Complete User Guide
Everything about VidLocalizer — from your first launch to styled captions in 100+ languages, step by step.
Getting Started
Three steps stand between you and your first localized video: install the app, activate it, and connect your YouTube channel. The whole thing takes about five minutes.
Grab the installer from your purchase email or the pricing page, run it and follow the wizard. VidLocalizer runs on Windows 10/11 — no extra dependencies needed, everything ships inside the installer.
On first launch open Settings → Subscription and paste your license key, or press 🎁 Free Trial on the Dashboard to unlock 3 days of full access. One license is bound to one PC — you can move it later (see Settings).
Click Sign in in the top-right corner. Your browser opens the standard Google OAuth consent screen — VidLocalizer never sees your password, it only receives a YouTube API token stored locally on your machine. Multiple channels? Add as many accounts as you like and switch between them from the header.
Tip: the account menu in the header lets you switch channels in two clicks — handy if you manage a main channel plus localized ones.
Dashboard
The Dashboard is your control room — it opens on launch and shows everything about your subscription and activity at a glance.
Subscription status
The pill in the header (and the status card on the Dashboard) always reflects your current state:
Shows how many videos you've localized this month against your plan limit — with a progress bar.
One-click shortcuts that jump straight to Title & Description or Subtitles tabs.
No license yet? Start a 3-day trial right from the Dashboard — one trial per device.
Limits reset monthly. The counter is tracked server-side per license, so reinstalling the app doesn't change your usage.
Title & Description
Localized metadata is how YouTube surfaces your video in every country's search. This tab does the full journey — translate and upload in one place, no files to shuffle around.
Paste the ID from your video URL — the part after watch?v=. Example: for youtube.com/watch?v=kXiWNUSRXdk the ID is kXiWNUSRXdk.
Enter them manually in the two text fields — exactly what your original audience sees.
Tick the languages you want, or use All / Top-10 / Clear to select in bulk.
VidLocalizer translates the title and description into every selected language and shows the results in the table below.
Review the translations and tick which ones should go live — you can upload all of them or just a subset.
Decide what happens with localizations that already exist on the video (see modes below).
One click pushes every selected localization to your video via the YouTube API. Done — viewers in each country now see the title in their language.
Upload modes
Keep existing localizations untouched, add only the missing languages. The safe default.
Add missing languages and overwrite the ones you're uploading now.
Wipe all existing localizations first, then upload the new set. Full reset.
Subtitles
Translate whole folders of subtitle files and upload them as native YouTube caption tracks — the complete pipeline lives on one tab: translate at the top, upload below.
Part 1 — Translate
Formats supported: .srt, .vtt, .sbv, .txt. Every file in the folder gets translated.
The same checkbox grid as everywhere — All, Top-10 or hand-picked.
Timings are preserved exactly; only the text is translated. Results land next to your sources:
Part 2 — Upload
The video that should receive the caption tracks.
Usually the translations/ folder from Part 1 — the language is detected from each file's suffix.
Skip existing tracks, update them, or replace everything — same three modes as Title & Description.
Each file becomes a native caption track on your video. Native tracks — not burned-in overlays — so viewers can toggle them and YouTube indexes them for search.
The Open Studio button jumps straight to the video's subtitle page in YouTube Studio so you can verify everything landed.
Transcribe
No subtitles yet? Whisper AI turns any video or audio file into perfectly timed subtitles — entirely on your device. Nothing is uploaded to the cloud.
MP4, MKV, MOV, MP3, WAV, M4A and most other common formats work.
Bigger models are more accurate but slower — see the table below. Base is the sweet spot for most videos.
Progress is shown live. The audio language is auto-detected, or set it manually for tricky recordings.
The built-in editor shows every line with its timing — fix names, punctuation or phrasing right there.
Export the finished file — ready for the Subtitles or Styled Captions pipeline.
Whisper models
| Model | Size | Speed | Accuracy | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tiny | ~75 MB | ⚡⚡⚡⚡ | ★★☆☆☆ | Quick drafts |
| Base recommended | ~140 MB | ⚡⚡⚡ | ★★★☆☆ | Most videos |
| Small | ~460 MB | ⚡⚡ | ★★★★☆ | Noisy audio |
| Medium | ~1.5 GB | ⚡ | ★★★★★ | Accents, terminology |
| Large | ~3 GB | 🐢 | ★★★★★ | Maximum quality |
Bonus — Subtitle Sync: already have an SRT that drifts out of sync? The Transcribe tab can align every line to the exact word in your audio automatically.
