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AP_AW
AP_AW
Inspiring
July 12, 2016
Answered

Better way to use audio

  • July 12, 2016
  • 2 replies
  • 2338 views

I'm building a project where each slide has one and only one piece of audio. The audio/narration has been imported as background audio and it seems to be working fine though as background audio I don't have the ability to pause/stop the audio without pausing the timeline.

Generally, is it better to have the audio "attached" to a button than as background audio?

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer RodWard

    It's generally better to attach a separate narration audio clip to each slide.  The project background audio (if used at all) is generally only used for background music playing or looping behind the voiceover.

    Captivate has lots of options for adding audio.  But each different option is designed to fulfill a different design solution.

    Attaching audio to a button would be used when you wanted an audio clip to play when the button is clicked.  So in that case you set the On Success event of the button to execute an action to Play Audio.  (If you attach the audio to the button object itself then the audio would play as soon as the button became visible on the timeline and not when it was clicked.)

    2 replies

    Lilybiri
    Lilybiri
    Legend
    July 13, 2016

    Since you tell that you have one audio clip for each slide, it means you are using slide audio. Slide audio can indeed only be paused by a real Pause command, once it started. Can you explain more in detail what you want to achieve: is it being able to pause/replay the audio without stopping the playhead?

    You can attach audio to an object, as Rod explains that means it will play when the object is visible, stop when the object gets hidden. Look at this article: Audio Objects: Control them! - Captivate blog It is the only way to have multiple audio clips playing at the same time. Drawback = you cannot use CC functionality for it (like you can for slide audio)

    The other alternative is to use the Play Command which has to be triggered by an event (like the Success event, click on a button or click box). Only one audio clip can be played at the same time, a second instance of this command will stop the former audio clip. No CC possible neither.

    AP_AW
    AP_AWAuthor
    Inspiring
    July 13, 2016

    I'm building my first project in Captivate 9 and there are many options for adding audio. I'm worried that if I take the easiest option whether it will actually cost me more in time at some later stage when I'm forced to replace what I've done with a different method.

    RodWard
    Community Expert
    RodWardCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 13, 2016

    The audio options are actually fairly self-explanatory:

    • Background audio is for what you want playing in the background.
    • Slide audio is for what you want to play as each slide is shown.  This will usually be your voiceover or Text to Speech audio.  This is the only option that allows you to accurately time what things will be shown on the stage as the audio is describing it.  It's also the only option that allows you to easily set up Closed Captioning that is synced in time with the audio.
    • Object level audio is for audio that needs to be heard when an object appears on stage.
    • Play Audio Actions are used when you need audio to be heard in response to some user interaction or some event that occurs at runtime.
    RodWard
    Community Expert
    RodWardCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    July 13, 2016

    It's generally better to attach a separate narration audio clip to each slide.  The project background audio (if used at all) is generally only used for background music playing or looping behind the voiceover.

    Captivate has lots of options for adding audio.  But each different option is designed to fulfill a different design solution.

    Attaching audio to a button would be used when you wanted an audio clip to play when the button is clicked.  So in that case you set the On Success event of the button to execute an action to Play Audio.  (If you attach the audio to the button object itself then the audio would play as soon as the button became visible on the timeline and not when it was clicked.)

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