With some free tools you can download YouTube subtitles, translate them into any language and save them in a standard text file.
There are several guides and tutorials on YouTube and it might be useful to be able to download subtitles to save them in a text document to save or print to use it if necessary. There are guides for using programs, others for doing housework, cooking recipes, and much more.
In practice, YouTube is like a small video encyclopedia where we can find instructions to do a little bit of everything. Who uploads videos often also includes subtitles to help us follow the various steps. Otherwise, YouTube will generate them automatically. The subtitles are therefore like a small text manual of what is shown in the video.
How can I download subtitles from YouTube, save them and eventually print them?
With the right tools, doing it is not absolutely complicated. First we have to go to YouTube to find the video that we need to save the subtitles and copy the URL address. After doing so, we go to the site downsub.com and paste in the field at the top of the video address.
Then click on the Download button. This online service can automatically detect subtitles if they are present in the video. The first link allows us to download those in the original language. Below, however, we can find links to download them in any language, including. Just click on the Download link for the language you are interested in.
At this point the browser will ask us where to download the subtitle file. It is a .srt file which is a specific format used precisely for subtitles. This file, in addition to subtitles, also contains other information such as the timing for video synchronization and formatting.
Then opening the .srt file with a normal text editor we will find in addition to the subtitles this information that actually prevents us from using them in the way we had set ourselves. Fortunately, there is also a solution to this problem and it consists of using the free Subtitle Edit program that can be downloaded from https://github.com/SubtitleEdit/subtitleedit/releases.
After starting it, go to File/Open and select the .srt file with subtitles. At this point we go to File/Export and from the menu that opens we select Plain text. In Export options we check the Remove styling item to remove formatting. Finally, click on Save as and save the .txt file that will contain only the text of the subtitles and that we can open with Word or any other text editor.