Editing Closed captioning (section)

==== Syntax ====
For real-time captioning done outside of captioning facilities, the following syntax is used:
* '>>' (two prefixed [[greater-than sign]]s) indicates a change in single speaker.
** Sometimes appended with the speaker's name in alternate case, followed by a [[colon (punctuation)|colon]].
* '>>>' (three prefixed greater-than signs) indicates a change in news story.

Styles of syntax that are used by various captioning producers:
* Capitals indicate main on-screen dialogue and the name of the speaker.
** Legacy [[EIA-608]] home caption decoder fonts had no [[descender]]s on lowercase letters.
** Outside North America, capitals with background coloration indicate a song title or sound effect description.
** Outside North America, capitals with black or no background coloration indicates when a word is stressed or emphasized.
* Descenders indicate background sound description and [[Offscreen|off-screen]] dialogue.
** Most modern caption producers, such as [[WGBH-TV]], use [[mixed case]] for both on-screen and [[Offscreen|off-screen]] dialogue.
* '-' (a prefixed dash) indicates a change in single speaker (used by [[National Captioning Institute]] or [[CaptionMax]]).
* Words in [[italic type|italics]] indicate when a word is stressed or emphasized and when real world names are quoted.
** Italics and [[bold type]] are only supported by [[EIA-608]].
** Some North American providers use this for [[Narration|narrated]] dialogue.
** Some providers use this for [[offscreen|off-screen]] dialogue.
** Italics are also applied when a word is spoken in a foreign language.
* Text coloration indicates captioning credits and sponsorship.
** Used by [[music video]]s in the past, but generally has declined due to system incompatibilities.
** In Ceefax/Teletext countries, it indicates a change in single speaker in place of '>>'.
** Some Teletext countries use coloration to indicate when a word is stressed or emphasized.
** Coloration is limited to white, green, blue, cyan, red, yellow and magenta.
** UK order of use for text is [[white]], [[green]], [[cyan]], [[yellow]]; and backgrounds is [[black]], [[red]], [[blue]], [[magenta]], [[white]].
** US order of use for text is [[white]], [[yellow]], [[cyan]], [[green]]; and backgrounds is [[black]], [[blue]], [[red]], [[magenta]], white.
* [[Square brackets]] or [[parentheses]] indicate a song title or sound effect description.
* [[Parentheses]] indicate speaker's vocal pitch e.g., (man), (woman), (boy) or (girl).
** Outside North America, [[parentheses]] indicate a silent on-screen action.
* A pair of [[eighth note]]s is used to bracket a line of [[lyrics]] to indicate singing.
** A pair of eighth notes on a line of no text are used during a section of instrumental music or even voice tones playing with the music.
** Outside North America, a single [[number sign]] is used on a line of [[lyrics]] to indicate singing or may just instead use the eighth notes without the lyrics playing.
** An additional musical notation character is appended to the end of the last line of lyrics to indicate the song's end.
** As the symbol is unsupported by [[Ceefax]]/[[Teletext]], a [[number sign]] - which resembles a musical [[sharp (music)|sharp]] - is substituted.