
The Tools menu contains a number of functions which may be useful for authoring captions and/or descriptions.
The functions include various pre-flight checks (Check Timecodes, Check CEA-608 Compliance) which might otherwise be flagged during Export attempts, as well as tools for alleviating errors found by those inspections (Offset Timecodes, Show Ruler).
There is an additional tool for converting a caption project with timecodes to a description project.
Finally, CADET preferences are accessed from the Preferences menu item.
Check Timecodes
The Check Timecodes tool checks the start/end times to make sure that there are no anomalies, such as out-of-order (i.e., non-ascending) timecodes.


- Open the menu and select .
- Errors will be displayed as links in the Status area. Clicking on a link will move the cursor to that error in the editor.
The image to the right shows a sample timecode error, where a caption's start time is specified before the preceding caption's start time).
Offset Timecodes
The Offset Timecodes tool allows you to easily change the timecodes for a block of captions.
- Open the menu and select .
- Errors will be displayed as links in the Status area. Clicking on a link will move the cursor to that error in the editor.
- Learn more about offsetting caption timecodes.
Check CEA-608 Compliance
The Check CEA-608 Compliance tool makes sure that the captions can be successfully exported to the .SCC format. Note that each caption row may not exceed 32 characters (see the Show Ruler tool for more information).
- Open the
menu and select . - Errors will be displayed as links in the Status area. Clicking on a link will move the cursor to that error in the editor.
The image to the right shows a sample line-length error, where the second row contains more than 32 characters.
Show Ruler
The Show Ruler tool displays a ruler (of user-settable length) above the current caption. This will help you determine when rows are too long for the .SCC or other format. When the ruler is visible, CADET shows the caption column in a monospaced font. To set the length of the ruler, open Preferences dialog and set the Ruler Length.

- Open the menu and select .
- The ruler is displayed above the current caption.
Show Waveform
The Show Waveform tool displays a waveform visualization of the audio track of the currently loaded media. It works with local media as well as with generic URLs. It does not work with Youtube or Vimeo media. There is a zoom slider which zooms the waveform, and a cursor which displays the timecode when hovering over the waveform. The waveform can help in pinpointing places in the timeline, especially when trying to maximize the time for descriptions. It should be noted, however, that for complex audio fields with lots of noise or loud sounds, it may not be possible to visually discern dialog in the waveform.
- Note: It may take quite some time to generate the waveform when opening a URL, as waveform construction cannot be completed before the entire clip is downloaded.
- Note: The waveform is currently created from scratch each time. There is currently no way to save a waveform or load a previously saved waveform.
- Note: The Tools / Preferences pane contains a setting to show the waveform by default.
- Open the menu and select .
- The waveform is displayed below the player.
- The slider control above the waveform controls the zoom factor of the waveform.
- The horizontal scroll control below the waveform is shown if the waveform width (at the current zoom value) is wider than the player.
Presentation Mode
The Presentation Mode tool puts the player in full-screen mode. This can be useful for reviewing a project or for playing the media with captions and/or descriptions in a classroom or other setting where a large screen is desirable.
For description projects in CADET, pressing the shortcut key while holding down the Shift key will suppress the on-screen display of the description text, thus providing a realistic, TTS-described presentation. (Read more about reviewing TTS descriptions.)
- Open the menu and select .
- The screen is switched to full-screen mode.
- To exit full-screen mode, press the Escape key.
Convert to Descriptions
The Convert to Descriptions... tool converts a caption project into a description project. Note: A CADET project can contain audio descriptions or captions, but it cannot contain both. If you want to write captions for the video that you are also describing, you must create a separate CADET project.
- Open the menu and select .
- The new CADET description project is displayed, and the Save As dialog is shown.
- Save the project.
After saving the project, you will see a new editing grid with an additional Audio Cue column. The text in this column represents the caption that appears just before the pause in the audio where a description will be inserted. Also note that the timecodes in the Start and End columns correspond to any gaps in the display of captions: that is, the end time of a caption has been converted to be the start time of a description, and the start time of a caption has been converted to be the end time of a description.
Preferences
The Preferences... tool displays all the adjustable CADET preferences.

- Open the menu and select .
- Edit the choices as appropriate.