How to make a transcript of a video for free - using tools you already have
By Amy Deschenes
How to make a transcript of a video for free - using tools you already have
If you’re sharing videos with your audience, they need to have captions. Captions make your videos accessible to people who have hearing disabilities. They are also helpful to support Universal Design for Learning guidelines to offer alternatives for auditory information.
Read more about best practices for transcripts from the Web Accessibility Initiative.
You can create captions by starting with a transcript, but what if you don’t have a transcript? If you need to create a transcript from a video that has no associated transcript file, there are tools you probably already have that will provide you with a starting place.
These dictation tools, which are available on a Windows computer or a Mac, can generate a starting point for your transcript so you don’t have to type everything out. The auto-generated transcript will still need to be reviewed and edited for accuracy, but it is still less time consuming than typing everything out.
If you’re a researcher you can also use these dictation tools to create a transcript for interviews that you can then edit, tag, or load into qualitative analysis software like NVivo.
On a Mac computer or iPhone:
- You can use Dictate text on a Mac in Notes or other Mac apps. The Notes app will capture the text. How to use Dictate on a Mac. If it’s easier you can also do this from an iPhone. Turn on the Dictation option, and then in another window play the video. The spoken words will be captured in your Notes app. Read how to use dictate on an iPhone for full instructions.
On a Windows computer:
- You can use the built-in Dictate option in MS Word to do the same thing. Turn on the Dictation option, and then in another window play the video. The spoken words will be captured in your Word doc. Read how to use Dictate in MS Word.
From Zoom
Make sure you have the transcript setting enabled in Zoom. Start a meeting in Zoom, record to the cloud and then play the video using screen and sound sharing. When the video is finished stop the recording - the transcript will be available to download in Zoom.