Sunday 7 April 2024

The Easiest Way to Get YouTube to Auto-Sync Your Video Script

Easiest Way to Auto-Sync Captions on YouTube - cyan background with a screen grab of the YouTube captions screen over top

Auto-Syncing Subtitles on YouTube

Subtitles are things that are often overlooked on YouTube vids, and as good as AI is getting at creating auto-generated subtitles for vids, there is nothing quite like having personally uploaded, accurate ones for quality control.

However, I have found they can be a little tricky, and doing them manually by hand takes forever!

One way of doing this is paying a company to create a subtitle file from your video and just uploading this. However, for those of us on a budget, this is often a cost we simply cannot afford.

Luckily, YouTube offers great tools to help us out.

The most useful of these for me, is the Auto-Sync option.

Below I'm going to share the most useful tip I have discovered on how to get this option to work quickly and exactly how I want every time.

What you will need to use this method:

the script of your video
YouTube Studio

Method for Flawless Auto-Sync Subtitles

Preformat the script file:

Open your script file in the word processor of your choice - as long as it has a search and replace option.
Add a new paragraph at every point you definitely want a new subtitle - YouTube will auto break longer paragraphs, but it can be very random how it does it and sometimes with large scripts it fails.
This is the important step - search and replace all single paragraph marks with two paragraph marks so paragraphs have a space between them. This will make auto-syncing work like a charm because it will take each paragraph as its own subtitle and has to do way less work.

Inputting the Subtitles:

Open your uploaded video in YouTube Studio and click the subtitles option.
Choose the Auto-Sync option.
Copy and paste the double spaced script into the Auto-sync box and wait while the AI automatically syncs the subtitles to the sound in your video. It should only take a little while (this varies on what time of day it is and how busy the system is).

What to Do If the Auto-Sync Fails

Occasionally the auto-sync fails - it just hangs and never manages to create the subtitles correctly or gives the message "Auto-sync is taking longer than usual" and still never gets there. I have found there are usually one of two reasons for this:

The video has not finished the checking process. In that case I close the subtitle window using the X and choose the "discard changes" option. This means we can start the process over again once the checking of the vid is done and the processes won't interfere with each other.
It's a large script file and it just can't do it. I use the same method of leaving and discarding changes, then I check my file to make script file to make sure there's nothing in it that could be pasting in incorrectly and try again. It usually works the second time.

What to Do If There Are Existing Subtitles and Auto-Sync is Not There

If there are already subtitles on the vid but we wish to add a whole new set, either because they are incorrect or incomplete, we need to first remove the existing subtitles before we can use the Auto-Sync option.

Hence we need to open the subtitles window as usual and choose the clear subtitles option. There are three vertical dots next to the EDIT AS TEXT option at the top of the subtitles screen. Click this and a drop down will appear with the "Clear Subtitles" option. This will delete all subtitles on the vid, so as a precaution, I would download the subtitles first from the same menu. Then if you decide you want them back again for any reason you can just reupload the file.

YouTube Studio Subtitles dialog with a red arrow pointing at the clear subtitles option.

Once I discovered the double spacing the paragraphs trick I have not had a subtitle set fail to sync correctly, whereas before it could be a bit hit and miss. I use it for my shorts and my long form and I hope this info will be able to help someone else out if they are having problems.

If you have tips for dealing with some of YouTube's quirks, I would love to hear them in the comments.

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Sunday 25 February 2024

Delicious! Stuffed Potato & Parmesan Waffles

Delicious! Stuffed Potato and Parmesan Waffles - picture of a stuffed waffle on a plate with a cheese pull in front of a dark background.

Stuffed Potato & Parmesan Waffles

Gluten Free & Vegetarian

This is a partial repost, but also an updated recipe from back in 2020. The original recipe is for plain potato & parmesan waffles, but my lovely twin just gifted me and my hubby a stuffed waffle iron, so of course we had to try it out. These are so very delicious, I had to share.

As I mentioned, the original recipe is based off of Nigella's Garlic & Parmesan waffles from her book, "At My Table". This is just a different take on the recipe, with a stuffing of red peppers and mozzarella.

Makes 3x 5''(12.7cm) waffles

A serving for me was 1 waffle, but my husband ate 2 easily, so scale up to fit your needs

Ingredients

For the waffle batter (Gluten Free)

400g / 2 cups mashed potato (left over mash works well, or I used cooked frozen mash this time)
4 tbsp (60ml) butter
8 tbsp (120ml) milk
2 eggs
45g/ ~3/8cup finely grated Parmesan (or hard Italian cheese vegetarian equiv)
4 tbsp cornflour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp Dried Rosemary (I like the grind it in a pestle and mortar or spice grinder to make it distribute better and release its flavour)
salt & pepper to taste

For the stuffing

half a ball of mozzarella (vegetarians check the packet to make sure you have a veggie version)
half a large red pepper (capsicum) - I use jarred roasted peppers (I hate the skin on fresh ones), but if you are using fresh you will need to fry the peppers off before use, unless you want crunchy almost raw pepper in your waffle - which is an option for a texture change.

Instructions

Melt the butter (I microwave it for 30s then stir until completely melted, but you can do it in a saucepan) and leave to stand to cool down.
Preheat the waffle iron.
Prepare the filling by chopping the mozzarella and pepper into small pieces.
Microwave your mash if using frozen or allow to come to room temp if using leftovers, and, using a fork or something similar, break up the mash so that it is light pieces, not one lump.
In a large bowl whisk together the cooled butter, eggs and milk.
Add in the potato a little at a time, whisking it in each time. I used a flat manual whisk, but you could use an electric hand whisk, or a bowl mixer if you prefer.
Add the Parmesan, cornflour, baking powder, rosemary, salt and pepper and beat until smooth(ish).
Lightly oil the waffle iron.
Place a few spoonfuls of batter in the bottom of the waffle iron - enough to just cover the raised areas. After a couple of second it will begin to puff up a little.
Take 1/3rd of the filling and place in the centre of the waffle batter, leaving half a cm or so around the edge.
Carefully spoon batter over the filling, sealing it in and filling the waffle iron to a little over 3/4 full.
Close the waffle iron, invert it, and cook for about 7 mins total or until golden brown - different waffle makers will vary. After 7min check the cook and let it go a little longer if necessary.
Tip out of the waffle from the maker onto a plate (I discovered tipping was way easier than trying to lever it out with a spatula - just be careful not to burn yourself).
If making lots, pop the cooked ones in a low oven until ready to eat.

Depending what meal we are making these for, they go well with eggs or some suitable veg on the side (I imagine garlic roasted tender stem broccoli would be amazing). A piquant sauce on the side is also a nice flavour combo (Sauce Shop Honey Chipotle BBQ sauce is what I had with mine where as Rob ate his without anything on the side).

Stuffed Potato and Parmesan Waffles on a grey plate, with a cheese pull.

This is a very versatile recipe, so if you don't like the amount of cheese or want to use a different herb/spice, just go ahead and play. It one to have fun with.