Storyline Example: Generating Closed Captions

Hi Steve. It's just under 30MB. I'm publishing to LMS. HTML5, not AMP.

One of the things I've seen freeze slides in HTML5 is oversized graphics (elements that out scale the slide dimensions by 2x or more). You might want to submit the story to support so they can take a look. HTML5 definitely shouldn't be freezing like that.

OK. Thanks Steve. It's just odd that the functionality works perfectly on Windows Chrome, but freezes when playing in Mac Chrome. Will look into further.

Hi Steve,

I have created the cc text with explained method but i am not able to control the font size according to content. If i am using the transcript text having more than 10 lines, it reduces the font size to fit it within place holder of transcript.

Is there any method to use the scroll bar so it can adjust the content according to variable transcript size. Please guide me how can i use the transcript without reducing font size.

I am attaching the file for reference.

If there is another way to do, please let me know. My basic requirement is to show transcript text on every slide but it should be controlled from master slide CC toggle button. 

Hi Alok - There are a couple of ways to deal with that. If you do, however, I'd change the text of the button from CC to transcript. There's a distinct difference between captioning (a short one or two line bit to be read in sync) and transcript (large block of text).

To make sure your text doesn't resize, you can try anticipating the largest size and make a shape that contains the %variableReference% to your transcript. Then drag this shape into a scrolling panel. This will make your transcript always scroll to the size of the shape placed in the panel. But if your box is big enough, your text won't scale down.

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the reply.

Is there another way to auto size the place holder as per text defined in slide variable. I am not able to anticipate the text size. Few slides having minor text but many others have large transcript size. If i will anticipate the maximum size then scroll will appear in every slide even having minor transcript. Please suggest any other idea.

Regards,

Alok Suman

Hello Alok. Short answer, no. This issue was raised here in the past and Articulate staff responded to the question. There is no way to change the autoresize behavior for a text variable attached to an object placeholder, which is then passed to a screen object.

The only real answer to the CC issue is for Articulate to create a built-in closed caption solution to Storyline, like Captivate (their direct competitor) has had for years now. This issue is key for us, and in my experience it has driven many, if not most of those who I am familiar with in this business that create WBT for the federal government to use Captivate instead just because it does have that easy to use built-in CC option. Yes, you can use solutions like Steve's to do CC, but doing things this way creates just enough limitations particularly to larger projects, that it becomes too much work for developers to deal with.

Sorry for the rant, but this issue is near and dear to my heart, as you can probably tell. :)

Hi David,

Thank you so much for explaining all the criteria. I will do it now in another way! :)

Best Regards,

Alok Suman

Nope, , thats not a standard feature. Perhaps in SL3? (Hint to dev team)

Those suggestions, and not so subtle hints, are always welcome to be shared here. Right to product development ;)

Yes, Will. Please add your voice to the stack for a standard captioning feature. Not having captions be portable or the ability to import and display captions for externally captioned video is a bummer.

Hi Steve - love your elegant solution here. I have one question though - is there any way to change the font? It seems like we are stuck with whatever default font the variable is set to...looks like Articulate?  

Hi Jill - 

You can change it by drilling into the Master slide. Since it's a dynamic text object, the font will need to be something that resides on their machine locally. Verdana and Arial usually work pretty well for that. 

Thanks for popping back in to assist Jill here Steve :)

Re Closed Captioning Could anyone suggest a voice to text app or software I could get to include into Storyline as I don't want to use my voice over?

Hi Deb! Perhaps this thread will be of assistance to you.

Still relevant today, as it was three years ago, Steve. Nice one. We have a client who needs this exact thing and is still using Storyline 1.

If by some chance you have come up with an even better solution for Closed Captioning Videos in SL1 I'd love to hear it. I simply added a video to a slide and made sure that the video controls are not used (as it would deem the timing of the captions useless... Storyline 2 makes this all a breeze, but we don't that luxury with our client).

Thanks heaps.

Hi Ray - 

Only a couple of alternatives I can think of that'd work in SL1 (this one works in SL1, too but the detachable notes panel makes it much easier.)

• Use a tool like Camtasia to build in the captions and import the Web export with player as a Web Object. The downside here is you'll lose any sync with triggers.
• Use something like Camtasia again to import the captions. Then remove the video bits leaving a black background and export the video. Play the video with captions turned on and record the screen with Camtasia, Replay, or even Storyline. Export the video of the recorded captions and crop the video to the height of the caption element. Add this in below the video. If you want to hide the captions, use a shape with a solid color and control visibility with a trigger or add the cover shape to a layer.

Hello, is there anyway to keep the captions on through all the slides when I hit the button to show it on the first slide? When I hit the captions on first slide it won't stay up on the rest. I am making a video that needs different captions on all the pages because I will be showing this to people who are deaf and I will need to change the captions into other languages in the future. Is there anyway this is possible? Please help me figure this out :)

Thank You

Jennifer

Hi, Jennifer -- Thanks for reaching out here and sorry to hear of your troubles! As this thread is somewhat dated, if you'd like to reach out to any contributors in particular, you are welcome to use the "Contact Me" link on their profile page. Or if you would like to share your file to see if others can offer suggestions based on your current set up, you are welcome to do that by using the grey ADD ATTACHMENT button in the bottom left of the reply box. 

I know this is a very old thread, but I was trying to replicate this without all the JavaScript. Just a simple toggle on/off button when user clicked on it to show/hide the CC text. However, I'm curious how Steve was able to create the grey background behind the text. I don't see any slide layers, nor do I see anything in the slide master. Anyone able to help me figure this out? Thanks!

Hi Brian!

Looks like you are talking about the layer on the slide master:

Looks like a gradient fill :)

Genius. Glad I stumbled upon it.

I have read through all these awesome comments and suggestions.  However, I am not able to open the demonstration file or the other one.  I can open the two slide presentation, but that doesn't seem to give me enough information on how to do this.  Any help?  Or is there any easier ways now with Storyline2 to do this??