Two exports, and only one belongs here
Descript is an editor. It can give you a transcript document — often already .docx, text, or
Markdown — and it can give you subtitles as .srt or .vtt for a player. People
land on “Descript to Word” after they exported the captions for YouTube or a rough cut and then needed a
script the producer can comment on. If the transcript document is already on disk, opening it is the whole
job. Dropping that .docx into this converter will not parse: there are no cue arrows in a
Word file.
The file that does belong here is the subtitle export. Open it. You should see cue numbers or a
WEBVTT header and --> lines. That is timed text chosen for the frame, which
is a worse reading copy than Descript’s own transcript and a better reading copy than the raw SRT. The
converter removes the cue furniture and writes paragraphs.
What already happened inside Descript
Filler-word removal, studio sound, and Overdub are edits to the composition. They are finished before
export. The SRT is a photograph of the words that remained. This site cannot put “um” back, cannot hear
which take you kept, and cannot tell an Overdubbed sentence from a sentence someone actually said. If the
client must know which lines were replaced, mark that in Descript or in the Word file yourself. Do not
expect a badge in the .docx.
Speaker names follow the cue text. A label at the start — [Alex] or Alex: —
becomes a bold name, and Merge same speaker joins that person’s nearby cues. A subtitle
pass that was burned for a single narrator often has no labels. Merge then produces one voice, which is
what you want for a monologue and the wrong document for an interview. Add labels before you convert, or
follow interview SRT to Word if the file is really a two-hander.
Check the composition, then make the reading copy
Drop the SRT with timestamps on. The ranges in the preview are a short form of the cue clocks. Spot-check
one line against the Descript composition. If the words match and the range is in the right minute,
download descript-script.docx. For a client who should read prose, use the timestamps-off
link and download again. Keep the SRT if those captions are also going to a player. Descript will not
import your Word comments back onto the script track.
Otter and Teams exports look similar and are different files. Use
Otter transcript to Word when the source is Otter, including when
the paste is a summary glued to the transcript. Do not reconvert a Descript .docx “to be
safe.” You would be starting from the wrong object.
Related workflows
Download the .docx
Drop the subtitle export, not a screen recording. Show timestamps on if you will check a sentence against the composition. Merge same speaker on joins labeled turns. Download descript-script.docx and keep the SRT.
