Zoom -- Closed Captioning and Removing TimeStamps
Introduction
Zoom provides captioning the form of a .vtt file if you record the Zoom meeting (at least for a cloud recording). A .vtt file is a time-stamped plain text file. A plain text file is a file that only has text (letters, numbers, special characters, white space) but no images, gifs, bold, italics, lines, graphics, colors, etc.
But because it is just text, there are good plain text editor programs that let you use something called regular expressions in order to do things like you ask, like removing time stamps.
Sample Zoom VTT Captions FileMac Instructions
On Mac, download a program called BBEdit.
In Bb Edit, click “Search” > “Find”. In the “Find” box, copy from the following, and paste into that box.
Mac regular expression
(WEBVTT)*\n\n\d+\n\d\d:\d\d:\d\d\.\d\d\d --> \d\d:\d\d:\d\d\.\d\d\d\n\w+\s*\w*\s*\w+:
Note: There is an empty space (1 press of the spacebar on your keyboard) right after the \w+: at the end of the line above. Be sure to include that empty space.
In the “Replace” box, click your mouse cursor into the box, and press the spacebar once so there is 1 empty space in the box.
Make sure the “GREP” box is checked.
Click “Replace All.”
Click “View” > “Text Display” > “Soft Wrap”, if you don’t see all the text going down the page.
Select all, and copy/paste the text, now without timestamps, in a Word document
Windows Instructions
On a Windows 10 PC, download a program called Notepad++.
In Notepadd++, click “Search” > “Find”. Click the “Replace” tab.
In the “Find what” box, copy from the following, and paste into that box.
Windows regular expression
(WEBVTT)*\n\n\d+\n\d\d:\d\d:\d\d\.\d\d\d --> \d\d:\d\d:\d\d\.\d\d\d\n\w+\s*\w*\s*\w+:
Note: There is an empty space (1 press of the spacebar on your keyboard) right after the \w+: at the end of the line above. Be sure to include that empty space.
In the “Replace with” box, click your mouse cursor into the box, and press the spacebar once so there is 1 empty space in the box.
Make sure the “Regular expression” box is checked.
Click “Replace All.”
Click “View” and make sure “Word Wrap” has a check next to it. If not, select “Word Wrap.” That will make all the text appear going down the page.
Select all, and copy/paste the text, now without timestamps, in a Word document.