How do you store your narration scripts?

[UsernameNumber]

I'm afraid this question is going to have an embarrassingly simple answer that I've just somehow missed, but whatever it is, well, I'm missing it...

Until now I've produced most of my eLearning content as recorded PowerPoints. I essentially use PPT as an animation tool, and keep my narration for each slide in the slide notes. I include hints as to when to cue each animation in the script, turn on my screen recorder and read through the presentation to create a video.

I'm in the process of moving to Captivate, and am having trouble figuring out what the equivalent workflow is supposed to be. I like that I can attach narration to specific objects and then adjust the timing of each item independently, but even split up like that, sometimes I want to say something lengthy and specific enough that I really want a script there. I see tools like Speech Management and Captioning, but they seem to be geared more toward auto-generating narration and transcription of already-recorded narration, respectively.

What are people doing to script their narrated presentations?

[Lilybiri]

Do you plan to start from an imported PPT in Captivate or start from scratch? The first option will not allow you much freedom because each PPT-slide is converted to a movie and you'll not have separate object timelines. In Captivate you can record your voice to one or more slides, while the slide is playing and eventually using the slide notes. Those are not only meant for TTS at all. Or you can do it the other way: record your voice in a real audio application like Audition, Audacity, import the audio clips to Captivate and time the objects to the audio. Again, this is not possible if you work with imported PPT-slides. You should have understood that I will never use PPT as a start, maybe as a storyboard if it has been imposed, but always start in Captivate from scratch.

[UsernameNumber]

I am talking about creating a Captivate presentation from scratch. But remember how I was saying I was afraid there would be an obvious answer I was just missing? Well, I don't know how but I only just noticed that there's a Window->Slide Notes menu option! Not being able to find that is what had led to my confusion. Embarrassing, but at least I now have something to work from! Thanks for the quick reply.

[Lilybiri]

OK, I have Slide notes always in the bottom dock along with the Timeline and Master slide panels in the workspace I'm using (if not Mobile nor Quizzing). But I'm using the Expert UI. I find it a pity that the Newbie UI is hiding so many panels.

[BDuckWorks]

I'm in a different mode, as I am currently working to convert existing PPT(x) materials into Captivate, managing multiple review and feedback cycles on the slides, narration and interactive features.

I typically begin with a PPT, that I convert to PPTx, adding instructor notes, and narration text into the notes field. I add page numbers, slide numbers to the PPTx file then save as for a clean version.

In Cp, I'll create a new file from the PPTx, which I consider as draft content.

I'll create text to speech as a rough, by converting the narration text in notes to 'text-to-speech,' and generate audio. Once I listen through to audio, I repair typos and set timing for each slide and build a table of contents to get rough timing for the course.

I then publish the rough draft with TTS to an internal web server for review.

Over time, I see that some of the Subject Matter Experts will review this version and give constructive feedback, while others will literally focus on the voice and give detailed feedback on which words are mispronounced. Once I've had enough feedback on the voiced, I bump the latter to a later review cycle.

At this point there are no quizzes, no animations or interactivity. Also, there is no need for an LMS manifest, SCORM or AICC packaging, etc.

I can use the 'Print' functionality of Captivate, along with some customized word templates, to publish a Voice Narration script out of Captivate. I share this with our voice narration talent, which consists of current employees volunteering for the duty, along with an internal URL for the rough draft of the course, and ask that they proof the content for mispronounced words, typos, grammar issues, etc.

This serves as both the content review, and rehearsal, for the talent. It helps that they have seen and heard the content in context, even with the automated voices from TTS.

This means, however, that I must either maintain two scripts, one within Captivate, updated with new TTS, and one in Word, published from the earlier file. Or choose one to update.

Both are later revisions of the PPT(x) script imported to Captivate. Unless there is a need for blended learning, where the course is taught in the classroom with an eLearning component, the PPTx script is kept as an archive. The master becomes Cp, or Word.