Turning on Closed Captioning/Live Transcription in Zoom

Overview

A closed captioning feature is available in Zoom for hosts to turn on during meetings. The feature can be set up to allow a person to type the live captioning or you can also use Zoom's auto-transcription service.  

Troubleshooting

1. Enable the "Closed captioning" setting in your Zoom account. 

  1. Login to the web version of Zoom.
  2. Click on "Settings."
  3. Make sure the "Meeting" tab is selected at the top of the window and click "In Meeting (Advanced)" in the left navigation.
  4. Scroll down the page until you see the "Manual Captions" section. 
  5. Click the button to toggle it on. The button will be blue when enabled.
  6. Also click the checkboxs next to "Allow host to type or assign a participant to type" and "Allow use of caption API Token to integrate with 3rd-party Closed Captioning services".
  7. If you would like the ability to save the live transcript for all participants, including the host, you can scroll down to the "Save Captions" setting and toggle it on.  The button will be blue when enabled. You may select to only allow certain users to save captions from the meeting, as well.

image showing save captions options

2. While in your Zoom meeting as the host, you will see a "CC/Show captions" icon in your list of meeting controls.  Clicking on the icon will show or hide captions. Zoom will automatically capture the real-time transcript in the user's language.

image showing "CC" Show Captions option

3. Right-clicking on the icon will display additional menu options on how the closed captioning will be serviced.  You can assign a manual captioner or adjust accessibility settings.

4. Participants will get a notification that the service has been turned on.   It will appear above their "CC/Show captions" icon.  They can click the icon to show/hide the subtitles.

5. You can move the subtitles around on your screen by holding your mouse down on them and moving your mouse around the screen. 

6. If you'd like to show the transcripts in a side panel, you can click on the "CC/Live Transcript" icon and select "View Full Transcript."  A side window will open.  At the bottom of this side panel, you may also see a "Save Transcript" option if the meeting host has enabled this setting (see step 1g above).

7. If you'd like to change the size of the subtitles, click the "Show caption" icon and choose "Caption Settings."  This will open up a new window where you can choose the "Closed Caption Font Size" to be  "Normal," "Medium," or "Large."

Need Help?

Need additional information or assistance? Contact CTS.

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