: the Studio player WILL display a CC button for Closed Captions instead of the current "text icon".

Re-edit

If you find that you missed correcting an error, go back to the Captions tab via View in Studio Library. To edit existing published captions, click Edit.

For the first time, you can select Review and publish captions. When you're done, you'll see a green button for Publish.

IF you edit the same subtitles again, your changes are automatically saved so you don't have to publish again. Then just click on the Close button.

Adding a manual translation captions file

You can also manually add a translation of a captions file by clicking + New captions:

Click on New Caption to add translation

If you have several caption files in different languages you will see them under Captions. Once you have added the srt-file with the translation you can edit it via the Edit button on the relevant row.

Edit translation file

Collaborate on captions

One of the advantages of Canvas Studio is that you can share videos via Collections with colleagues, individually or in a group. If you give colleagues editing rights to your videos then they will be able to review and publish captions for your videos and correct spelling mistakes that may have occurred in the first review.

Good to know

You can embed your video in a Canva page BEFORE you have reviewed and published the captions. As soon as you publish the captions after you have rewiewed them, students will be able to access them, this applies in case you need to update spelling mistakes etc. We recommend that you make sure to publish your videos using the Extra Large player so that the Captions button is visible.

Toggle captions on and off is not the same CC button as on KI Play or Media Gallery until 19 April 2025. After this date the closed captions button will be indicated with a CC button in the updated Studio player.