Never turn down a subtitling job again!

Learn to time subtitles like a pro

Have you ever been asked to time subtitles — and had to say no because you didn’t know how it’s done?

Are you working with subtitle templates, but too nervous to adjust the timing because you’re not sure what the rules are? Or maybe each tweak takes forever?

Perhaps you’ve tried to teach yourself using free software, only to feel completely lost or overwhelmed. Learning how to time subtitles on your own can be a proper slog.

What you need is a guide.

This course gives you exactly that — clear, practical instruction that takes the guesswork out of subtitling. With our step-by-step method, you’ll learn how to time subtitles in just 7 key steps.

Whether you’re building your skills from scratch or aiming to pass a subtitling certification exam, this is your chance to become confident in media localisation.

Don’t Let Bad Timing Ruin Great Content

Why automatic subtitles fail and how to fix them

So, you’re creating subtitles automatically using speech recognition? That’s a huge step forward from the traditional, fully manual workflows — many of which are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. But here’s the catch: automatic subtitles are often unreadable.

They flash by too quickly for viewers to catch, they’re awkwardly segmented without any regard for natural language structure, and the line breaks? Terrible. All of this makes it harder for viewers to follow the story, understand the content, or even enjoy watching in the first place.

That’s where Timing Subtitles 101 comes in.

This course lays the groundwork for what good timing actually looks like. We cover essential concepts such as reading speed, the importance of maintaining a minimum subtitle duration, and how to handle shot changes — all of which are key to producing subtitles that are clear, accessible, and user-friendly.

Whether you’re creating subtitles from scratch or working with automatically generated ones, this course gives you the tools to turn messy timing into quality work that respects both the content and the viewer.

Learn to time subtitles in 7 steps

Have you always wanted to work in subtitling?

  1. Get your software
  2. Understand time codes
  3. Time your first subtitles
  4. Understand reading speed
  5. Get ready for (shot) changes
  6. Keep calm and chain it
  7. Check, please!

What you will get from this course

  • Video lessons and tutorials

    Learn from our engaging video tutorials and step-by-step screencasting lessons

  • Hands-on exercises

    Practise subtitling by downloading hands-on exercises, including videos, subtitle files and keys to all exercises

  • Access to professional subtitling software

    Save money! Get exclusive 90-day access to professional subtitling software (OOONA and EZTitles)

  • Downloadable resources

    Download our checklists and style guides for future use in your subtitling projects

  • Social media learning community

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

  • Discounts on professional software

    After completing the course, you will be eligible for a discount to purchase OOONA and/or EZTitles

Course curriculum

    1. Welcome!

      FREE PREVIEW

    2. How to use this course

      FREE PREVIEW

    3. Glossary of AVT terms

    1. Subtitling tools in this course

      FREE PREVIEW

    2. How to get access to OOONA and/or EZTitles

    3. Subtitling style guides

    4. AVT Masterclass Style Guide for this course

    1. Introduction to EZTitles Basic Course by EZTitles Development Studio

    2. How to install EZTitles

    3. Understand the EZTitltes workspace (sightseeing tour)

      FREE PREVIEW

    4. How well do you know the EZTitles workspace?

    5. How to define project settings

      FREE PREVIEW

    6. How to customise layout

    7. How to work with videos?

    8. How to time your first subtitles

    9. How to remove a keyboard shortcut?

    10. EZTitles User Guide

    11. Where to find more info?

    1. OOONA Toolkit Basic Training Course

    2. Introduction to OOONA Tools

      FREE PREVIEW

    3. Workspace and project settings

    4. How to edit the layout?

    5. How to time your subtitles

    6. How to set hotkeys

    7. How to export a subtitle file

    8. How to save projects?

    9. How to recut subtitles?

    10. How to append subtitles?

    11. Where to get help

    1. Time codes

      FREE PREVIEW

    2. Time codes quiz

      FREE PREVIEW

    3. Exercise 1: Calculating time codes

      FREE PREVIEW

    4. KEY to Exercise 1: Calculating time codes

      FREE PREVIEW

    1. 5 basic rules on timing subtitles

    2. Timing subtitles quiz

    3. Tips from an interlingual subtitler - interview

    4. Exercise 2: Time your first subtitles

    5. How to go about timing your first subtitles - screencasting tutorial

    6. KEY to Exercise 2 on timing your first subtitles

    7. FAQs by first-time subtitlers

About this course

  • €199,00
  • 69 lessons
  • 2 hours of video content

What our students are saying

Luisa Monti

5 star rating

“Excellent course. I found the step-by-step lessons very clear, informative and carefully crafted by real experts in the field. After completing this course I feel more confident as a subtitler. I would definitely recommend it!”

“Excellent course. I found the step-by-step lessons very clear, informative and carefully crafted by real experts in the field. After completing this course I feel more confident as a subtitler. I would definitely recommend it!”

