MiVideo: Edit Captions in Canvas and Mediaspace

Environment

Canvas
MiVideo Mediaspace

Issue

How to use the Captions Editor to edit machine-generated captions for accuracy and accessibility. See the Edit Captions Outside of Canvas and MiVideo or Fix Out of Sync Captions article to correct transcript syncing or to edit the captions outside the Captions Editor.

Video Demo

Editing Captions for a Video In My Media On Canvas

Resolution

Notes

• The Captions Editor provides a graphical interface with many features including the ability to play the media alongside the text and the ability to easily edit the timestamp for a caption line.
• While the Captions Editor is recommended for editing captions/transcripts, transcript files can be edited in a TEXT editor and then resynced with the media to create the closed captions file. See the Fix Out of Sync Closed Captions in MiVideo article for more information about editing and resyncing the text transcript file.
• VTT Captions Note: while VTT captions are supported, the Captions Editor has a 64 character per block limit which could cause issues with editing VTT files. Please see the Unable to Edit VTT File with the Captions Editor article for more details and workarounds.
• Only media owners and co-editors can edit captions, see the Captions Collaboration Techniques article.

1. Access Captions Editor

Canvas 

1. Navigate to Account > My Media > pencil icon next to the media item or from the Media page, click Actions > Edit.
2. Click the Captions tab.
3. Click the Edit Captions button.

Mediaspace

1. Navigate to the user drop-down menu > My Media > pencil icon next to the media item or from the Media page, click Actions > Edit.
2. Click the Captions tab.
3. Click the Edit Captions button.

2. Edit Captions

• If the video has more than one captions file, select a different file from the dropdown in the top left of the editor.
• If you don't see your captions, click the refresh link. 
• Editing sessions expire in 2 hours. Save as you go to avoid work loss due to internet disruptions.
  • Note: if the Save button remains disabled after making edits verify there aren't any empty text blocks. 
• Click the play button (gray arrow pointing toward the right) in the player to review the captions and listen to audio.
• Check the box for Autoscroll to have the text auto scroll while the media is playing in the player.

Edit blocks

• Each captions block is limited to 64 characters across two lines.
• Change the beginning and end timestamps of any block. Clicking a block jumps the player to that frame. Timestamps must not overlap. The system will warn you if your timestamps overlap.
• Click the plus icon between the blocks to add a new block.
• The trash icon to deletes a block.

Replace text

1. Enter the text to replace in Search in Captions field.
2. Enter replacement text in the Replace with field.
3. Click Replace.

Add speaker

• Check the boxes next to one or more rows and enter the speaker name in the Add Speaker box.
• Click Add.

Revert changes

• Click the Revert link to revert any unsaved changes

Save changes

• Click the Save button.
• The text transcript will update with your changes.

3. Update Accuracy

Change the accuracy on the Captions tab to reflect the changes you made to the captions file. 

1. Click the edit (pencil) icon next to the captions file.
2. Select 100% from the Accuracy dropdown.
3. Optional: provide a new Label for the file.
4. Save.

Resources and Questions

• Check out the new Academic Technology@Michigan website for course planning resources from across U-M
• Visit the Canvas @ Michigan site for faculty including the U-M Instructor Guide with links to additional support resources from across campus
• Check out the Canvas and MiVideo tutorials

For additional questions, please contact the ITS Service Center