What this does
Transcribes your spoken dialogue into word-timed subtitle overlays that land with your voice, then styles them from a library of looks built for everything from broadcast subtitles to short-form hooks.
The editor's default is a bright orange box built for short-form hooks. On an interview, a client video or anything restrained that is the wrong choice — so name the style you want in the same request as asking for captions, and you will skip the second step.
How to do it
Follow these step-by-step instructions in Cubix.
Generate the captions
Ask Cubix to caption the video, or press Add Captions on the quick edit rail. Do this after your cut is settled — caption timing comes from the timeline as it stands, so a structural change afterwards shifts everything.
Dynamic word-by-word captions automatically synced to speech in Cubix.
Pick a style that matches the content
The looks are grouped into families. Viral gives you loud boxed or highlighted key words for short-form hooks. Highlight puts a coloured marker behind the active word. Bold is heavy type with no colour trick, good for podcasts. Minimal is clean and broadcast-looking — the right family for client, corporate and interview work. Keywords keeps the line calm and colours only the word that carries the meaning. Block puts text on a solid strip, the most readable option and a natural home for a brand colour. Neon, Retro, Aesthetic and Fun are there when the footage is playing along.
Adjust size, font or phrasing
Size and font are separate from the look: asking for bigger captions changes the size and leaves the colour and outline alone, whereas picking a new style replaces the whole look. Phrasing is separate again — how many words share the screen, and how many lines stack. One to three words at a time suits vertical short-form; a full line suits widescreen subtitles.
Fix any wrong words
Names, product terms and unusual spellings sometimes come through wrong. Ask for a straight replacement and it corrects every occurrence without regenerating anything, so your timing and styling stay exactly as they were.
Position them where the platform will not cover them
On widescreen, the lower third is fine. On vertical video it is not — the bottom strip carries the platform's own caption, handle and progress bar, and the right-hand column carries its action buttons. Keep captions in the central band of a vertical frame so nothing sits on top of them.
Add extra emphasis if the content wants it
Beyond the base style, captions can carry keyword emphasis that colours the word carrying the meaning, an opening hook, and word-level animation. These are worth using on short-form hooks and worth leaving off on anything professional.
Pro Tips for Best Results
- One style drives every caption line in a project. There is no per-line styling, so if a single line needs to stand out, use a separate text overlay instead.
- On vertical video, keep captions in the central band. The bottom strip and the right-hand column belong to the platform's own interface and will cover anything you put there.
- Most social video is watched muted first, so captions are what buy you the second or two it takes someone to turn the sound on.
- Already have subtitles? You can import an .srt file instead of generating from scratch, and style it the same way.
- The Subtitles panel also carries a review view that steps through every line, which is faster than scrubbing when you want to proof a long video.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions around this editing workflow.