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Myriam Vacher Harnett

5 star rating

“Just completed the Timing Subtitles 101 course and was very happy with the content, structure and outcome of the course. AVT Masterclass provides a 3-month trial version of both OOONA and EZ Titles, which is great to get to grips with how both sof...”

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“Just completed the Timing Subtitles 101 course and was very happy with the content, structure and outcome of the course. AVT Masterclass provides a 3-month trial version of both OOONA and EZ Titles, which is great to get to grips with how both software packages work (note that although the course is self-paced, obviously you would need to complete most of it within 3 months while you have access to the software). There is a lot of content and there are lots of in-depth exercises to practise on both packages. The videos are insightful and break down the material nicely for beginners. The small video projects you get to work on are also pretty cool. Personally I would say the course may not be suited to a complete beginner as you do need to troubleshoot your own work at times and fill some gaps in knowledge, but overall it is a very complete course for learning the principles of subtitling, and it also refers to additional resources online such as the EZ Titles videos on YouTube, blogs, articles, etc. I also like that you still have access to the course contents for a year as I am sure I will need to refer to it again! I do feel I have learnt a lot and I feel a lot more confident in my subtitling skills now. Thanks to Agnieszka and Lukasz for their support!”

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Ravi Shankar

5 star rating

“I highly recommend the AVT Masterclass course for all those who are interested in learning the fundamentals and applications of subtitling, either for work or simply to acquire a new skill. I completed two courses, ‘Fundamentals of Subtitling’ and...”

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“I highly recommend the AVT Masterclass course for all those who are interested in learning the fundamentals and applications of subtitling, either for work or simply to acquire a new skill. I completed two courses, ‘Fundamentals of Subtitling’ and ‘Timing Subtitles 101’ as part of the bundle package (I highly recommend), so that I could become qualified to become a subtitler for my work. Previously, I had no experience with subtitling but Professor Agnieszka Szarkowska and Lukasz Dutka, the course instructors, are very welcoming and guide you through the course material in a fun and friendly manner. Both of the courses are broken down into bite-size lessons of around 5-7 minutes long, which is ideal to be able to digest the information and study at your own pace. Each lesson is followed up with a short quiz to test you on the new material that you have learnt. I really enjoyed the fact that you could go back to previous lessons and quizzes at a later time to recap any material. After completing the courses, I definitely felt that I had grasped the fundamentals of subtitling and I am now successfully working as a subtitler and audiovisual translator, which is very satisfying and enjoyable. A big thank you to the AVT Masterclass team for organising a thoroughly enjoyable and educational experience. ”

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Dylan Camilleri

5 star rating

“This course is a very helpful tool in order to improve your subtitling skills.”

“This course is a very helpful tool in order to improve your subtitling skills.”

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Simone Taylor

5 star rating

“I finally got to grips with my subtitling demons of spotting, segmenting, CPS, shot changes and chaining. Everything seems so much more straightforward now!”

“I finally got to grips with my subtitling demons of spotting, segmenting, CPS, shot changes and chaining. Everything seems so much more straightforward now!”

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Inna Myhyrych

5 star rating

“This is a good course. Now I know how to time my subtitles. Reading speed, shot changes, chaining are a piece of cake. What is more, I got access for three months to professional subtitling software and learnt how to use it.”

“This is a good course. Now I know how to time my subtitles. Reading speed, shot changes, chaining are a piece of cake. What is more, I got access for three months to professional subtitling software and learnt how to use it.”

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Aleksandra Połeć

5 star rating

“I really enjoyed taking this course and I am definitely recommending it. Before taking the course, I had very little experience with timing subtitles and the course helped me develop the skill. I went through the sections twice: first using one so...”

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“I really enjoyed taking this course and I am definitely recommending it. Before taking the course, I had very little experience with timing subtitles and the course helped me develop the skill. I went through the sections twice: first using one software, then another and thanks to that I got to truly immerse myself in both programs. I enjoyed the excercises and videos chosen for each one of them :) ”

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Cora Fröhlich

5 star rating

“As a professional translator and a newbie to subtitling, I got referred to AVT by one of the translation agencies I work for. I am very glad that I booked this course because the friendly instructors, quick reaction times to my emails, hands-on in...”

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“As a professional translator and a newbie to subtitling, I got referred to AVT by one of the translation agencies I work for. I am very glad that I booked this course because the friendly instructors, quick reaction times to my emails, hands-on information, free software trial and downloadable resources form a comprehensive package that left no wish unserved for me. In combination with the free EZTitles introduction on YouTube, I worked through the two courses and feel much more comfortable now. The only thing missing is more practise. Thank you very much!”

