Automatic Captioning in Panopto Handout

There are two primary steps when using automatic captions: 1) Activate the automatic captioning feature and 2) Edit the captions. These steps are also outlined in a video tutorial (opens in a new window) created by Digital Media Services.

Step 1: Activate the Automatic Captioning FeatureOption 1:

  1. Move your mouse over the title of the video.
  2. Click Edit.


  1. From the menu on the left, click Captions.
  2. Click Import captions.
  3. Click Import Automatic Captions. (Note: If you do not see this option, go to option 2 of this step.)
  4. Panopto will now start processing the captions. They may appear in a few moments or a few hours.

Option 2:

If you do not see the Import Automatic Captions option or your video was created prior to this automatic captioning tool (earlier than summer 2017), use these steps to activate the automatic captioning tool.

  1. Move your mouse over the title of the video.
  2. Click Settings.
  3. From the menu on the left, click Search.
  4. To the right of Speech, “Not processed” will appear. Click “Process” to the right. The automatic captioning process will now start. They may appear in a few moments or a few hours.

Step 2: Edit the Captions

Option 1: Listen, Edit, Save

  1. To edit text, click the caption you want to edit.


  1. Press Enter.
  2. To change the time it appears on the progress bar, take note of the time you want it to appear on the video. (The time on the left side of the seek bar provides this information).


  1. Click the pencil to the right of the caption.
  2. In the Time field, type the time it should appear.
  3. Click Save.
  4. Give Panopto a second to save the caption before editing the next caption.
  5. Repeat the steps for each caption you need to edit until your captions are accurate.

Option 2: Download Captions, Edit, Upload them to Panopto, Save

  1. Move your mouse over the title of the video.
  2. Click Settings (the first option to the right of the video).
  3. On the menu on the left, click Captions.
  4. Click Download file.

Note: If you’ve already created captions using the automatic captioning tool, click Delete the Captions to avoidseeing duplicate captions at the end of these steps.If you have not already created captions using the automatic captioning tool, proceed to the next step.

Do not close the Settings screen.

  1. Locate the file in the Downloads folder.
  2. Make edits in the file.
  3. Go back to Panopto. In the Upload Captions section, click Choose File.
  4. Locate the file with the captions.
  5. Click Open.
  6. Click Upload Captions.
  7. The screen will display “Captions are being imported for this session.” You may close this window until this process is complete.
  8. Beneath the title of your video will state that it is embedding captions and processing the captions. It will then change to Publishing captions. When Panopto is ready for you to see them, the message will no longer appear.
  9. Click Edit.
  10. Click Captions to see the new captions.
  11. If you need to make more changes to the captions, follow the steps 4-11 in option 1.