Dictate
For silent videos, tutorials and product demos: watch your video and speak the subtitles — VidLocalizer writes them down with the right timing automatically.
The built-in player shows the video with play / pause / stop controls and a live timecode.
Press R to start recording, say the line, press R again to stop. Your speech is recognized on-device and appears as text instantly.
Each phrase is bound to the exact video position where you said it — no manual timestamping, ever.
Review the lines in the editor, undo the last take if needed, then export a clean SRT file.
Tip: use headphones so the video's own audio doesn't leak into your microphone while you dictate.
Styled Captions
The flagship: MrBeast-style word-by-word animated captions, uploaded as native YouTube YTT tracks. Viewers can toggle them like normal subtitles — but they look like a professional edit.
What you can do
MrBeast, Neon, Gaming, Karaoke, Cinematic, Podcast and 24 more — one click applies a full look.
Text & highlight colors, edge style (glow / bevel / shadow), font, size, karaoke word-by-word mode.
Different styles for different parts of the video — style each subtitle row individually on the timeline.
A 16:9 preview shows your caption exactly as YouTube renders it — click to position it on screen.
Translate styled captions into 100+ languages — the styling rides along into every track.
Push all language tracks to your video in one batch, straight from the same tab.
The pipeline
Choose one of the 30 presets or tune every parameter yourself. The preview updates instantly.
The 🎨 Convert to YTT button bakes your style into YouTube's native styled-caption format.
🌐 SRT → YTT produces a styled, translated track for every selected language in one pass.
All tracks upload as native captions. Styling shows on desktop, TV and mobile YouTube apps.
Note: YouTube renders YTT styling in its own player. Third-party embeds may fall back to plain text — the words and timing always remain intact.
Settings
Licensing, accounts and the way the app looks — all in one tab.
Paste your key, hit Activate — the license binds to this PC's hardware fingerprint. Revalidate or deactivate any time.
3 days of full access, one trial per device. Start it from the Dashboard or the store page.
Connect several channels and switch between them from the header — tokens are stored locally, per account.
Appearance → Theme: 🌙 Dark or ☀️ Light. Applies instantly, remembered between launches.
32 UI languages — pick yours in Appearance or the sidebar switcher; the whole app re-renders on the spot.
Moving to a new PC? Use 🔄 Move to new PC: enter the new machine's HWID (shown in its Settings tab) and the license re-binds.
FAQ
Do styled captions really upload as native YouTube subtitles?
Yes. VidLocalizer generates YTT — YouTube's own timed-text format with styling — and uploads it via the official API. Viewers toggle the track like any subtitle, and YouTube indexes the text for search.
How many languages can I translate into?
100+ languages for subtitles, titles and descriptions. The language grid has All / Top-10 shortcuts, and styled captions keep their look in every language.
Is my Google password safe?
VidLocalizer never sees it. Sign-in happens in your own browser through Google's official OAuth screen; the app receives only a revocable YouTube API token, stored locally on your PC.
Does transcription send my audio to the cloud?
No. Whisper runs entirely on your device — the audio never leaves your computer. That's also why bigger models need more disk space and RAM.
What happens when my monthly video limit is reached?
Uploads pause until the counter resets at the start of the next month, or you can upgrade to a higher plan. The Dashboard always shows current usage; limits are enforced server-side per license.
Can I use one license on two computers?
A license is active on one PC at a time, but you can move it yourself with Move to new PC in Settings — no support ticket needed.
My subtitles are out of sync with the video. Can VidLocalizer fix that?
Yes — the Transcribe tab includes Subtitle Sync: Whisper listens to your audio and re-aligns every subtitle line to the exact word. Load the SRT, pick the media file, press Sync.
Will existing subtitles on my video be overwritten?
Only if you ask for it. The default upload mode is Skip (existing tracks untouched); Update overwrites matching languages; Replace clears everything first. You choose the mode before every upload.
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