Is there a way to lock any/all language subtitles before subtitles have been created in a particular language? I read somewhere a tip saying you should lock subtitles for future episodes so people don’t get ahead of the one being worked on, and that sounds like a great idea. But I can only see the lock option when subs have been made already, and only for that language. This doesn’t address it either, but whatever I read made it seem as though it was doable. Does anyone know?
As a moderator you can lock episodes without subtitles no problem (Manage video button). But it has to be done episode by episode. And I guess language by language. Perhaps CMs can lock all episodes all at once.
And of course there should be segments already before having anything to lock,
After clicking on Manage Video, I see the option to lock segments for episodes, but not subtitles. There are locks for languages that have already begun, but I don’t see the option to do it before then. The reason I ask is that I had someone begin subbing in another language before the English was finalized. It wasn’t her fault-- she had experience, but never worked with a team before. I explained it to her and was able to lock it after that (not that she would have continued), but now I want to know how to lock it before that happens. It doesn’t seem that there is a way, but that advice made it seem there was.
In this case there were segments, but yes, that’s a good point. I wouldn’t be able to lock so far out…
I don’t think that article knew what it was talking about. And I think it was from the Ninja Subbing website.
May I be of assistance? 
Since you see more than one language lock in place, you clearly have the Channel Manager’s key.
So let me take you through this - considering the key you have.
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There is no “UNIVERSAL LOCK ALL LANGUAGE ON ALL EPISODES” function. (There is one listed for segments, but not languages.)
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Each episode must be locked separately.
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Each LANGUAGE you wish to LOCK must also be LOCKED INDIVIDUALLY.
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YES this is going to take you time - for each language - and however many episodes you have. (SIGH). There is currently NO better option.
There are two possible situations for you, on your drama:
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You have segments already in place, and wish to keep people out in a language UNTIL you are ready - or to keep out an abuser who otherwise is well, a problem.
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You do NOT have it segmented yet, but need to lock it again, so that when it IS segmented, you can then keep people out until you are ready.
Let’s handle the first case - You are the CM. You have segmented episodes, you want to stop people from trying to do them all at once.
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Step one. Go to the sub editor for the episode you want to lock. Select English left side, right side, the language to lock. Make sure also you are on “I want to subtitle” and not caption.
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As this episode has segments, you will see the Sub Editor generate the language file. Blanks will appear, and with them any English subs to be written against in the blocks.
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What I usually do is fill in the Team credit OR write “Language Lock” which is then understood to mean “PLEASE OVERWRITE this when we sub it, just to lock the episode”.
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Save whatever you typed in there - it does not obviously have to BE in the target language, as you are merely putting in a word or two to lock it.
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Wait about 5 minutes OR move on to the next episode you must lock. Same thing.
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Return to your episode, which now in your MANAGE menu, should now show a “LOCK” for the new language. Lock it. You’re done.
Repeat as necessary, this takes time.
Second case - no segments are yet in the episode, yet you must lock it.
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Go to seg timer. MAKE ONE segment - open and close it of a few seconds. Nothing special. Hit enter or save. You should see this come up saved. (This is done with the CM key even if you are not a segmenter, and if you only make one small one at the start, your Chief Segmenter will probably get the idea.
This segment in future may be made into the Team Credit or eliminated in editing.) -
Go to sub editor and FOLLOW the same procedure as listed for if you have segments.
I hope this has been of some help. You have to do this for EACH EPISODE, EACH LANGUAGE.
I generally start at the beginning, and work my way up to the end of the eps, then circle around to the start and lock. By that point, the episodes usually have the locks waiting for me.
You will get a LOT Of open windows as each episode has to get up a sub editor etc. Close them after yourself and you will not get a screen-full :).
Best of luck, and hope this is of service to any seeking to keep things under some modicum of sense and reason
GeNie of the Lamp
Mei Daxia
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Well, there is a cheat then. You could try adding something to every language, I don’t know, an asterisk, a full stop, a musical note. And then that language would be considered “already started” and you could lock it.
I don’t like locking subtitles before subbing has started. It’s a nuisance when I am editing segments. The original purpose of the subtitle lock was to prevent messing up existing subtitles, not to prevent subtitling. Although it is the usual practice to not start subbing in languages other than English on K dramas, there are in fact some Chinese and European subbers I have worked with who had an excellent command of Korean so their subs would sometimes hit 100% before the English subs were done. For me, it’s up to each language moderator to decide when subbing on an episode should begin. If a team moderator cannot control her subbers so that they don’t start until she gives them permission, then she should think seriously about whether she want to have subbers who can’t follow her rules.
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Honestly, I was agreeing with the previous posts till I saw this. I usually do wait to subtitle in my language (Dutch) when the okay is given. And when I can understand a sentence (Chinese) I usually sub directly from Chinese to Dutch without paying attention to the English subtitle. In those cases, it would be handy for those subbers to have the episodes unlocked, but I do understand that there are a lot of rogues and that it can be annoying.
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True, very true.
But some not on air dramas are not designated so even strange people could come in. It happened to me last week in Beethoven Virus. A total stranger came and started to sub out of the blue. And we were still editing the English.
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