Developing Learning Content with Captivate 4

Supporting Learners With Slide Notes

You can include extra notes about a slide in your final presentation. Slide notes are a good location for extra information about a slide such as numerical details, supporting materials, or to provide information on the text presented in image files. You can also use slide notes to communicate with users who do not have any audio equipment or are hearing impaired.

You can convert slide notes into an audio file using the text-to-speech converter in Adobe Captivate. You can also convert slide notes to closed captioned text. Unlike slide notes, closed captioned text appears on the slide during runtime.

Add slide notes

You can add notes to slides in one of the following ways:

• Type text directly into the Slide Notes panel. Enter your notes in the Slide Notes column.

 

Note: If you do not see the panel, click the arrow icon at the bottom of the slide window.

• Click Notes in the Slide Properties dialog box. Enter the text in the Slide Notes dialog box that appears.
  
  
• You can add slide notes to an audio file using the Record Audio dialog box. Slide notes are useful in the Record Audio dialog box because you can read the text directly from the dialog box as you record. After you insert an audio file into the slide that you have recorded using slide notes, the slide notes are added to the Slide Notes column.
  
  
• Slide notes are automatically imported when you import slides from Microsoft PowerPoint.

Install text to speech converter

If you have not installed the text-to-speech software during installation, do one of the following:

• Re-run the installation CD. Click Install Text To Speech Voices in the autoplay options.
  
  
• Run the EXE file for the text-to-speech software. This file is in the Goodies folder on your installation disc.

If you have problems installing the text to speech software, see Rick Stone’s movie Installing Text to Speech.

Convert slide notes to speech or closed captioned text

You can convert text in the slide notes into an audio file using text-to-speech software from NeoSpeech™. The audio file is inserted into the corresponding slide. Multiple slide notes are merged into a single audio file and appear on the Timeline as a single object. You can also convert slide notes in the panel to closed captions in a single click.

The audio file pauses at locations where you have inserted commas or periods in the slide notes.

When you edit a slide note, you must click Convert To Speech for the changes to be applied.

When you play the movie:

• The slide notes are read aloud to the user.
  
  
• The closed caption text on the slide is displayed to the user.

1. In the Slide Notes section, enter the required text in the Slide Notes column. To add another row, double-click in the Slide Notes column.
   You can add as many rows of text as slide notes. However, Adobe Captivate reads text only from the last row. If you want to add a chunk of text as a slide note, insert the text into a single row.

2. Click the green dot in the Speech column. The green dot changes to a green check mark. To convert text in all the rows to speech, click the Text To Speech header.
   
   
3. Click Convert To Speech.
   Note: If you do not have the required software installed on your computer, the Download Voice button is displayed instead.

4. In the Speech Agent dialog box, select the voice that you want to use for reading the text.
   
   
5. Click the green dot in the Closed Caption column if you want to convert the slide notes to closed captioned text. This text is displayed when the user plays the movie. Click the Closed Caption header to select all the rows in that column.

To prevent slide notes from being read aloud when the movie is played, click the check mark.

Resolving the, “unable to decode and import the selected wav - mp3 file” error

This error might be displayed when you are using Adobe Captivate on Windows Vista. You must register the Adobe DLL to fix this error.

1. Close Adobe Captivate.
2. Run Command Prompt in the admin mode.
3. Enter the location of the directory where you have installed Adobe Captivate.
4. Run regsvr32 NSAudio.dll. The message, “Registration of DLL successful” is displayed.
5. Right-click Adobe Captivate in the Program Files menu, and select Run As Administrator.

Add speech text to multiple slides

You can add speech text to multiple slides using the Speech Management dialog box. To add variety to the movie, you can choose different speech agents for different slides. For example you could use a male voice and a female voice for alternate slides.

1. Select Audio > Speech Management.
   
   
2. In the Speech Text column of the Speech Management dialog box, click Browse (...)
   
   
3. In the Slide Text To Audio dialog box, enter the text that you want to convert to speech.
   
   
4. From the Speech Agent column, select a speech agent for the slide.
5. Repeat the procedure for other slides.

Disable closed captions in a slide

You can prevent closed captions from appearing when the movie is played. Click the check mark icon in the corresponding row of the Closed Caption column.

Delete closed captions/slide notes from a slide

To delete closed captions/slide notes from a slide, click X in their corresponding rows.

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