Closed Caption Box placement in 360
Apr 13, 2017
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Hi everyone,
I have some great news to share. We just released another update for Storyline 360. In Update 86, we’ve included important fixes and new features.
One of the new features we’ve included:
- Position captions at the top or bottom of the slide to ensure closed caption visibility and prevent the obstruction of critical course content.
Launch the Articulate 360 desktop app on your computer to take advantage of this update, and click the Update button next to Storyline 360. You’ll find our step-by-step instructions here.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
62 Replies
Hi there, Bob! Are you referring to the hint caption boxes that are generated with the step-by-step slides of a screen recording? If so, are you finding that the caption boxes are getting in the way of crucial screen content?
You can edit captions at slide level: move them around, resize them, etc. There are also some universal formatting options available for you.
Let me know what you're seeing!
Hi Bob, you can't control the placement of the closed captioning box - that is if you are talking about the cc box and not the caption hints that Crystal is referring too.
Hi Crystal, I was referring to "CLOSED CAPTIONING". Yes, Nancy... the CC box.
We sometimes do a 2-column layout where we put text on the left side of the screen and a small video window on the right side. I was trying to figure out if we had any control over the placement of the CC window. Not a big deal.... just need to keep it under consideration for all our interface layouts using video.
Thanks!
Hi Bob,
You can change the font and font size for captions, but not the placement of the caption box. It'll appear along the bottom of the slide as a standard location for closed captions.
Hey Bob! Geez, I don't know how I missed that one. Facepalm moment! 😳
Thanks Nancy and Ashley for stepping in!
Hi Ashley,
To change the caption font size you have to change the player font size as well, is that correct?
Hey Mike,
You got it! Here's how it's done:
I know how to change the font size, but is there a way to change the width of the captions box. I have just a short sentence (8 words), and for some reason, it is acting like there is hard return and splitting it into two lines and stacking them. Any help would be appreciated.
Hi Donald,
Do you have an example of this? I'd want to just take a look at the length of the words, where it's splitting and your overall slide size as all those will be factors that contribute to the caption box's width and height.
If you can share a screenshot or better even the .story file - I'll glad take a peek at what you're seeing!
Hi Ashley and Donald, I'm getting the same thing. Here is my Storyline file.
Hi David
I've just had a quick look at your caption file and according to the timing - there is a caption coming in before the previous has completed which may account for why it is stacking
Will there be an update coming soon that will provide the ability to have greater control over the dimensions and placement of the Closed Caption box?
For instance, a box that goes to two lines of text takes up probably 20% of the video screen in my example. Additionally, there is a generous "gutter" underneath the Closed Caption box that I'd prefer to not have. The ability to create a fixed position for the box would be a major "win."
Hi Craig,
It's not something on the roadmap, but I'd love to hear more about what you'd like to see as options for editing.
We're always exploring new features and customer input is extremely valuable in that process. If you’d like to chime in with your feedback on this, please share your thoughts with us through a feature request.
Hi Ashley,
We are struggling with the same CC formatting issues others are having. The features that may require modifying are color, transparency, and placement. The attached PNG file proposes placement of the tools.
Hi Emerson,
Thanks for sharing the image. In regards to the placement - do you want to see the closed captions appear there while you're editing or in that location while you're viewing a slide?
Good question. Initially, I thought it would be easier to develop the tool in the CC Editor. Since you can select the CC box which play the audio, maybe that box could be unlocked, allowing you to set the XY position and attributes. However, if there is an edit button which opens up a CC formatting editor that would give you full control over the CC attributes, including transparency, location, position, alignment to window and slide selection options, that would even be better. Thank you for asking!
Would be nice if the close captioning box could be set for various levels of transparency too. That way it would not fully cover the image in that area....
Thanks Emerson for that explanation!
Also a great idea from, Daniel! We love to hear that type of feedback, so thank you for sharing. Here's how we handle all these feature requests and great ideas.
Totally agree with the need to be able to position cc box and transparency. Would like to see it take up as little space as possible (while still retaining 14 point font size) and have as little gutter in relation to the player. As it is, I have to avoid putting content in roughly the bottom 1/7th of the screen because the cc box will cover it. that's a lot of screen real estate.
Thanks for the feedback Susan.
Completely agree with the comments here. A way to easily customize the CC box will be a really big thing for developers trying to work well with limited screen real estate, and for users who have to unfortunately choose between CC on or off to see all content properly.
Thanks for your feedback, Garima, and I can definitely understand where you're coming from. It's really helpful for us to know exactly how our customers are using this feature and what they need it to do, so thanks for chiming in here!
HI there, I thought I would add to this trail instead of creating new, I am not sure if I found it here, but can I have the CC captions up while creating my images and timing? I constantly have to preview the slide to see if my timing is on or off for each image that pops in based on the cc text, is there an easier way?
Hey Teresa!
Since closed captions are aligned with audio, could you use the audio in timeline preview to determine the placement of your images?
Simply click Play on the timeline to preview the slide with audio. Then, add cue points to the timeline where you want the images to occur.
Then, add the images to the timeline. Right-click each image on the timeline, scroll to Align to Cue Point, and choose a cue point.
Oh that sounds like a great idea, I will try this out, thanks Alyssa