The ATA Chronicle - March/April 2020 - 31

COMPARISON OF SUBTITLING PROGRAM FEATURES
Freeware
Commercial
Video Player
Full-Screen Mode
Waveform
Merge/Split
Error Analysis
Find/Replace
Spellchecker
Multilanguage
Exports
Font and Color
Undo/Redo
Zero Mouse Interaction
Cloud-Based
Desktop-Based

Subtitle Edit
Y

Subtitle Workshop
Y

Aegisub
Y

SubtitleNEXT

EZTitles

Ooona Tools

VLC Media Player
Y
Y
Windows 10
Y
Y
Open Office
Y

Integrated
Y
Y
Y
Customizable
Y
Word
Y

VLC Media Player
Y
Y
Y
Y
Open Office
Y

Y
Integrated
Y
Y
Y
Customizable
Y
Open Dictionaries
Y

Y
Integrated
Y
Y
Y
Customizable
Y
Y
Y

Over 60 and Customized

Over 10

Over 45

Over 50

Y
Y

Y
Y

Y
Y

Y
Y

Shortcuts

Shortcuts

Y
Y
Customizable
Keyboard

Y
Integrated
Y
Y
Y
Customizable
Y
Y
Y
Third-Party
Conversion Software
Y
Y

Dozens

Shortcuts

Hotkeys

Y
Y

TWO THINGS YOU CAN DO
TO IMPROVE YOUR PRODUCTIVITY
All things being equal, what can directly
affect your subtitling income is speed. I'm
not talking about brain processing speed
or the amount of time spent on research
or reviewing your work, but about typing
speed. There are two things you can do to
impact your typing speed and, consequently,
your income, and they're free and simple.
Get Off Your Mouse: Don't be so quick
to dismiss this one. If you memorize
every keyboard shortcut in your subtitling
program-and not just the shortcuts you
use the most-you'll at least double your
typing speed, and not only the shortcuts you
use the most! Subtitling software isn't cheap,
and you should be utilizing every feature
available to you, not only a handful, like
most audiovisual translators. If your software
doesn't allow you to drop the mouse, drop
the program and get a new one!
Increase Your Typing Speed: First, test your
speed. For this, I like the FastFingers website
(http://bit.ly/FastFingers-speed) because it's
free and you can be tested in your target
language. Check if you're a normal typist
(40 words per minute), a superfast typist (75
words per minute), or fall under the "rolling
in dough" category (working fewer hours
than your colleagues for the same money,
www.atanet.org

Y
Y

Y

Y

which means typing about 120 words per
minute). The "Intel processor" in your brain
can certainly translate more than 120 words
per minute. If you're open and willing to
accept advice from me, let it be this: take the
test and do some exercises to increase your
typing speed.

FUTURE OF SUBTITLING SOFTWARE
Machine Translation and Post-Editing:
They are upon us. Localization companies
and departments will start integrating them
into their subtitling software. Of course,
how fast this will happen will depend on
how many translators accept post-editing
work. Imagine if no translators accept postedits? Or, a more moderate idea: what if
translators charge the same for post-editing
as for translating? I think this would slow
down the snowball coming our way.
Translation Memories: SDL Trados Studio
broke ground last year with their subtitling
plug-in. I think, more than anything
else, that this is the future of subtitling.
Companies will start integrating translation
memory into their proprietary software (I'll
leave the legal and ethical considerations of
this one for another time), and audiovisual
translators will finally be able to reap
the rewards of all their body of work by
bringing it together in a memory.

Y

There are many subtitling programs
(and at least one plug-in I know about) on
the market today. My recommendation is
to watch YouTube tutorials or use the free
trials most companies offer to see what
user interface you prefer. And don't just
look at one, invest your time and look
at three at the very least to compare and
make an informed decision.
NOTES
1.	
A Chyron is a machine that creates text-based
graphics to be superimposed on a television
screen or film frame, such as subtitles or
the banners you see on a newscast (e.g.,
"Breaking news: The Storm is Coming.").
2.	

To watch how a Moviola works, see "Editing
on a Moviola," http://bit.ly/Moviola-editing.

Deborah Wexler is an ATAcertified English>Spanish
translator and editor with over 20
years of experience specializing
in audiovisual translation and
Spanish orthography. She is the
cofounder and administrator of ATA's Audiovisual
Division. She has translated over 6,000 program
hours for television, VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, streaming
media, and the big screen. She is the operations
manager of the Americas at Pixelogic Media. She
is a frequent speaker at national and international
conferences, and has mentored and trained many
translators who want to get into the subtitling field.
American Translators Association

31
http://www.bit.ly/Moviola-editing http://www.bit.ly/FastFingers-speed http://www.atanet.org
The ATA Chronicle - March/April 2020

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