If you are writing an .srt file for a movie that doesn't have any subs at all then I don't think there are any templates or shortcuts. It just takes some time to do it. If you're just adding subs in a new language for the movie then you can just borrow the timings from some other subs for that movie.
But, with no subs at all, you have to do all the work yourself. There may be better ways of doing it than I've been able to figure out. But here's how I've done it before.
I grabbed any old .srt file and I zeroed out all the timings but left the text. Each line of the .srt file had 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:00,000 for timings.
I loaded my movie and zeroed out .srt file into Subtitle Workshop. With one finger holding down the ALT key I would hit the "V" key everytime someone started to talk.
When you are done all of the start times for your subs should match up to when someone begins speaking.
Next step was to translate the dialog and change .srt text.
Last step was to go back through again and change the end time for each sub so it stopped when you wanted it to.
Also, make sure your final .srt file doesn't have any bad timings at the end. For example, if the last line of the sub is 01:42:06,817 --> 00:00:00,000 then no subs will display at all.
It's a bit of pain, and you have to fine tune it once or twice before you are done. If you find an easier way of doing it then post back with how you did it.
Well, I may have found a way to do it. Always using another srt file.
First of all I zeroed practically all the timings at the same time through Timings>Adjust>Adjust Subtitles.
But there's a trick: you can't put 00.00.00.000 in both boxes, only on the First Spoken Line. On the Last Spoken Line box you put 00.00.00.001 and that will do it. All boxes except the very last one go to zero.
Then for replacement of each box you have to write down the timing and press Enter, or it will go back to its old value. You have to write down the Show box first and then Hide box.
1) Pick any srt file you may have. There might be other way but this is the easiest one.
2) Load the file in Subtitle Workshop and rename it.
3) When the file opens, go to Timings>Adjust>Adjust Subtitles.
4) Put 00.00.00.000 on the First Spoken Line box; put 00.00.00.001 on Last Spoken Line box. Press Adjust, and that should zero all the timings.
5) Now you can start putting each dialogue and each timing for In and Out. Remember to press Enter every time you load a timing, or it won't be saved.
6) Use the Insert key to add any in between dialogue. Place yourself at the timing before and press the key. A clean new timing will come in between, lasting 1 second. Put the new timings and go on.
In my case I had to put all my timings manually, with no video, because the AVI file I had was too large and/or SW didn't recognize the codec. I think SW only accepts small compressed files. That step should remain to see later.
What I did was use the wav audio track, loaded in Sound Forge, where the timings were exact.
I wrote two different languages versions, which it's easy once you time the first one.
