Storyline Example: Generating Closed Captions

I am having a strange problem with this method. It works great when I preview the project in Storyline, but when I publish, I am having an issue where, if the layer displays automatically on a subsequent slide because the variable is turned on, the layer disappears after about a second. If I click the button again, I can get it to come back.

Anyone have any idea why this might happen?

How are you keeping the CC state constant from slide to slide. When I play my project the CC turns off after each slide. Ideas?

This is awesome. I'm new to Storyline and was about to add individual text boxes synchronized with time. I knew that approach was flawed because I wouldn't be able to tackle them collectively and this solution is just what the doctor ordered. Thanks so much. 

Thanks, Steve!

We're getting a lot of mileage out of this solution. One thing we're doing with it is video captions. I've noticed that the captions can get out of sync with the video after users use the slide seekbar. Has anyone else noticed this? Any solutions?

Nice example Steve,

Here is another example that relates to this. I posted the example ages ago but the principal is similar and might give you additional ideas for usage. See link>

Hope this helps.

Paul

Paul,

I'd like to see your solution, but couldn't open the link you sent.

David

Thank you, Steve!!!!  Any tips on getting the HTML-formatted captions to work?  I can see it works in your demo, but when I downloaded and published the source file it didn't work.  I saw <b>text</b> instead of bold text.  I published as HTML5 and as SWF, and I'm getting un-rendered html code in both.

Hmm... That's odd Looks like a bug as the player used to render tags to onstage fields without a problem. Looks like a variable value set through JavaScript is rendered OK. Formatting passed in through a variable trigger is not.

This works from a JavaScript trigger:

player=GetPlayer();

player.SetVar("transcripts","Bold me");

I love this solution Steve. Thanks so much.

Having trouble with one aspect of it. Trying to set the variable(s) so that the CC default is "on" when the slides start. Then the viewer can click to hide them. Have changed variable from "true" to "false" without success. Can you please provide guidance? Many thanks.

************Figured it out - never mind *****************************

Steve, this is fantastic, but I recon there is scope here for a built in button that does most of the work for you...has anyone feature requested it?

Alright, curly question time.

I am applying the Captions to my project, which works perfectly for non-layered slides.  However, when I apply captions to a button interaction, with each layer having its own voice over, the CC button doesn't work...it takes you back to the base layer...

How can I get the CC button to display the CC's relevant to each layer?

I have tried hiding the CC' on the base layer, but it didn't work.

Anyone?

I think the functionality here is super helpful. Unfortunately, I have been trying to get this to work in a project I am working on, without success. I copied all the settings from the example file. The only thing that is different is the name of the layer (I changed it from showTranscript to Captions). Evrerything is set up within the master slides, with the exact same triggers and variables. However, when I preview a slide, I click on the CC button, and nothing happens. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Dalinda - This may sound silly, but make sure that you don't have any objects on your slide that may be blocking the CC button. This happened to me a few times. Since it's a master slide object, it will be behind anything that is on your slide.

Hi Steve,

I used your template and I really like it but I have a problem. I'm syncing captions to an flv and I have it set so the user has to click the play button to play the video. Since the captions in your example are tied to the timeline start, If the user doesn't start playing the video when they first get to the page, the captions are out of sync. They also don't update when I scrub back and forth on the seek bar.  Do you know if there is anyway to tie the captions to the default video player?

Thanks! Even if I can't use your example it really helped me start to get a handle on variables!

Kris

This looks very helpful.  If I already have a slide with audio already designed, is there a way to apply this cc master slide to my existing slide?  Or do I need to start from scratch by building the variables, etc..

Have you ever seen the way that screencast-o-matic handles captions?  I think they make it very easy to create captions.

thank you,

Carolyn

Hi Steve-

While this solution is working great for my new project, there is one hiccup I'm hoping you will help me with.  The text box that contains "%transcript%" doesn't seem to stick to the formatting I set for it on the master slide. 

The font of the text should come across as Catriel 12.  Yet when there is more than one line of transcript, it shrinks the font down REALLY tiny (to like "6") trying to fit it all on one line!

I've tried sizing the text box to make it bigger by:  adding "returns" after the %transcript%; and formatting it to "adjust to fit the text".  But there seems to be a disconnect between that formatting and what it's doing with the trigger value text.

Thoughts/suggestions??

-Diane

Steve, is the scrollbar used here keyboard accessible?

I am trying to create a WCAG 2.0 AA compliant course, which currently has a transcript/notes in the Sidebar. Unfortunately, due to large amounts of text, the Notes tab has automatically created a scrollbar. The scrollbar cannot be controlled by the keyboard. A user who doesn't need a screen reader but still uses a keyboard will not be able to read the transcript. I have considered using the closed captioning option suggested here; however, due to large amounts of text I will need to create a number of subtitles or use the scrollbar CC suggested here.

If this isn't accessible the last resort is to split the screens so the Transcript is spread across multiple slides. This converts all the wonderful layers into a bland power point presentation looking slide.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!  

Can the scrolling panel be made keyboard accessible? 

Hi Raddy and welcome to E-Learning Heroes! I see where you also posed a similar question here. Hopefully someone in the community will be able to assist you in a solution that will work better for you.

Hey All! 

Looks like none of the scrolling panel elements in Storyline are keyboard accessible. This includes the scrolling panel object as well as the notes panel. This is unfortunate. Please submit a feature / bug request. I'll try to put together a Flash widget as an alternative that might get the job done. No projection on when that might be. Busy time

Thanks for your response Leslie and Steve! Yes, you're absolutely right, Steve. It is quite unfortunate as it create a number of restrictions. Hoping this gets implemented soon enough. Would love to use a Flash widget temporarily. Happy to wait for it ! Thanks very much, Steve. 

Is anyone else having an issue with the demo Steve provided, where the tab button on the player does not work? The blue button within the slide works, however the one in the player doesn't. It shows as click-able. Any help is appreciated.

This works great, but I can't seem to get the formatting to work. Even in your example I'm still seeing the HTML formatting.

I was so please to see this discussion. This Closed Captioning is exactly what I need. However, I can't figure it out. I reviewed the screenr and downloaded the source file. I have been working with your source file template along side my file and I feel as though I have duplicated all the triggers and variables exactly as you have created them. Yet, I can't get the captions to appear in my file. I've given it nearly 6 hours of troubleshooting. I give up. Can someone tell me what is wrong with my file?