Make a vtt file for captions yourself - PPT 2024

You can add subtitles to a video in PPT 2024. To create subtitles, you need an external program (whether paid or not) such as Stamp, Clipchamp, etc. The subtitles are saved in a text file with the .vtt extension.

However, you can also do this yourself by creating a webvtt text file. This can easily be done in the built-in Windows 11 program Notepad. In older versions of Windows, you can of course also use WordPad. Microsoft has removed the built-in WordPad program, that has been part of the operating system for decades, from Windows 11.

Now, if you have a short video and want to add subtitles to it, proceed as follows.

Start Notepad. You can easily find it in the Windows Start menu. Type the first line (without this line the file will not work!):

WEBVTT

Type:

00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:09.000 (hours, minutes, seconds, thousandths)

Then on the following line type the text you want to appear while the video is playing.

Repeat this process for all the text you want to play. See below for an example:

Now save the file via the File menu. Do this in the following format:

filename.language.extension

Example subtitles.en.vtt

Click Save

A warning message will appear. Since the default extension for Notepad is *.txt, Windows asks if the extension may be changed. Click Yes.

Now open your presentation and select the video to which you want to add the captions.

On the Playback tab, click the Insert Captions button and choose Insert Captions.

Select your captions file and click Insert.

Play your video.