What You’ll Learn
Keyword Highlighting
Automatically emphasize important words
AI Detection
AI identifies key terms automatically
Scene Control
Show or hide subtitles per scene
Style Integration
Works with any subtitle style
Before You Begin
Make sure you have:- A Pictory API key (get one here)
- Node.js or Python installed on your machine
- Basic understanding of subtitle styling
- Content with keywords worth highlighting
How Keyword Highlighting Works
When you enable keyword highlighting:- AI Analysis - The AI analyzes text content in each scene
- Keyword Detection - Important words are identified (nouns, key verbs, concepts)
- Color Application - Keywords display in the specified
keywordColor - Regular Text - Other words appear in standard subtitle
color - Video Rendering - Subtitles render with highlighted keywords
Keyword highlighting uses AI to automatically identify important words. You don’t need to manually specify which words to highlight - the AI determines this based on content analysis.
Complete Example
Understanding the Parameters
Scene-Level Parameters
| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
highlightKeywords | boolean | false | Enable/disable AI keyword highlighting for this scene |
hideSubtitles | boolean | false | Show/hide all subtitles for this scene |
Required Style Property
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
subtitleStyle.keywordColor | string | RGBA color for highlighted keywords (e.g., rgba(255, 215, 0, 1)) |
What Gets Highlighted
The AI automatically identifies and highlights:| Word Type | Examples | Typical Highlighting |
|---|---|---|
| Key Nouns | AI, educators, social media, content | Important subjects and objects |
| Action Verbs | impact, automate, enhance, create | Significant actions |
| Important Concepts | generation, consistency, efficiency | Core ideas |
| Product Names | Brand names, specific products | Proper nouns |
| Numbers | Statistics, percentages, quantities | Numerical data |
| Call-to-Action | subscribe, buy, learn, join | Action words |
Common Use Cases
Educational Content with Key Terms
Marketing with Product Names
Social Media Call-to-Action
Mixed Highlighting Across Scenes
Best Practices
Choose Contrasting Keyword Colors
Choose Contrasting Keyword Colors
Select keyword colors that stand out:
- High Contrast: Ensure keyword color contrasts with both regular text and background
- Brand Colors: Use brand colors for consistency
- Readability: Test that highlighted text is still easy to read
- Common Choices: Gold, light blue, bright red, or neon green
- Avoid Similar: Don’t use colors too similar to regular text color
Use Highlighting Strategically
Use Highlighting Strategically
Apply keyword highlighting where it adds value:
- Educational Videos: Highlight technical terms and concepts
- Marketing: Emphasize product names and benefits
- Social Media: Draw attention to calls-to-action
- Tutorials: Highlight steps and important instructions
- Avoid Overuse: Not every scene needs highlighting
Write Content for Highlighting
Write Content for Highlighting
Structure your text to work well with keyword detection:
- Use Strong Nouns: Include specific, meaningful nouns
- Clear Concepts: State ideas explicitly rather than implying
- Product Names: Capitalize proper nouns consistently
- Action Words: Use clear verbs for calls-to-action
- Natural Language: Write conversationally but with key terms
Test Highlighting Results
Test Highlighting Results
Preview to ensure highlighting works as intended:
- Create Test Videos: Try short samples first
- Check Keywords: Verify important words are highlighted
- Color Visibility: Ensure keyword color is visible
- Over-Highlighting: Check if too many words are highlighted
- Adjust Content: Rewrite if highlighting isn’t effective
Combine with Other Features
Combine with Other Features
Enhance keyword highlighting with complementary features:
- Custom Styles: Use bold or larger font for keyword emphasis
- Animations: Add subtle entry animations to draw attention
- Voice Emphasis: Pair with voice-over for audio+visual emphasis
- Scene Timing: Give highlighted scenes slightly longer duration
- Background Music: Lower music volume during key highlighted sections
Troubleshooting
Keywords aren't being highlighted
Keywords aren't being highlighted
Problem: Text appears but no words are highlighted in different color.Solution:
- Ensure
highlightKeywords: trueis set in scene configuration - Verify
keywordColoris defined insubtitleStyle - Check keyword color is different from regular text color
- Confirm RGBA format is correct for keywordColor
- Test with content that has clear important nouns/verbs
- Try more explicit, keyword-rich text
Wrong words are highlighted
Wrong words are highlighted
Problem: AI highlights unexpected or less important words.Solution:
- Rewrite content to emphasize desired keywords
- Use more specific, concrete nouns instead of generic words
- Place important concepts at start or end of sentences
- Capitalize proper nouns (product names, brands)
- Remove filler words and keep text concise
- Test with different phrasings to see what works best
Keyword color not visible
Keyword color not visible
Problem: Highlighted keywords blend in or are hard to see.Solution:
- Increase contrast between keywordColor and both text color and background
- Try gold (
rgba(255, 215, 0, 1)) for high visibility - Ensure alpha channel is 1.0 (fully opaque) for keyword color
- Test on actual video backgrounds, not just specs
- Use complementary colors (e.g., blue keywords on orange background)
Too many words highlighted
Too many words highlighted
Problem: Nearly every word is highlighted, reducing impact.Solution:
- Simplify your text - use fewer, more impactful words
- The AI highlights based on importance; simpler text = clearer keywords
- Remove redundant adjectives and adverbs
- Focus on one key concept per sentence
- Consider not using highlighting for that particular content
Highlighting inconsistent across scenes
Highlighting inconsistent across scenes
Problem: Similar content highlighted differently in different scenes.Solution:
- AI analyzes each scene independently - this is expected behavior
- Ensure consistent phrasing for concepts you want highlighted
- Use similar sentence structures across scenes
- Capitalize important terms consistently
- If needed, use same text multiple times for consistency
Need to hide subtitles for some scenes
Need to hide subtitles for some scenes
Problem: Want subtitles on some scenes but not others.Solution:
- Use
hideSubtitles: trueon scenes where you don’t want subtitles - Combine with
highlightKeywords: falsefor clarity - Useful for intro/outro scenes, transitions, or visual-only segments
- Can also set different subtitle styles per scene
- Test to ensure smooth visual transitions between scenes
Next Steps
Explore more subtitle and branding features:Custom Subtitle Style
Create fully custom subtitle styles
Subtitle Styles
Use saved subtitle style presets
Brand Settings
Apply complete brand presets
Custom Captions
Add custom or translated captions
API Reference
For complete technical details, see:- Render Storyboard Video - Full API specification
- Get Job Status - Monitor job status and progress
