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A
Anonymous
September 19, 2010
Answered

Multiple Audio Objects in Captivate 5...

  • September 19, 2010
  • 1 reply
  • 2129 views

Hi,

I am looking to create a series of Captivate 5 slides that contain numerous audio objects, these objects will play the associated audio at a given time defined by mouse click, rollover, or a similar event.  The slide should remain persistent until the user clicks a button that will progress them to the next slide in which a similar format will be presented.

So the creation of the button to progress is a simple case, but the creation of the audio objects that will play due to various user events seems not so straight forward, and this may be because I am yet to find my Captivate timelines hat.

I have tried creating slidelets that I add audio to and then tried adding the On Rollover property of Execute Advanced Action.  I then created an expression in which I set a script to extract the current frame and add a value to this so that it would allow the slide to exceed the natural pause point that was created with the introduction of buttons.  However this had the undesirable effect of simply activating all audio at the same time.  When I staggered the slidelets in the time line after the pause of the button, only one of the slidelet was available, as the other were too staggered in the timeline and were not visible at the time of pausing.

I just wondered if I am on the right path here, or if there is a simple way of doing what I would like to do, which is to allow students to see text and rollover/click and hear audio of the text, or to have a button that will do this.  It may also be necessary to allow the students to see a question that when clicked on the answer will be spoken.

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Kind regards.

Captivate 5 - Version 5.0.0.596

On a 32 bit Windows XP System

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer techy_kate

    Hi TK,

    Sorry to hear about your busy, unfortunate time.  Hope that the last few days have been rainbows, sunshine and kittens!

    Sorry to come across as a bit dense here, but sooner or later you'd realise that I am a few scones short of a tea party, so it is best put my cards on the table now.   I have tried again, and I realise that I had been enabling the Fill Outer Area in the FILL & STROKE section of the object!  Oh dear....  Sorry for wasting your time.  It now seems to work, woohoo!!  Thank you so, so much for taking the time to put me out of my misery!

    Sorry to be an absolute nuisance, thorn in your side sort of parasite of a man, have you any ideas on how I can do the same thing using a button?  So that I display an image button, and when the user clicks, it will pay the audio file.

    Many thanks for your time and you patience.

    Kind regards.


    Hi insearchofanswers,

    no worries!  one time I was very distressed about a problem and got on here for a fix.  The very simple solution - making my objects visible.

    I wasn't sure about how to create audio on a button because I haven't used that technique before, but I did a little searching around and found this great how-to:

    http://iconlogic.blogs.com/weblog/2007/05/adobe_captivate_1.html#tp

    It's for Captivate 2, but I tried it on Captivate 4 and it still worked.  I'm pretty sure it will still work with Cap5, too.  Good luck!

    1 reply

    T
    techy_kate
    Inspiring
    September 20, 2010

    I think there is an easier way.  I haven't created a project with multiple rollovers, but it should work the same.  You don't need to create a new slidelet - just use the rollover feature.  Create a rollover for each object you need.  Then when you are inserting the audio, make sure to add it to the caption rather than the rollover object on the timeline.  Does that make sense?  Here's a screenshot to illustrate:

    You should be able to have multiple rollovers on the same page and have them all appear on the timeline at the same time.  When the user moves the cursor over the rollover, the audio will begin.  The only caveat when using the rollover is that the user must continue to keep the cursor over the rollover area to hear all of the audio.  Once the cursor is removed from the rollover area, the audio ends.

    A
    Anonymous
    September 21, 2010

    Hi TK,

    Many thanks for your response and insight.

    I added a Caption Rollover as you recommended, which seemed a jolly good plan, and this worked fine when I had a single rollover, although I found I had to add the audio to the caption and not the rollover (maybe I misunderstood what you wrote).  However, when I add another Caption Rollover it all seems to go a bit pear-shaped, and it will then play the audio as soon as the slide loads, and when I rollover the new caption it will only play the audio from the first caption.  Is this just something to do with how I am going about this?

    Any recommendations are appreciated.

    Many thanks.

    T
    techy_kate
    Inspiring
    September 24, 2010

    Sorry to just now be writing back.  I've had a busy week (including a computer crash ).

    I am wondering how you are inserting audio.  Is each audio file done separately?  Did you record one large audio file and then take clips from it?

    I have found that if I try to use audio clips, it doesn't work.  I get all sorts of errors.  So I have had to splice one large audio file using another application (like audacity) and export them as a separate file with a unique file name.  Doing this solved all my problems with audio.  I used to have the same problem where I would hear the audio from the first slide over and over.

    You might also want to make sure that you don't have audio set to the slide itself.  Or again, make sure it's NOT added to the rollover object, but to the caption.

    I just did a test using multiple rollovers with different audio and it worked great for me with no hitches.

    I think you mentioned that you have a button, too.  That's perfect because you need something that will pause the slide until the user has a chance to use all of the rollovers.

    Hopefully you've had time to figure this out on your own, but if not, I hope this helps.  I think the problem has more to do with your audio than with the rollovers.

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