FAB Subtitler can use a word substitution list to substitute texts received from live transcription with other texts. This can be used to correct words which are frequently recognized incorrectly by the transcription service.

A word substitution list is a simple text file and you can find a sample of such file here.

Make absolutely sure that the text file is saved with BOM, for example “UTF-8 with BOM” to make sure that all characters are loaded correctly by FAB Subtitler.

Configuration

The word substitution file is currently used in FAB Subtitler only for live transcription and not for file transcription. This must be configured in the settings here:

Functionality

The file contains multiple lines. Each line contains text which will be replaced at the beginning of the line, followed by = and followed by the text which will replace the text in front of =

The text on the left before = is case-insensitive, but complete words are compared, not partial words. If separators are specified before =, they are ignored.

For example, when entering the following in the word substitution file:

Wetter vor 8 = Wetter vor acht
vor 8 = vor 88

then

„Wetter vor 8. In 88 Tagen um die Welt. Vor 8 Tagen hat es geregnet. Fehlen noch 8, 9 oder 10 Tage bis zum Sommeranfang?“

becomes

„Wetter vor acht. In 88 Tagen um die Welt. Vor 88 Tagen hat es geregnet. Fehlen noch 8, 9 oder 10 Tage bis zum Sommeranfang?“

All words to the left of = must match for the substitution to be made. If multiple matches occur, the longest version is used, e.g., for “Wetter vor 8,” it uses “Wetter vor acht” and not “vor 88.”

Text comparison of the text on the left side of = is case insensitive.

Another example:

Wetter vor 8 = Wetter vor acht

replaces all following versions:

Wetter vor 8  --> to -->  Wetter vor acht

Wetter. Vor 8. --> to --> Wetter. vor acht.

WETTeR, vOR, 8, --> to --> Wetter, vor, acht,

It is also important to understand that the file is only read at the beginning of a live transcription. If the file on the hard drive changes, you must stop and restart live transcription to use the new file.

Additional Configuration

The word substitution file can contain a special section [Config] where you can add the following lines:

[Config]
ItalianApostropheWordE = Y
ItalianApostropheChars = ÀÈÌÒÙÉ
ForceNLEndOfSentence = Y
ForceNewSubtEndOfSentence = Y
AllowFlushEndOfSentence = N
AllowFlushEndOfUnit = N
ThousandsSeparatorMinDigits = 5
ThousandsSeparatorChar = .
FrenchCharOE_UC = N
FrenchCharOE_LC = N
DutchCharIJ_UC = N
DutchCharIJ_LC = N

To section [Config] is valid for all languages. If you wish to define settings for one language only, then use the section name [Config-fr] or [Config-fr-fr] for French or [Config-de] or [Config-de-at] for German,

When ItalianApostropheWordE is configured to Y, the word È will be replaced by E’.

In ItalianApostropheChars you can configure the 6 characters that should be replaced by their equivalent followed by the apostrophe. Just leave ItalianApostropheChars empty if you do not want to replace any of those uppercase characters in the words other than È.

When ForceNLEndOfSentence is configured to Y, a new line will be forced after the end of sentence. Note that end of sentence requires the usage of FAB Subtitler Server because it is used for correct detection of end of sentence.

When ForceNewSubtEndOfSentence is configured to Y, a new subtitle will be forced after the end of sentence. Note that end of sentence requires the usage of FAB Subtitler Server because it is used for correct detection of end of sentence.

This page was last updated on 2025-09-30