Are there any CAT tools for subtitling? | Most subtitles files are plain TXT

Forum: Subtitling
Topic: Are there any CAT tools for subtitling?
Poster: José Henrique Lamensdorf
Post title: Most subtitles files are plain TXT

[quote]Georgi Kovachev wrote:

Hi,

As far as I know, Fluency Now can handle .srt files, but I have no experience in terms of this functionality.

Could you test it – if you have any .srt files available, I do not – and give us feedback. Thanks in advance in this respect. [/quote]

Most non-proprietary subtitle files (e.g. SSA, ASS, SRT, SUB, STL, etc.) are plain text files. I often "tweak" my SSAs using the Windows Notepad.

I wouldn't know about Spot, Swift, and other subtitling programs that use proprietary formats.

This means that ANY CAT tool would be able to work on these files. The key issue is on how to EASILY and QUICKLY mark anything that should not be translated, i.e. subtitle #, in/out times, char formatting specs, position shift, notes, etc. as UNTRANSLATABLES.

WordFast Classic is a MS Word macro, so it operates within Word, which has these making tools. I wouldn't know how other CAT tools operate "untranslatables".

Anyway, the Translation Memory shouldn't be at all useful, otherwise you'll be subtitling an unusually boring flick.