Suppose you’ve already watched the episode normally, not from Subtitle Editor, but from the normal page. Which is something to be done anyway, because Subtitle Editor skips all the action which has no subtitles, therefore you might miss something important which is happening and which would help you understand what’s going on. Then you might translate from Bulk Translator, which allows you to just push Enter for breaks, no need for formatting there, and is generally quicker. Then, for your review, you have of course to do it from Subtitle Editor, looking at the video.
As an editor, I often use it. By that time I know what’s going on in the episode. For instance I used it once when I knew that one collaborator has the nasty habit of correcting, wrongly, good subtitles. It was useful to see the history and go back to the good ones. Of course now you can also see the history on Subtitle Editor by clicking the +1 (or +2 or more). But on Bulk Editor you can scroll down more easily, it flows more naturally.
If you want to save the subtitles by copy pasting them into Notepad. Why you would want to do that? If you are deleting bad segments and then you want to replace the subtitles again at the proper time.
I actually use it when I translate. For some reason translating the usual way makes me dizzy, so I have to translate from there. However, when I am done I have to watch the video and read the subtitles since in Spanish there’s the feminine and masculine speech. That way I make sure that I used the correct word.
If I have watched the episode before, I go directly to the bulk tool and switch to the editor when I am not sure who is talking to whom, to check for genders and respectful speech.
I use the bulk translator to correct mistakes, because it is easier for me to focus when I read a continuous text. I also use it to catch random letters and punctuation marks that I accidentally typed in the wrong box while using the laggy editor.
The subtitle editor is a pain to use. The cursor jumps everywhere and adds letters to irrelevant boxes. It takes about 20’’ to save a subtitle and sometimes I lose all my work because it goes offline for some reason. It’s laggy and it skips portions of the action. It is difficult to find and revise a sub that I left blank a few minutes ago. You have to scroll really slowly and wait for the cursor to settle.
In the subtitle editor I get tired and frustrated quickly and I don’t pay attention to the context. In the bulk translator, I have realized that a lady doctor was referred to as Mr …, something I hadn’t noticed while chasing the cursor in the editor and waiting for the video to buffer. I went back to the bulk translator, corrected the whole episode in my language and notified the team.
If I subtitle a show I haven’t watched as a viewer, I need to use the subtitle editor and put triple the time to finish an episode. It is frustrating and I postpone working on it.
Actually, (and I’m sure you know this, but some might not) the Editor shows you the entire video, including the parts where there is no segment. All you need to do is press the play button under the video after the previous segment has stopped with autoplaying. That’s the quickest way to get the context you need to translate your next subtitle, rather than going back to the video.
I think Editor is absolutely the best solution when you have no problem with internet speed and no monthly data limit with your ISP.
Bulk is great if you need to find a memory from one of the previous episodes to copy-paste into the current one.
When cutting is not done properly and you need to fill empty segs. Editor says 100% by the episode doesn’t.
16 eps of replacing Lee Yi Jwa to Yi In Jwa, bulk translate is better because you can ctrl+F the whole document.
Or when you need to edit multiple segs with specific timings, you can input the time with ctrl+F.
Re: The Wedding Day.
What I noticed is that previous subbers put break marks < br > on the unnecessary segs, such as laughing sound and other noises and also during a background song in the beginning but did leave other segs blank when they didn’t know how to translate. I suppose you could argue that they shouldn’t have put break mark for the background music but when there aren’t a lot of capable subbers, putting in the song lyrics is considered an added bonus, not a necessity.
I have no doubt and have personally seen that there are abusers who put in random marks. But in this case, it looks like subbers actually did the best they can and left difficult lines as blank. Like I said in the other post, I filled in and fixed some translation errors on it last night and it’s now at 90%. I’m about half way through. I’ll let you know when I’m done with the movie.
That’s pretty much the only thing I use it for besides my second round of edits. (I do my first in the subtitle editor to focus on context, gender, etc.).
I believe Viki changed the subbing tools so that you can no longer fill a segment with code only. It’s a shame that they didn’t remove all the old segments that were done like that because anyone wanting to sub those shows now has to go back and make sure to change them all.
I try as much as I can to work on dramas that I also like to see as a viewer. And, even if I don’t like them, I make it a point of watching them normally beforehand. Plus you get to add timed comments, he he, and see if there are any cuss words in any comment, or “why no subtitles yet?” to delete (the best part about being a moderator, don’t you agree?)
That’s why I’ve never needed to use that play button. Thank you for reminding me, so I can tell the team. I used to know it but I had forgotten about it through lack of use.
I agree with Christina about the Editor cursor jumping where it wants. You put it at the beginning and it goes to the end of the previous subtitle. You are translating happily and you suddenly find yourself at the beginning of the section.
None of this happens in Bulk editor. Of course you have to recheck from Subtitle Editor afterwards, to make sure you got everything right.
