# Captions and overlays

Keep a cut readable by fixing its words first, then placing the captions and
adding any extra picture or text. Start with a project that has finished
transcribing.

## Correct the words

Edit a recognized word in the transcript when its caption is wrong, or select
the words and choose **Edit → Edit Caption…** (⇧⌘E). The correction keeps the
recorded source interval: changing “flower” to “flour” does not synthesize a
different voice or move the cut.

Use **Edit → Use Original Caption** to remove a correction and show the
recognized word again. Cutting words and correcting words are separate
actions, so check the preview and use Undo when you intended the other one.

To keep a word in the video and leave it out of the captions, select it and
choose **Edit → Hide from Captions** (⇧⌘H). Press Return between two words to
start a new caption there.

## Place captions

Select the captions in the preview. Drag them to move them, or drag a corner
to change their size. Watch the full line at the chosen width, especially long
names and phrases. Preview and export draw captions from the same layout.

**View → Show Captions** (⇧⌘C) turns captions on or off for the whole video.

## Add a picture or another video

Import media inside a main clip to add a child overlay. Its timing belongs to
that parent clip, so moving the parent moves the overlay with it. Image
overlays begin at the chosen source time and last up to five seconds within
the available parent interval. A video overlay ends within that interval.

Change the overlay's position and scale in the preview, then check its start
and end on the timeline. There is one media-overlay lane. Text has its own
lane and can overlap a media overlay.

## Add text

Choose **Text** in the preview's controls, or **Edit → Add Text** (⌘T), to add
text at the playhead. Double-click the text in the preview to edit it, drag it to
position it, and choose **Typewriter** in the Text animation pop-up to type it
out. On-screen text is separate from the transcript, so it can introduce a
section without changing what the speaker says.

## Keep the subject in the frame

Select a main video clip and turn on **Follow Subject**. The crop then follows
the clip's main subject instead of staying fixed, for example when a landscape
recording plays in a portrait video. The preview shows the centered crop until
analysis of the clip finishes, and Export waits for it. Follow Subject is
unavailable for photos, 360° clips, a clip whose source is missing, and a clip
whose whole picture already shows.

## Check the result

Play across each boundary, then export a short result to inspect the final
caption wrapping and overlay timing. The
[command format](/docs/project-format) describes the corresponding agent
operations.