# Text, transcription, and captions

> Add text clips, create captions, import subtitles, and navigate spoken content.

## Text clips

Select the Text button in the timeline toolbar to add a text clip at the playhead. The clip is added to a video track and can be moved, trimmed, and layered like other visual clips.

[Video: Add a text clip and style it from the inspector.](https://www.palmier.io/docs/text-and-captions/text.mp4)

### Styles

Use the inspector to style the selected text clip:

- **Typography:** Choose the font, size, weight, case, tracking, and line spacing.
- **Color and fill:** Use a solid color, reveal footage through the letters, or invert the footage below.
- **Outline and shadow:** Add separation when text needs to stay readable over footage.
- **Background:** Add a padded background with its own color, opacity, outline, and corner radius.
- **Alignment and position:** Align the text, move it around the canvas, and control its vertical placement.
- **Scale and perspective:** Stretch the width or height, rotate the text, or add perspective tilt.
- **Effects:** Adjust opacity and blur.

### Keyframes

Animate position, scale, rotation, opacity, and blur from the text track's keyframe lanes. Add keyframes at different points to change the text over time.

### Animation

Apply a preset animation when you want a faster treatment without building keyframes manually. Available styles include Pop In, Slide Up, Typewriter, Word Reveal, Word Slide, and active-word highlights.

### Batch edit

Drag across multiple text clips on the timeline to select them together. Change a style in the inspector to apply it across the full selection.

Batch editing is useful for keeping titles, labels, and repeated text treatments consistent without updating every clip individually.

[Video: Select multiple text clips and update their shared style together.](https://www.palmier.io/docs/text-and-captions/text-batch-edit.mp4)

## Captions

Open the Captions tab in the media panel to turn timeline speech into caption clips.

[Video: Preview, style, and generate captions from timeline audio.](https://www.palmier.io/docs/text-and-captions/caption.mp4)

1. Choose Auto, selected clips, or a specific audio track as the source.
2. Turn on Preview to see the current style over the canvas.
3. Choose the language when local transcription needs one.
4. Set the maximum words or characters shown in each caption.
5. Adjust the gap setting to hold captions across short pauses.
6. Style and position the captions.
7. Select Generate to add them to a new caption track.

Captions in the same group share one style. Updating the group applies the change across all of its caption clips.

## Import subtitles

Palmier Pro supports SRT and WebVTT subtitle files.

Import the subtitle file into the media library, then drag it onto the timeline. Palmier creates caption clips at the authored timecodes and keeps the file's text and timing.

[Video: Import an SRT file and place its captions on the timeline.](https://www.palmier.io/docs/text-and-captions/subtitle-import.mp4)

If subtitle cues overlap, Palmier trims the overlap so caption clips do not collide on the same track.

## Transcript Index

Open the Index tab, then choose Transcript to navigate the timeline by spoken content.

[Video: Search spoken content and navigate the timeline from Transcript Index.](https://www.palmier.io/changelog/0.7.6/timeline-index.mp4)

- Use the source menu to switch between the original transcript and existing caption tracks.
- Browse spoken words and jump directly to the matching moment.
- Select a transcript row to move the playhead to that section.
- Select words to create a timed range, then press `M` to add a marker.
- Switch to Markers in the same tab to review comments and Agent tasks.

If the timeline has not been transcribed yet, create a transcript from the empty state before using the index.