Edit all closed captions at once?

[Kylee Pena]

.stl files are plain text or rich text, right? Could you open the file in TextEdit and do a find/replace all with the settings you want to change?

For example, if you want to change the font from Arial to Helvetica, you could do find “Arial” and replace with “Helvetica”. Or to change the font size, find “$FontSize = 65” and replace with “$FontSize = 45”. Stuff like that.

You could do a more complex find and replace if you have a whole series of adjustments to make.

I haven’t actually done this, but I’ve done a similar thing for changing the color on a bunch of text in an XML file. So please report back if I’m totally wrong.

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[Paul Neumann]

I saw a tutorial not too long ago on how to take .txt files into indesign then apply a style to them and export them to PPro. Not terribly complicated, but very useful.

[Steve Brame]

Here’s a good start…

https://www.geocities.com/mcpoodle43/DVDMaestro/stl_format.html

If you’re on a Windows machine, you could also take a look at the free tool – Subtitle Workshop. If on a Mac, Jubler Subtitle Editor is good for editing CC and subtitles. Both can read and write the STL format.

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[Steven L. gotz]

Yes, but the tutorial was for subtitles, not closed captions.

I think that search and replace using a text editor might be the only way to do this task.

Steven

https://www.stevengotz.com

[Steven L. gotz]

Martin,

Please clarify if you mean subtitles (burned into the video) or are you keeping them as closed captions?

Steven

https://www.stevengotz.com

[Paul Neumann]

Yeah, I saw “spanish” and immediately thought subtitles. Captioning is a whole different beast.

[Steve Brame]

Many tend to use the terms ‘subtitles and ‘closed captions’ interchangeably, though they are very different. However, if you have STL files, you are talking subtitles. STL is a subtitle format.

Both are editable via most subtitle editors, but as stated, can also be edited in a text editor, as long as you are very careful not to rearrange the structure or accidentally change any format tags while changing the variables of those tags. A ‘Search and Replace’ with a text editor can easily lead to this, while a subtitle editor will prevent it.

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——————————————-
“98% of all computer issues can be solved by simply pressing ‘F1’.”
Steve Brame
creative illusions Productions

[Martin Strandgaard]

Thank you for your responds!

I am not talking about subtitles (burned into the video) I am keeping them as closed captions.

When I opened the STL-file in both WordPad and NotePad, I got a lot of text, but as far as I could see, there was no way for me to change any propperties of the closed captions.
I just can’t believe that one would have to change every individual caption

[Andy Engelkemier]

Open the STL with Subtitle Workshop. Export XML. You can now do find and replace. I suggest using Notepad++ instead of notepad. This will arrange formatting easier and make it less likely to accidentally change something. You can do a find and replace All, in one step.
Bring that back into Subtitle Workshop and save as the original format.

Otherwise, you’re likely stuck changing each one, one at a time. So I’d just change one the way you want it, then do a find and replace, as you suggested.

[Xavier Duke]

Hello there! Were you able to get a solution to this? 3 Years later im having the same issue. Need to change the format of a bunch of captions. Any idea?