Text Editor
The text editor allows you to edit the text content of the currently selected subtitle line.
Editing Text
Type directly in the text editor to modify the subtitle text. Changes are reflected immediately in the subtitle grid.
Formatting
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl+I |
Toggle italic |
Additional formatting options:
- Bold / Underline — No default key; assign one in Options → Shortcuts
- Color — Apply font color via shortcut or color picker
- Remove formatting — Strip all formatting tags
- Alignment — Set subtitle position (an1–an9)
Line Breaking
- Auto break — Automatically break the line at an optimal position
- Unbreak — Remove line breaks and join into a single line
Text Manipulation
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl+C |
Copy selected text |
Ctrl+X |
Cut selected text |
Ctrl+V |
Paste |
Ctrl+A |
Select all text |
Ctrl+Z |
Undo |
On macOS, Option+Backspace deletes the previous word and Cmd+Backspace (or Cmd+Delete) deletes to the start of the line, like in other Mac apps.
Split Line
- Split at cursor — Split the subtitle at the text cursor position
- Split at video position — Split at the current video playback position
- Split at video position and cursor — Split using both video position and text cursor
Word Movement
- Fetch first word from next subtitle — Move the first word of the next line to the current line
- Move last word to next subtitle — Move the last word to the next subtitle line
- Move first word to previous subtitle — Move the first word to the previous subtitle line
- Move last word from first line down (current subtitle) — Move the last word of line 1 to line 2
- Move first word from next line up (current subtitle) — Move the first word of line 2 to line 1
When an editable original is shown, these act on whichever text box has focus: the original with the cursor in the original text box, otherwise the translation.
Context Menu
Besides cut/copy/paste, split and the formatting items above, the text box right-click menu has:
- Casing — Toggle casing, Selection to UPPERCASE, Selection to lowercase, Selection to Sentence case, and Change casing… for the selected lines
- Insert Unicode symbol — insert one of the configured symbols
- Google it (with a selection) and Search via — the custom search slots set up in Options → Shortcuts
- Look up “…“ (macOS only) - opens the selected text, or with no selection the word under the pointer, in the system Dictionary app, as every macOS text field offers
- AI assistant — see below
Drag and Drop
Text can be dragged with the mouse, as in Subtitle Edit 4: select some text, then press on the selection and drag.
- Dropped elsewhere in the same text box, the text is moved; hold Ctrl while dropping to copy it instead
- Dropped into the other text box (for example from the original text into the working text), the text is copied
- Text dragged from another application is dropped at the pointer too
- A caret-shaped bar shows where the text will land while you drag; the dropped text stays selected afterwards, so it can be picked up again
Spacing is tidied at the seams: a space is added where the dropped text would touch a word (none in front of punctuation or after a line break), and the space a word leaves behind when it is moved out is removed. A read-only original text box does not accept drops. A plain click inside the selection (without dragging) just places the caret, as usual.
AI Assistant
Ask a local AI model about the current line, or ask it for a change — available from the text box context menu (AI assistant) or the edit-box toolbar robot button.
- Quick actions: Fix errors, Fit reading speed, More formal, More casual — or type a free-form request
- The model sees the current line plus a few neighbouring lines as context
- The suggestion is shown next to the current text; press Apply to line to accept it
- An info button reveals the model’s reasoning when the model produces any
- Engines: llama.cpp (managed local server with downloadable models, green dot = installed), Ollama, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint — engine settings are edited directly in the window and are shared with AI Review