There are three ways to turn on subtitles while watching a video in QuickTime, assuming the video already has a subtitle track added.
- Select “View > Subtitles,” and then select your language of choice.
- In Playback control, click the Subtitles button.
- If you have a newer Mac with a touch bar, simply press and hold the Subtitles button.
Is the video your own? Do you not have the subtitles added yet? You can get a subtitle track for a video through a captioning service, such as an SRT caption file from Rev. Then, you can use this guide for the free tool Handbrake to encode the closed caption file into the video.
QuickTime Captions: How to Open a Sidecar Caption File
There’s another neat feature of Mac computers that film viewers enjoy. It’s called Sidecar caption files, and they allow you to use an iPad as an extension of your desktop to display captions on a separate screen.
To use this option, the following requirements must be met:
- Both devices must be signed into the same iCloud account
- Both devices must be located within 10 meters of each other. (Too far away, and they won’t connect or be able to communicate with one another.)
- Your MacBook must use macOS Catalina, and your iPad must use iPadOS 13 or later. Models using an earlier OS will not have the required capabilities.
If you have everything ready to go and compatible, you can open Sidecar captions by following these steps:
- On your Mac, select Apple Menu, then “System Preferences.”
- Click “Sidecar” (Note that not all Apple products support this option)
- Select whether you want the captions to display on the right or left side of the screen
- Click the Airplay icon located on the menu bar of your Mac computer
- Follow the prompts to connect your iPad and Mac
Your iPad should now work as an extension of your Mac, allowing you to move windows between the two screens.
