creating subtitles with Aegisub

An updated version of this old post, using the powerful cross-platform tool Aegisub instead of DivXLand Media Subtitler.

1. Create subtitles in a plain text editor, one line per subtitle, save as a .txt file.
   
2. Load the video (Video -> Open video ...) and the txt file (File -> Open subtitles...) into Aegisub using the respective menu items.
   
3. Open the waveform for the timing view (Audio -> Open Audio from video). I generally find the waveform view (Audio -> Waveform display) to be intuitively understandable.
   
4. Inside the waveform view, left click at the beginning of the point where you want your first subtitle. A red line appears for the begin time. Move the mouse over the blue line indicating the end of the subtitle, and when the left-right arrow appears, click and drag to move the end time.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Once the timing is right, commit by pressing the 'g' key.
   
6. Keyboard shortcut keys make the process much faster.
   s to play the selected portion (between begin and end)
   v to move the end time more to the right
   c to move the begin time more to the left
   g to commit (writes the subtitle begin and end time, and moves to the next line)
   
7. If useful, follow these tips for speeding up your work.
   
8. At the end, File -> Export subtitles. Can usually leave the settings as the default, and can export as filename.srt for a common subtitle format which is accepted by youtube etc.
   
9. Youtube detailed instructions for adding subtitles is under "Upload a file" section in this support page.
   
10. For local playback, VLC, for example can open the subtitle file using the menu Subtitle -> Add subtitle file.