Your No-Fluff Course on Subtitle Template Annotations

A Smarter Template Makes a Better Translation

Learn how to create clear, effective annotations in original and pivot subtitle templates. 

This course shows you what to annotate, how much detail to include, where to add annotations in OOONA and EZTitles, how to export files with annotations, and which subtitle formats support them. 

With expert interviews, quizzes, and hands-on exercises, you will build a practical skill you can add to your CV and LinkedIn to show clients and employers you can create templates that work better in multilingual and AI-assisted subtitling workflows.

What you will learn

The benefits of learning annotations

  • Preserve meaning across languages — learn how to annotate humour, idioms, cultural references, wordplay and authorial intent

  • Know what to annotate — get practical guidance on what to include, how long annotations should be, and how annotations work in pivot templates

  • See how AI can help create annotations — understand where AI can support the process and where human judgement is still essential

  • Work across tools and formats — learn where to add annotations in OOONA and EZTitles and which subtitle formats support them

  • Build a skill you can show — complete exercises, test your knowledge, and earn a certificate you can share with clients and employers

Why this skill matters in 2026

As localisation workflows become more automated, context matters more, not less

  • Because better context leads to better quality

    In modern multilingual workflows, small misunderstandings can quickly turn into bigger problems. Annotations help reduce ambiguity, improve consistency, and support smoother collaboration within localisation teams.

  • Because annotations are used beyond subtitling

    Today’s streaming workflows increasingly combine subtitles, captions and dubbed audio within the same delivery chain and templates with annotations.

  • Because templates are the backbone of localisation

    As global streaming has expanded, template-based workflows have become more important. Annotations are part of the localisation infrastructure that helps nuance survive at scale.

Who is this course for?

  • LINGUISTS AND TRANSLATORS - learn how annotations help you preserve humour, idioms, cultural references and authorial intent when working from templates

  • LOCALISATION MANAGERS - train linguists to create clearer templates that support multilingual workflows and more consistent quality

This course is NOT for you if...

  • you're new to subtitling and you want to learn the basics (then our bundle "Beginner's Guide to Subtitling" would work better for you)

  • you already completed our course on Template Creation (part of the content is the same)

For companies and localization teams

Upskill your linguists in template creation

Train your team in a practical template skill that supports multilingual localization. This course helps linguists learn how to create annotations, handle pivot templates, work in common subtitling tools, and understand where AI can support annotation work. It is well suited to team training, onboarding, and quality-focused workflow standardization.
Start now (€49)
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Course curriculum

    1. Welcome!

    2. How to use this course

    3. What are subtitling templates?

    1. What are annotations?

    2. What should be included in annotations?

    3. Annotations in pivot templates

    4. Quiz on annotations

    1. Part 1 - Workflow and skills

    2. Part 2 - Annotations in pivot templates

    3. Part 3 - How to create annotations in pivot templates

    4. Part 4 - What to annotate and how long should annotations be

    1. Exercise on creating annotations

    2. KEY to the exercise on creating annotations

    3. Can AI (help you) create annotations?

    4. Where to add annotations in your subtitling tool

    5. Which subtitle formats support annotations?

    6. Exercise: add annotations in a subtitling tool

    1. Congrats!

    2. Your Certificate of Completion

    3. What's next? Learn everything about subtitling template creation!

About this course

  • €49,00
  • 20 lessons
  • 1 hour of video content

What you will get from this course

  • Engaging video lessons

    Learn from our engaging video tutorials full of practical examples

  • Screencasting tutorial

    You will see where to add annotations in subtitling software (on the example of OOONA and EZTitles) and how to export files with annotations

  • Interactive quiz

    You will not only check your knowledge but also learn even more

  • Social media learning community

    Gain unlimited access to our private Facebook group to engage in discussions with your fellow students

  • Interview with experts

    The course features exclusive interviews with Molly Yurick and Łukasz Dutka

  • Hands-on exercises

    You will get hands-on practice and create annotations yourself (and then get a key with answers from us!)

Meet your instructor

Experienced subtitler, QC-er and audiovisual translation trainer

Łukasz Dutka is an audiovisual translator, subtitling trainer and expert in media accessibility. He's one of the founders of AVT Masterclass, a former director of the Global Alliance of Speech-to-Text Captioning, and a member of the Management Board of Dostepni.eu, an accessibility services provider. He studied applied linguistics as well as comparative literature. In 2012, he became an in-house subtitler for Polish public broadcaster and was responsible for SDH subtitling and semi-live subtitling of news broadcasts. As a member of Dostepni.eu team, he pioneered live subtitling through respeaking in Poland with the first accessible political and social events in 2013, first interlingual live subtitling in 2015 and first Polish television broadcast with live subtitling through respeaking in 2017. Since 2012, he has worked as a freelance subtitler and QC'er for leading localization companies, including working on many high-level titles. In 2019, he helped set up a live subtitling unit for Polsat, a leading TV broadcaster in Poland. He has nine years of experience in running training programmes for companies as well as teaching university-level courses on audiovisual translation, subtitling, subtitling for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and interpreting. He is a member of the Polish Association of Audiovisual Translators, the University of Warsaw Audiovisual Translation Lab (AVT Lab), European Society for Translation Studies (EST) and European Association for Studies in Screen Translation (ESIST). Born by the mountains, he now lives by the ocean in a multilingual family that speaks Polish, English, Spanish, Italian, Swedish and Portuguese. He's a passionate movie-goer, reader, swimmer, chocolate-eater and a coffee addict.

Łukasz Dutka

AVT Masterclass Co-founder

Meet your instructor

Experienced subtitler, QC-er and audiovisual translation trainer

Prof. Agnieszka Szarkowska is a researcher and translator trainer, academic teacher and audiovisual translation consultant. Agnieszka works in the Institute of Applied Linguistics at the University of Warsaw, leads the research group Audiovisual Translation Lab (AVT Lab), and is also an Honorary Research Associate at University College London. With over 20 years of hands-on teaching experience, Agnieszka has trained hundreds of students internationally to become high-quality professionals in the audiovisual translation industry. Agnieszka is the author of over 70 publications on audiovisual translation and principal investigator of several research projects. She is also a member of the European Association for Studies in Screen Translation (ESIST), European Society for Translation Studies (EST) and an honorary member of the Polish Audiovisual Translators Association (STAW).

Agnieszka Szarkowska

AVT Masterclass Co-founder

Showcase your skills

CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION

Once you complete the course, you'll receive a Certificate of Completion. Certificates are a great way to document your learning! You can share them on social media and use them with clients, employers or colleagues.
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Our guarantee

We are confident in the quality of our courses, which has been confirmed by many satisfied students. That’s why we are able to offer a 100% money-back guarantee.

If you buy the course and find that you did not learn anything new or that you think the course is not in line with its description or syllabus, we will refund you 100% of what you paid. [See “Terms of use” for details.]
We offer 100% money-back guarantee.

A small skill with a big impact

Strong annotations help others make better decisions

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