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Eva Balsach

5 star rating

“Very well organized and professional course with LOTS of really useful and insightful information. This is my second course with AVT and I'm ready to take a third one! ”

“Very well organized and professional course with LOTS of really useful and insightful information. This is my second course with AVT and I'm ready to take a third one! ”

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Benjamin Trautmann

4 star rating

“The course is packed with clear and concrete information, no unnecessary "bla-bla". There are very helpful exercises which you can complete in EZTitles or OOONA (or both). You get 3-month access to both tools for free. The only thing I was missing...”

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“The course is packed with clear and concrete information, no unnecessary "bla-bla". There are very helpful exercises which you can complete in EZTitles or OOONA (or both). You get 3-month access to both tools for free. The only thing I was missing was clearer feedback on your exercises, e.g. via specific annotations/explanations on the key solutions.”

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Raquel Vasconcellos

5 star rating

“This course is extremely simple to follow and has many examples in case you don't understand one of the concepts. I highly recommend it.”

“This course is extremely simple to follow and has many examples in case you don't understand one of the concepts. I highly recommend it.”

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This course is for you if...

Create subtitles that viewers love to read

  • you want to learn how to time subtitles

  • you are translating subtitles from templates and want to expand your skills by timing subtitles yourself

  • you want to work faster and become more confident as a subtitler

  • you want to pass a subtitling or certification test and land your dream subtitling job!

  • you are a written text translator and you want to add audiovisual translation to your portfolio

  • you need guidance on how to use professional subtitling software to time subtitles

  • you want to know why QC-ers change the timing of your subtitles

  • you want to make your videos accessible by adding subtitles

Meet your instructors

We've helped hundreds of students become subtitling professionals

Agnieszka Walczak, PhD, is a translator, translator trainer and media accessibility expert. She holds a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Warsaw. She graduated with honours, defending the first thesis in Poland on text-to-speech audio description. She has also completed postgraduate studies on audiovisual translation at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities. Defended at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Agnieszka’s doctoral dissertation focused on the reception of audio description and was produced within the framework of the European Project Hybrid Broadcast Broadband for All. She is a member of the TransMedia Catalonia Research Group and University of Warsaw Audiovisual Translation Lab (AVT Lab). Agnieszka is the author of over 15 publications on audiovisual translation. University lecturer for almost 10 years (Autonomous University of Barcelona, University of Warsaw, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, University of Łódź). Agnieszka combines her academic expertise with experience in the audiovisual localization industry. She has been working as a freelance subtitler and audio describer for various linear and non-linear providers for over 10 years. She has also experience from working with global media production and post-production companies. Member of European Society for Translation Studies (EST), European Association for Studies in Screen Translation (ESIST) and Polish Audiovisual Translators Association (STAW).

Agnieszka Walczak

AVT Masterclass Co-founder

Meet your instructors

We've helped hundreds of students become subtitling professionals

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 instructors

We've helped hundreds of students become subtitling professionals

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

Get 50% discount on annual subscription of OOONA

Save up to 300 dollars!

Get 10% discount on the EZTitles licence

Exclusive deal for AVT Masterclass students

After completing this course, you will be eligible for a 10% discount on a licence of EZTitles professional subtitling software. You can save up to 238 euros!
EZTitles logo
Watch Intro Video

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.

Choose the way you want to learn

Self-paced or with live tutoring sessions?
Also looking to learn how to translate subtitles?

Certificate of completion

Add an expert skill to your CV

Get a certificate of completion and share it among your professional contacts. Take your subtitling skills to the next level!

FAQ

Any questions?

  • What is the difference between standard and premium editions of AVT Masterclass courses?

    The premium edition of the AVT Masterclass courses includes up to 90 minutes of one-on-one coaching with our trainers. The trainers can also check your course assignments and provide individual feedback.

  • How much time do I need to complete the course?

    Usually the students need 20-30 hours to complete the course, but it's up to you - the duration of the course depends on your individual needs and the time you have. Please remember that by signing up, you get a one-year access to the course and lifetime access to our social media learning community. This course includes access to subtitling software for 90 days. Ready for your subtitling challenge?

  • Will I have to attend regular online classes?

    No, this course is self-paced, which means you can do as much as you want at a time. You're in full control of your learning process. You're welcome to join our Facebook group to continue discussions with your fellow students. If you need more individual support, check out the Premium Edition of this course for details.

  • What kind of materials are included?

    The course includes a variety of resources, downloadable materials and exercises: video lessons, screencasting tutorials, quizzes, videos to be subtitled, subtitling files for revision exercises, checklists and style guides as well as key to all exercises (guided step-by-step explanations and files with correct answers).

  • Is tax included in the price of the course?

    Yes, the tax is always included in the course price. You will never be required to pay more on top of the regular price of the course.

  • Can I get an invoice for the course with my company/organization details?

    Sure! All you need to do is send us your organization details (name, address, VAT number) at [email protected]. Our accounting team will be back with the invoice.