SRT and TXT files – what are they different?

4/3/2023

If you often create transcripts for videos or audios, you’ve probably known SRT files and TXT files. But have you already understood them? What’s the difference between an SRT file and a TXT file?

In this article, let’s learn more about SRT and TXT files.

What is a TXT file and an SRT file?

TXT file

A TXT file is a standard text document that contains text in plain text. You can open and edit a TXT file in any word processing or editing program.

Microsoft Notepad and Apple TextEdit typically create TXT files – they are basic text editors that come with Windows and macOS.

SRT and TXT files - what are they different?

A TXT file

TXT files are plain text documents that contain little or no format. We use TXT files to store notes, present step-by-step instructions, manuscripts, or other text-based information.

Both Windows and macOS include simple text editors that can save text documents as TXT files. Microsoft Notepad saves documents as TXT files by default, while Microsoft WordPad and Apple TextEdit can save files as TXT files.

When a WordPad or TextEdit user saves a document as a TXT file, those programs will remove the document formats (bold, italic, font style, alignment, etc.)

If you want to create more complex text documents, such as resumes, reports, letters, or flyers, you shouldn’t save such documents as TXT files.

Instead, you can use Microsoft Word or Apple Pages to create and save your documents as .Docx or .Pages files.

NOTE: Some non-PC devices, such as smartphones and Amazon Kindle, and web browsers, such as Chrome and Firefox, can recognize plain text files as well.

How to open and create a TXT files

You can create, open and edit a plain text document saved as a TXT format with various word processing and editing programs in Linux systems, Microsoft Windows computers, and Mac platforms.

The contents of these TXT files are unformatted ASCII text, which can be saved as TXT documents with small file size.

Almost all smartphones have built-in apps that support access to the content of these TXT files, while Amazon’s Kindle device can also be used to open and view content in the TXT document.

Popular Microsoft Windows text editing applications, such as Microsoft Notepad, can be used to create TXT files. You can even use it to save unformatted text documents in HTML or JS format, etc.

The Apple TextEdit application also supports opening, viewing, and modifying text documents in TXT format. And you can use this program to create text documents, then save them as TXT files.

Many applications are developed for Linux to create, open and view TXT files. And with this broad cross-compatibility support, users of other platforms can share their TXT documents without encountering any problems.

Open a TXT file (or any other file on your PC) by double-clicking it. If the file associations are set up correctly, the application will open that TXT file.

You may need to download or purchase the correct app. Or you may have the proper application set up on your PC, but your TXT files are not connected with it yet.

In this case, when you open a TXT file, you should let Windows know which application matches that file. From then, you can open a TXT file with the correct application.

SRT file

What is an SRT file?

A file with SRT extension is a SubRip Subtitle file. These files contain video caption information such as the start and end timestamps of the text, and the number of consecutive subtitles.

SRT files themselves are only text files to be used with video data, and this means that the SRT file itself doesn’t contain any video or audio data.

How to open an SRT file

You can use any text editor to open SRT files as they are just plain text files. Consider using a dedicated SRT editor like Jubler or Aegisub.

However, we often want to open an SRT file to let subtitles play along with a video.

An SRT file

In that case, you can open the SRT file with VLC, MPC-HC, KMPlayer, MPlayer, BS. Player, or Windows Media Player (with the VobSub plugin). The SRT format is also supported for YouTube videos, which means you can even turn on subtitles in your YouTube videos.

For example, when you open a video in VLC, you can use the Subtitles > Add Subtitle file to open the SRT file and let it play along with the video. You can find a similar menu in all other video players mentioned above.

Some media players may not open an SRT file unless the video is already open. To open an SRT file to read the text without opening a video, you should use one of the text editors mentioned above.

How to create an SRT file

You can build an SRT file with any text editor, as long as you keep the correct format and save it with the SRT file extension.

However, an easier way to create an SRT file is to use Jubler, Aegisub, or an online transcription generator.

How to create SRT and TXT files with Motionbear

There is no need to look further or use complicated software. Right now, you can instantly transcribe your audio or video to TXT or SRT files using Motionbear.

With just a few clicks, your audio or video will be automatically and accurately transcribed by Motionbear.

1. Sign up for a Motionbear account.

2. Select “Transcription.”

3. Click to upload, or drag and drop a file and wait some minutes.

4. Select the video language to start generating captions.

5. Correct spelling and grammar errors in captions.

6. Edit the transcription style here. In this section, you can adjust the font style, font size, position of subtitles, subtitles effects.

7. You can also add a headline to the video if you want, then tweak the headline using the same tools as for subtitles.

8. Motionbear also allows you to upload your logo to videos to make a unique impression for your products. You can edit the size, opacity, position of the logo. However, this function is only available with the Montionbear Pro and Premium versions.

9. Another cool feature of Motionbear is that you can resize videos to suit each platform. You can convert your video to landscape to post on Youtube, portrait for Facebook, Instagram, square for TikTok, Twitter, or vertical or original.

10. Select “Download Text” and then select “Download SRT” or “Download TXT”, upgrade your account to the Motionbear Pro package to quickly download SRT or TXT files.

Select “Download Text” and then select “Download SRT” or “Download TXT”, upgrade your account to the Motionbear Pro package to quickly download SRT or TXT files.

All done! You now effortlessly have a TXT or an SRT transcription. You can experience Motionbear‘s impressive transcription feature with the free plan first, and check out our pricing page for the Pro and Premium plans.