Running a preview of Captivate project is chopping audio but in published file it is fine

[fremo101]

I have built a Captivate project in V2019. When I playback the project 5 slides at a time - audio is sometimes getting chopped off between slides. Once published it seems to be fine.

Would appreciate any advice how to fix this.

[RodWard]

Make sure there is a slight gap at the beginning and end of each slide's audio clip on the timeline.  If you don't have these gaps (one tenth of a second is all you need) then Captivate sometimes 'stitches' the audio file for multiple slides into a larger audio clip, and that can cause issues when only previewing a small set of slides.  

[fremo101]

Hi Rod

Thanks for the reply - I did try that and it still chopped off. I even tried inserting a slide before.

[Lilybiri]

My focus is on the fact that this only happens in preview, not after publishing. Is this a non-responsive project?  If yes, use only F11, Preview HTML in Browser if you want to see a preview using a temporary HTML output. All other previews use a SWF output. Which browser are you using?

[fremo101]

Many thanks for the reply. I use Chrome - its published as html - scaleable content. Do you mean publish the file and then preview in Browser using F11 - and NOT use preview of slides in the Project?

[Lilybiri]

You are confused, maybe due to me, answers too short.

Best way to see the final output is: publish to HTML5 and upload the folder to a webserver which supports JSON. Launch it from the index.html file in a browser.

F11 is a Preview method, the only one which is close to the final output. However not in all cases will it be identical to the final output, that is why Rod also recommends to use the first method.

[fremo101]

It works fine when I upload the file to our LMS. I am having issues when I
Preview the file.
Are you saying that F11 will preview within Captivate? It didnt when I
tried yesterday?

Please confirm

Thanks

Claire 

[Lilybiri]

Please do NOT include personal credentials on a public forum. I took them out.

If F11 didn't work, that means something is not quite OK with HTML5. Which browser did you use? 

[fremo101]

Thanks again Lilybiri

This is the error I get when trying to Preview using F11. I use Google Chrome v 80.0.3987.149 (Official Build) (64-bit)

[Lilybiri]

Once in a while that happens to me as well, localhost not functional. I just switch to another browser, and later on everything works fine... only a temporary glitch. Not the case for you?

[fremo101]

Hi Lilybiri

My F11 preview is not opening the correct path of the location of the file. It opens a temp location. Do i first need to Publish the file to a location and then Preview using F11 or do I need to change something in Publish settings so it finds the correct path? This said, it serves no purpose for me to Preview the whole project each time due to teh time it takes to convert and publish the lengthy project - using 5 slides at a time is best.

Is there a known bug that chops audio in preview of a swf output?

[RodWard]

Is this TTS generated audio?

[fremo101]

Rod - I dont use TTS. Its audio I get recorded and add as mp3 files.

Thanks

[RodWard]

I have seen problems with audio at the beginning or end of clips getting cut off if there is not at least a small amount of lead-in and lead-out audio at the beginning and end of each clip. 

To avoid this issue, I always have at least a half second of very quiet audio at the beginning and end of each clip.  Since I record my own voiceover it's easy to have this.  I make sure I am recording in a very quiet room and even reduce the audio volume on these lead-in/lead-out segments so that nothing is heard. 

But you should never set these beginning and end audio segments to have no sound whatsoever.  Do not select them and Insert Silence.  If you do that, or you delete everything right up to where the voiceover starts or ends, then you can have problems.

Is it possible in your case that there is dead silence before the audio starts and after it ends?  If so, you may need to add some very quiet audio (e.g. just low-level room sound) so that Captivate doesn't clip off too much.

[fremo101]

I will check this - could be the answer - many thanks