How to highlight words in captions in Premiere Pro

Premiere Pro's caption track applies one style to the whole line, so it cannot highlight the word being spoken. To get that look you need caption graphics: either converted and keyframed by hand, or generated by a plugin that knows when each word starts.

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Why the caption track can't do it

Captions in Premiere are timed lines of text with a Track Style. There is no word-level timing stored in them and no per-word styling. That is the format's limit, not a missing setting.

The manual method

1. Right-click a caption and choose Upgrade Caption to Graphic.
2. In Essential Graphics, select the word you want highlighted inside the text box and give it a different fill color or size.
3. Cut the graphic at the point where the next word is spoken, and move the highlight to that word in the new piece.

A caption with five words becomes five short graphics. It works and it looks right, but it is slow: expect an hour for a minute of speech.

The plugin method

A caption plugin transcribes with word timestamps and builds the highlight for you. You pick the style (color swap, bigger word, pill background), press Generate, and the graphics land on the timeline timed to every word. Changing the highlight color later is a restyle, not a rebuild.

Which words to highlight

Highlight the word as it is spoken, not keywords you choose in advance. Viewers read along with the audio, and the moving highlight is what holds attention on muted autoplay.