How to add subtitles to TikTok video clips on Mac

ClipsPal transcribes your recording on your Mac, shows the words as a Subtitles track, and burns them into the MP4 you export. You then upload that file to TikTok yourself. The steps below take a talking-head recording from import to a captioned vertical clip.

Add subtitles to a TikTok video in ClipsPal

1. Choose New video, then Import files. You can also record audio or, on Mac, record your screen.
2. Set the spoken language. A wrong language gives a wrong transcript, so check it before you continue.
3. Let ClipsPal prepare and transcribe the clips. Transcription runs on your computer, and the video and audio stay there.
4. Open the timeline and check that the Subtitles track is shown. Its eye icon toggles it, and a video needs a recognized transcript first.
5. Click the Subtitles track name and choose Sentence or Word by word.

Sentence shows a line of speech at a time. Word by word shows each word as it is spoken. Both use the same transcript, so the choice changes grouping, not wording.

Fix wrong words in your subtitles

Transcripts miss names and product terms. Correct them before you style anything.

• Click a subtitle word in the preview or the timeline to edit it in the transcript.
• Double-click a transcript word to correct it.
• Double-click the space beside a word to insert speech the transcript left out.
• Use Fix with an instruction such as "Spell this name consistently". The dictionary stores spellings you want recognition and correction to respect.

Correcting a word changes the text only. The audio stays as recorded.

Style subtitles so they read on a phone

Click the Subtitles track name to open the font, text size, color, position and style controls. The style choices are Plain, Outline, Shadow and Background box. The box has its own color.

For a phone screen, pick a size you can read at arm's length and a style that separates the text from the footage. Outline or Background box suits busy backgrounds. Plain suits a clean, dark one.

To compare looks and check contrast and line wrapping on your own captions first, try the free subtitle styles library.

Make the clip vertical for TikTok

TikTok plays vertical video, so frame the clip at 9:16. If your recording is a long video, make shorts from it:

1. Open Shorts beside Full video and choose Create shorts.
2. Ask for 1 to 5 clips, and give a focus if you want a particular topic.
3. Each short opens as its own tab, with the cuts, visuals and subtitles of the full video carried over.
4. In a short, choose Frame and drag the 9:16 crop window over the speaker. Choose Done.
5. Set the subtitle position separately so the text stays clear of the platform's on-screen controls.

Review each short on its own. The guide on turning a long video into shorts covers picking distinct moments, and making multiple clips from one video covers keeping them from repeating each other.

Export with subtitles burned in

1. Choose Export, then Video.
2. Choose 1080p or 2K · 1440p.
3. Enable Subtitles in video, then Burned in. The captions in the file use the same appearance as in the editor.
4. Optionally include an SRT file and pick Sentence or Word by word for its cues. An SRT holds timed text only, without your fonts and colors.
5. Export. The job queues locally, and Open folder reveals the finished file.

ClipsPal does not post to TikTok. Upload the exported MP4 in the TikTok app or on the web. If you only need a caption file for a video you edit elsewhere, the free subtitle generator exports SRT and VTT. For help choosing an editor for TikTok in general, see the best TikTok video editors.