Publish mp4 video project with closed captions from Captivate 2019?

[shannonm33467233]

I read a discussion post from 2 years ago that you can NOT publish an entire mp4 video project with closed captions unless you add a smart shape to each slide with CC on it.

Has anything changed?

I tried with Captivate 2019 and didn't have luck but maybe I missed something?

Thanks.

[Lilybiri · Accepted solution]

No, CC is part of the skin and you cannot have a skin if you publish a passive video. Only way is indeed as you mentioned, to insert text containers mimicking the CC feature, but where you'll have to synch manually.

[shannonm33467233]

That's what I thought. Thank you. Just wanted to check. I'm not exporting to YouTube so it doesn't work.

Thanks again.

[Lilybiri]

I'm sorry about that.

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

I'm not sure what you mean by an MP4 Video Project. If you mean that you are embedding a video into a Captivate project using slide video (formerly called multi-slide synchronized video) then the answer is yes, you can add closed captions.

Adobe Captivate - Adding Closed Captioning to Embedded Videos - YouTube (older version of Captivate but the process is similar today).

If you mean can you add closed captioning to a video demo project, I have a workaround for that here:

Closed Captions in Your Captivate Video Demos - YouTube

If you are publishing out to MP4 then Captivate will not generate closed captioning into something like an SRT file. Here's a hint though. If you upload the published MP4 file to YouTube, Google's servers will generate automatic closed captioning for your video. You may have to check the spelling of the occasional word or two but it does work.

Adobe Captivate QuickTip - Let YouTube Make Closed Captions for You - YouTube

Again, I'm not sure if any of these videos will help you out but perhaps they will, or perhaps they might give you some ideas.

[innov8]

Hi there. Has this issue been resolved yet?
I need to publish to mp4, but not for YouTube. Our clients like mp4 because as a file type it's easy to upload to SharePoint or share via email/Teams. I can't seem to publish with CC on my Windows laptop, but my colleague can do it on her Mac. We need to resolve this because if there's even a small tweak or update to the video I'm working on, I have to send it back to her for publishing, which is not ideal. Can anyone tell me if there is an update or a plug-in that could help? This is such a strange issue, and I'm hoping the answer is simpler than manually having to insert text containers 🙂

[Lilybiri]

Did you understand what I wrote? Since CC is part of the interactivity section of Captivate's output, and when publishing to passive video (MP4) you are just abandoning all interactivity, this is not a bug. If you want to create only passive video do not look for a full-blown authoring tool which has as main goal to create interactive eLearning courses. Look for a video tool.

[RodWard]

This is quite interesting.  I have only ever used PCs to publish out to MP4 from a Captivate project and I've never seem the MP4 inherit the Closed Captioning text from the project skin.

Is there anyone else here on the forum that can confirm that a project published to MP4 from a Mac does actually take the CC and embed into the video?

[innov8]

Hi - thanks for the responses. Yeah so this is why I am confused; it definitely works on a Mac. I usually build the videos, add the CC, then send them to my colleague who has a Mac, and she publishes them - works beautifully. Retains all the CC settings (like font, position, colour, etc), and obviously makes our work so much easier and faster. Would be fantastic if this could work for PC too! As far as I'm concerned, CC is not interactivity - our clients want it there no matter what, so not sure why it isn't just embedded the same way that any other kinds of objects, like highlight boxes and shapes, are. Would be a fab fix and I'm 100% sure that other PC users would agree 🙂 

[Rebecca367]

Do you know whether publishing with a Mac will also retain the table of contents?  I've been searching for a way to publish to MP4 with both CC and the table of contents.  Everything I read says publish to YouTube (unprofessional for business videos IMO) or HTML which doesn't have the look / feel that I need.

[Lilybiri]

@Rebecca367 Sorry but I still don't believe what is claimed here.  Table of Content for sure is interactive, how can that be part of a passive video. CC is synchronized with Captivate's timeline, and although that seems not to be interactive it belongs to that part in Captivate. 

Can you explain why 'HTML' publishing doesn't have' ...look/feel'  that you want? You have full control design and interactions in that case (contrary to passive video). Maybe I could offer some tips?

[Rebecca367]

My customer wants the look and feel of modern social media but also closed captions and table of contents.  They've brought me screen captures of YouTube and Vimeo asking why Captivate output can't look and function like that.  I use the Captivate media playbar but it won't resize across all devices.  I can overlay the playbar and TOC but doing then the published output won't respond to gestures and can't be resized on a phone or tablet.  Bottom line...the Captivate HTML output doesn't look or behave the way that I need it to in order to satisfy my customer.  And I'm out of ideas.

[Lilybiri]

You cannot have an interactive TOC in a passive video. It is still not clear to me if you want to create real interactive eLearning courses or passive video? For Video creation you don't need an eLearning authoring tool but look for a video tool. If you want an elearning course for all types of devices you need to create a responsive project, and in that case the TOC will ALWAYS be in overlay.  As for the definition of 'modern' (which doesn't exist) that is different depending on the aimed audience, the country etc... Captivate is based on a theme which you can control completely: object styles, fonts, colors, master slides, skin. What is seen as 'modern' in US is not the same as in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia. 

The first question to you and to your customer: what do you want exactly? Passive video or engaging interactive eLearning courses? To me that is not clear so far. Which audience do you want to reach? Does it have to be efficient for learning or is just something nice which needs to be done but is not considered to be important? Sorry, but it looks like what I consider to be important for eLearning courses is quite different from what I hear in your questions.

[James234073235aek]

My first suggestion is to publish in Captivate as a Slide Video, using the interactivity in Captivate to allow the viewer to jump to any point in the video -- forward OR backward, or even out of the video and back into the video at a selected point.  

For MP4 output, I would simply do the entire project as an MP4 in Camtasia, with Closed Captions and appropriate play/pause controls for the subject matter.  Not sure how or why client would want an MP4  output, as it removes interactivity.