Captivate 2019 Closed Caption Options?

[donaldw30326818]

Hi All,

I did  a brief search and didn't find anything pertaining to my question, so apologies if I am flagellating an expired equine.

I have an hour-plus video that is being converted to eLearning. I need to included closed captioning.

How are people handling closed captioning in Captivate? I understand that Captivate does not import CC files. There are services that provide transcripts that are machine-generated and machine-human generated. That helps. But is there a way to get these transcripts into Captivate other than copy/paste?

Are there services that will handle transcription AND CC inclusion in a supplied Captivate file?

The need for closed captions is an increasing demand on the work my area produces, so I am hoping to find a sustainable process rather than a one-off ad hoc that solves my immediate problem.... but will cheerfully accept an ad hoc to get this project out the door.

Many thanks!

Don

[TLCMediaDesign]

Basically the answer is no to all of your questions, you need to copy and paste and time them.

If you can use a service and they provide a .vtt file, that would be the easiest and the timing would stay consistent throughout the length of the video. You would need to create an html file with the video and .vtt or other CC format file, zip them all up and insert into CP as an HTML5 animation.

[donaldw30326818]

I guess having a voice-to-text feature built into Captivate is not on the drawing boards?

Your HTML5 animation solution..... I am not familair with this aspect of Captivate. Does this mean that the captioning would be an HTML5 animation, or the whole Captivate video would be an HTML5 animation that now includes the captioning?

[TLCMediaDesign]

You create an html file with the video and vtt linked in the video tag. You would then zip the three files together, html, mp4 and .vtt and insert into Captivate as an HTML5 Animation. This link explains the html and vtt.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/Audio_and_video_delivery/Adding_captions_and_subt...

[donaldw30326818]

Well...the HTML5 Animation approach doesn't appear to be all that convoluted... I thank you for getting that information to me. Have no idea if it is implementable in the environment I am in, but I will have to play with it and see what success I have.

Again, thank you for your information, expertise and time. All are greatly appreciated!

Don

[TLCMediaDesign]

I do it all the time, it's very easy to implement and works very well. When the vtt file is attached, the browser automatically includes the CC button in the playbar.

[donaldw30326818]

Let me get this process then:

An audio file is sent out to a vendor to get the audio transcribed and timed, and returned in a .vtt or other fomat.

This file then is added to an HTML export package that Captivate generates. Then what file in the Captivate PUBLISH folder is being modifed with the <video> tag?

[TLCMediaDesign]

No. You create the html page, zip the html, vtt and video together and choose Media/HTML5 Animation and import into Captivate.

Place it on the stage where you want it, you will need to set the dimension the size of the video. Then publish.

[donaldw30326818]

Oh..... that doesn't sound too ghastly.

Final (perhaps) newbie question: where do you get the VTT file?

[TLCMediaDesign]

I create my own, but you had mentioned having a vendor create it.

[donaldw30326818]

OK, now I am getting confused...

If you create the VTT file, what is the difference between that and scripting in the captioning within Captivate? You need the text and time hacks from some source. How are you creating the VTT file?

[TLCMediaDesign]

There really isn't except for the fact that the timing of the captions using a .vtt file will be precise and the CC button will automatically appear. Captivate uses a different timer and you usually will need to retime the captions multiple times in a lengthy video.

My suggestion to use this is because you said:

"An audio file is sent out to a vendor to get the audio transcribed and timed, and returned in a .vtt or other fomat."

[donaldw30326818]

Got it, and thanks. Your information is extremely helpful.

My group needs to get this process sorted since CC is a requirement for all eLearning now. We have gone from "nice to add when there is time" to "make the time to add it."

I went through your Mozilla link but has anyone created a "VTT Captioning for Dummies" that offers more of a step-by-step procedure?

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

Perhaps this might help you. https://youtu.be/SgBx9yl18y0 

[donaldw30326818]

Hi Paul,

Huge fan, BTW. Without  you and Lilybiri, I would be lost.

Your video is a great intro to manual captioning. But I am seeking the holy grail of captioning - having Captivate automagically create and time its own closed captions.

This is beyond Captivate at the moment. So the next approach is to use the technique described by TLCMediaDesign and take a VTT file, an HTML file and an MP4 file. smash them all together and insert the zip file as an HTML Animation object in a Captivate project.

I am still working on the nuances of this approach. A coworker grabbed the idea and ran with it, I am still catching up. The idea works well enough, but what is lacking is timing. The HTML Animation approach does not allow for variable timing. Getting a VTT transcript from Transcribe, for example (the transcribing service I am using here for this) requires that pre-determine the time hack duration: 1 second, 5 seconds, up to 999 seconds. But obviously each slide and section of that slide is not going to fall neatly into these pre-set time groups.

In my ultimate state vision, I would like to be able to play the MP4 file and mark the time hacks that inticate when the next caption appears, and then have Captivate or another tool, generate the VTT file with the specific time cues. Alternately,  perhaps have a continuous scrolling CC window - and this may be the easiest approach to implement.

The group I am in has a mandate for all eLearning to have closed captions. And this is a good requirement. Accessibility is no longer a nice add-on. BUT.... the creation of captions - from voice to text, correcting the text, timing the text, is time consuming. An alternate, having a service manually time a VTT for importation, is (for our department) expensive and we have not line-itemed the cost for this in our budget.

As some of these presentations extend for two hours (I know... we are working on that....) captioning is taking up a larget chunk of overall development time.

Don

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

Take a look at this video about the next release of Adobe Captivate:

https://youtu.be/nFpwS-WKH2g?t=2584

If you watch at approximately 46:47 you will see that there is an option to add and IMPORT captions for this project. While this is only pre-beta software, it's clear that the engineers at Adobe are thinking along the same lines as us like minded individuals.

[donaldw30326818]

My, my, my....what sharp little eyes you have....

I wonder why importing captions wasn't hyped in the video instead of relying on the Kremlin Funeral Photo approach to release the news?

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

It's a sneak peek. It may not be in the final version. Hopefully it will be there though.