Zoom Live Transcription Service

Understanding the Process: Enabling vs. Activating

There are two key steps to using Live Transcription:

  1. Enabling (One-Time Setup): As a host, you must first enable the Live Transcription service in your main account settings on the FAU Zoom Portal. This makes the feature available for you to use in all your meetings.
  2. Activating (In a Meeting): Once enabled, you must then activate the transcription service inside each specific meeting where you want to use it.

Part 1: How to Enable Live Transcription for Your Account (One-Time Setup)

Follow these steps to make the live transcription feature available for all your future meetings.

  1. Open a web browser and go to the FAU Zoom Web Portal: https://fau-edu.zoom.us and sign in.
  2. In the navigation menu on the left, click Settings.
  3. On the Meeting tab, click the In Meeting (Advanced) link in the secondary menu.
  4. Scroll down to find the Closed captioning section.
  5. Make sure the main toggle for "Closed captioning" is turned on (the slider will be blue).
  6. Check the box for the second option, Enable live transcription service to show transcript on the side panel in-meeting.
  7. Click Save. The feature is now available for you to use.

Part 2: How to Use Live Transcription and Captions in a Meeting

For the Meeting Host (Activating the Service):

  1. Once your meeting has started, click the Captions (or Live Transcript) button in your host control bar at the bottom of the screen.
  2. In the window that appears, click Enable.
  3. The transcription will begin immediately. You and your participants will see the captions appear at the bottom of the screen, and participants will be notified that the service is active.

For Participants (Viewing Options):

Once the host has enabled captions, you have several options for how you want to view them. Click the Show Captions button in your control bar to see your choices.

  • Show Subtitles: This is the default. The transcript will appear as captions at the bottom of the video frame. You can click Hide Subtitles to turn them off.
  • View Full Transcript: This opens a "Transcript" window on the side of your screen. This window contains a running, real-time transcript of the entire conversation. You can also search the transcript using the search bar at the top of this panel.
  • Subtitle Settings: This allows you to control the font size of the captions, making them larger or smaller to suit your preference.

Important Disclaimer on Accuracy

Please be aware that this service uses machine-generated transcriptions (Automatic Speech Recognition). The accuracy depends on many factors, including audio quality, speaker accents, and clarity of speech. It will not be as accurate as a professional, human-generated transcription service.

Print Article