SubViewer Quickstart: From Import to Perfect Timing in 10 MinutesSubViewer is a lightweight subtitle editor designed for creators who need fast, accurate captioning without the clutter of heavyweight software. This quickstart guide walks you through importing a video or transcript, creating and editing subtitles, syncing timings precisely, and exporting a ready-to-use subtitle file — all in about 10 minutes.
What you’ll need (under 1 minute)
- A computer with SubViewer installed (download and install if you haven’t).
- The video file you want to subtitle (common formats: MP4, MOV, MKV).
- Optionally: a rough transcript (TXT, DOCX, or SRT) to speed up the process.
Step 1 — Create a new project and import your media (1–2 minutes)
- Open SubViewer and choose “New Project.”
- Import your video via File → Import → Video. Drag-and-drop usually works too.
- If you have a transcript, import it now: File → Import → Transcript. SubViewer will try to split lines into subtitle entries.
If you imported a transcript, skim the automatically created segments for obvious errors (misplaced line breaks, merged sentences).
Step 2 — Familiarize yourself with the interface (30 seconds)
- Timeline: shows subtitle blocks and waveform.
- Video preview: play and pause to check sync.
- Subtitle editor panel: edit text, set start/end times, add formatting.
- Playhead controls: frame-step, fast-forward, rewind, and jump-to-subtitle.
Tip: Toggle waveform view to see spoken peaks — it helps align line breaks to pauses.
Step 3 — Quick subtitle creation (2–3 minutes)
Option A — From transcript:
- Use Auto-Segment (if available) to split long transcript into subtitles based on duration and character limits (usually 32–42 chars per line).
- Review and adjust obvious mis-splits.
Option B — Manual:
- Play the video; pause at the start of a spoken phrase, press “Add Subtitle” (or hotkey), type the text, then set the end point where the speaker stops. Repeat.
Best practices:
- Aim for no more than two lines per subtitle and 32–42 characters per line for readability.
- Keep subtitle duration between 1.5–7 seconds depending on reading speed and line length.
- Break lines at natural linguistic pauses, not strictly by sentence length.
Step 4 — Syncing precisely (2–3 minutes)
- Use waveform peaks: align subtitle start with the first speech peak and end shortly after the final speech peak.
- Nudge times frame-by-frame for tight sync using the left/right arrow hotkeys.
- Use “Snap to Speech” or similar auto-align features if available — they can accelerate the process significantly.
- Check overlap warnings — ensure at least 0.1–0.2s gap between consecutive subtitles, or allow overlap only when appropriate for speaker overlap.
Quick trick: Set the playhead to the subtitle’s estimated start, press play, and hit the “Set End” hotkey when the line finishes — this is faster than dragging endpoints.
Step 5 — Polish: readability and style (1–2 minutes)
- Fix punctuation, capitalization, and speaker labels.
- Remove filler words if they don’t add meaning (uh, um). Preserve any meaningful stutters or emphasis when relevant.
- Add sound descriptions for accessibility (e.g., [door creaks], [laughter]) when important.
- Ensure consistent formatting (italics for off-screen speech, SFX in brackets).
Step 6 — Preview and QC (30–60 seconds)
- Watch the video with subtitles enabled at normal speed.
- Spot-check different sections: fast dialogue, quiet passages, and music-heavy moments.
- Adjust any mismatched timings or line breaks.
Step 7 — Exporting (30 seconds)
- Export formats commonly used: SRT (for most platforms), VTT (for web), and embedded formats like MKV/MP4 with burned-in subtitles.
- File → Export → choose format, verify encoding (UTF-8 recommended), and export.
Tips to save time
- Use keyboard shortcuts for add/start/end and nudging — saves minutes per project.
- Auto-segmentation plus waveform snapping handles most work for clear audio.
- For recurring speaker names, use a template or auto-insert feature if SubViewer supports it.
Troubleshooting quick fixes
- Audio out of sync with video: reimport video ensuring correct FPS; use the “global shift” tool to offset all subtitles.
- Wrong characters/encoding issues: export with UTF-8 and ensure platform supports chosen format.
- Long lines: increase segmentation aggressiveness or manually split lines at logical breaks.
Example workflow timeline (10 minutes breakdown)
- 0:00–0:30 — Create project and import media/transcript
- 0:30–2:00 — Auto-segment and skim transcript results
- 2:00–5:00 — Create/fix subtitles using waveform and hotkeys
- 5:00–7:30 — Precise nudging and snap-to-speech alignment
- 7:30–9:00 — Polish text and apply styles/accessibility labels
- 9:00–10:00 — Preview and export
SubViewer’s combination of waveform visualization, auto-segmentation, and keyboard-driven controls makes it feasible to go from raw footage to perfectly timed captions in about ten minutes for short to medium-length videos with clear audio.
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