DOCX, PDF, TXT, SRT, VTT: which export to pick

The document formats

DOCX is the one to pick when the transcript is a starting point rather than a finished thing. Speaker names and structure come through as real headings and paragraphs, so you can cut, rearrange and comment on it in Word, Pages or Google Docs.

PDF is for when the transcript is finished. Nothing shifts when it opens on someone else's machine, and nobody edits it by accident. Use it for anything you attach to an email, file with a client or hand to a lawyer.

TXT strips everything down to the words. No formatting, no metadata — which is exactly what you want when the destination is a script, a search index, a prompt or another program.

The subtitle formats

SRT is the format every video editor and platform understands. Premiere, Resolve, YouTube, Vimeo: if a tool takes subtitles at all, it takes SRT.

VTT is the web-native version. It is what the HTML <track> element expects, so it is the right choice for subtitles on your own site or in a web player.

Both carry the timings. Neither carries speaker names the way a document does — subtitles are cues, not a script.

Two questions that settle it

Will anyone edit this? Yes, and it is prose → DOCX. Yes, and it is code or data → TXT. No → PDF.

Is it going on video? Editing suite or a platform → SRT. Your own web page → VTT.

If you are not sure, take the DOCX. It is the only one you can turn into any of the others without going back.

One thing worth doing first

Fix speaker names before you export. Renaming a speaker in WhoScribe updates every line at once; renaming them in Word means find-and-replace across forty pages.