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Overwrite text from file

This article describes how you can replace just the subtitle text in the current document with new text whilst leaving the original subtitles and their timecodes unchanged.  This ability is useful for translation work.  For example, you may have timed a subtitle file in one language and have the translated text for a second language available as a text file.  Using this method, you can easily merge the translated text with the existing timed subtitles.       

 

The source document can be in any of the supported import formats or even another W32 file.  In practise however, it is likely to be in text or RTF format.  

 

The source (text) document should have the same number of subtitles as the target W32 file or a warning will be displayed.  If the source contains more subtitles than the target then the extra subtitles will not be created.  If the source contains fewer subtitles than the target then the original text will remain.   

 

When importing TXT files, you must ensure that the text import options for maximum row length and row count are set greater than the largest subtitle in the source file or else the imported text may wrap onto following subtitles causing the source text to become misaligned with the target subtitles.

 

Text is overwritten on a subtitle-by-subtitle basis, i.e. the text in subtitle 1 of the source file will replace the text in subtitle 1 of the target file and so on.    

 

All formatting (e.g. position, colour information) will be stripped from the source text except for word-level bold/italic/underline markup.  The subtitle-level properties (e.g. position) of the target file will be preserved, e.g. if the target subtitles are center-positioned then they will remain so after the new text has been imported.     

 

Use the following procedure to read in subtitle text from a source document and replace the text in the currently open target file.

 

  1. Open the target file and save it with a new name

  2. Change the language of the target file to match the source file you are about to import

  3. If necessary, change the font of the target file to one that is able to display the text in the source file

  4. Select File : Overwrite Text From File from the main menu

  5. Choose the source file to import

  6. For non-W32 files, the Import Wizard will be displayed to guide you through the import process

  7. A warning will be displayed if the subtitle counts do not match, click OK to continue

  8. The text in the source file will replace the text in the target file

  9. Warnings may be displayed if Wincaps Q4 detects that results may not be sensible

  10. The current file now contains the new text.

 

This operation cannot be undone except by restoring from the automatic backup

See Also:

Import and Insert basics