Closed Captions in Exported Video File

Jun 13, 2019

Mike Lesewski
By Mike Lesewski

Hi there, 

I am trying to test if I import an MP4 video file and add closed captioning in the Storyline 360, when I publish it as a video my closed captions are not displaying. I can see them in the preview but when published as a video they disappear. Please help :) 

Pinned Reply
Kelly Auner
1 year ago02/21/23 at 2:34 pm (UTC)

Hi, everyone!

I have some great news to share. We just released another update for Storyline 360. In Update 73, we’ve included important fixes and new features!

One new feature we’ve included:

Boost video accessibility by including closed captions when publishing projects as MP4 video files.

To take advantage of this update, launch the Articulate 360 desktop app on your computer, and click the Update button next to Storyline 360. You'll find our step-by-step instructions here.

Please let me know if you need additional help!

64 Replies
Leslie McKerchie
almost 5 years ago06/14/19 at 12:24 pm (UTC)

Hello Mike and welcome to E-Learning Heroes :)

Thanks for reaching out and sharing your thoughts.

At this time, closed captions are not included when you publish Storyline 360 content to a single video file. We do have an open feature request, so I've added this conversation to the report so that we can share any updates with you here.

I wanted to share some information about how we manage these feature requests as that may be helpful.

Erik Wolf
almost 5 years ago06/25/19 at 12:02 pm (UTC)

We need this feature as well - the ability to export captions WITH an MP4 video (embedded, with correct transitions between slides and coordinated audio). Here is our use case: we do a lot of training for people who do not speak English fluently. But they can read English pretty well. They don't understand what is being spoken, but they can see what is being said by reading it. Not being able to export the captions is hindering our ability to serve our non-English speaking market.

Leslie above says that closed captions ARE included but Mike says he cannot see the export.

How can we get closed captions to render in a video export? There is no setting for this in the publish feature in Storyline.

Leslie McKerchie
almost 5 years ago06/26/19 at 9:03 pm (UTC)

Hi Erik,

Thanks for reaching out and letting us know that you need this feature as well.

I apologize for the confusion. It looks like I left out a very important word above. That word being 'not'. They are not included, which is what the feature request is for.

This conversation is attached so that we can share any updates we have with you here.

Kim Baker
almost 5 years ago07/10/19 at 12:15 am (UTC)

Hi,  I cant even see my closed captions when I preview the video in the module.  I am not sure if I am having the same issue as everyone else as I am very new to the program and am teaching myself how to use it.  I have imported a video and have written closed captions to appear but they are not...am I doing something wrong? 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
almost 5 years ago07/11/19 at 9:26 pm (UTC)

Hey, Kim and welcome to the E-Learning Heroes community! We're glad you're here. 😀

It sounds like you've run into some trouble with closed captions you added on a slide where there was a video? Did you add the captions using the Storyline option outlined here or in an external video editing software? If you've added them from inside Storyline, you'll only see them in Preview/publish by toggling the Closed Captions button on the player. The closed captioning button on the course player is enabled by default. 

Some other tips for interacting with the closed captioning button:

  • The closed captioning button may not always be visible throughout your course. It’s only visible when captions are available on the current slide or layer. It’ll disappear for slides and layers that don’t have captions. This gives learners a visual clue when captions are available.
  • When a learner clicks the closed captioning button to turn on captions, the button will remain turned on throughout the course until the learner clicks it again to turn it off.

Let me know if that sheds any light on your setup, or if you still need more help we can take a look at your .story file. You can upload at this link using the Add Attachment button or you always have an option to share privately with our Support Engineers. Either way, we'll delete it when done testing. 

Leslie McKerchie
over 4 years ago12/12/19 at 9:06 pm (UTC)

Hi Lorraine,

Thanks for reaching out to follow-up.

This has not been added to the software at this time, but it is a feature that we are tracking and this conversation is attached so that we can share any updates we have.

I wanted to share some information about how we manage these feature requests as that may be helpful.

I'm curious about where you will be hosting this mp4 content for your clients as many platforms, such as YouTube, offer the closed caption feature there. This may help the community share other ideas with you as well.

Matthew Shoemaker
over 4 years ago01/23/20 at 12:26 pm (UTC)

As the Closed Captions button was present on the player I assumed that this feature was already present for video files and structure the whole course videos accordingly. Its a bit disappointing that this feature is not present especially when trying to design a course that is inclusive to people with disablilties..... is there a timescale on getting this feature?

Lauren Connelly
4 years ago01/24/20 at 9:21 pm (UTC)

Hi Matthew!

We have released many accessibility features this week in Update 36 (Build 3.36.21213.0) for Storyline 360! A lot of these enhances are to make courses more interactive for users with disabilities.  With that, to get the fully accessible interactive elements including closed captioning on videos or even allow the user to adjust the audio, you'll need to publish for Web or LMS. 

Vincent Scoma
4 years ago04/16/20 at 8:12 pm (UTC)

Hi John,

Thank you for reaching out! 

That is odd that the closed captions are not appearing on the LMS side. Just to clarify, is the closed caption button enabled on the Player: 

No Closed Caption file on the timeline?

This is intentional behavior. After importing the Closed Captions to your course, you can make edits to this file by:

Navigating to Video Tools >> Click on Options >> Then click on Edit Caption: 



For more details on this, I would recommend checking out this resource: Storyline 360: Importing Closed Captions for Narration and Videos

Please keep us updated about the captions on the LMS side! 

Jerry Fernandez
almost 4 years ago04/30/20 at 3:08 pm (UTC)

For all of the time and energy to create closed captions for use in the player, it would be really nice if I would also have the option to include the captions when I export an MP4 video (open captions, i think is the technical term).  Please add my name to this feature request or provide a link where I can request this feature. 

Erich Buchinger
almost 4 years ago06/23/20 at 1:02 pm (UTC)

Hi,

i'd also like to see this feature. As long as it is not included in SL i generate my videos with integrated captions with https://www.headliner.app

In the free version it allows 10 Videos/month without watermark (max. length 10mins/video). Up/download or online transcription is possible. Only downside: You need to upload your video into the cloud. Not the best idea for confidential contents.

@admins/moderators: If its not allowed to post external links/platforms please remove this post!

Jaime Davis
over 3 years ago09/23/20 at 4:54 pm (UTC)

I would also like to see the ability to add captions to videos added. Although most of the time we are able to publish in HTML, there are occasions when we need to publish as MP4. We have proprietary information that must be behind a firewall, so we can't upload it to YouTube and use their captioning service. In addition, we are a government agency, which requires us to have be ADA compliant. Like someone else said, we also have a large population of English as a Second Language speakers and the captions help them comprehend the content more easily. Having the option to publish an mp4 video with captioning - even if it was open captions - would be extremely beneficial. I hope this feature is added soon!

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