Text to Speech - Export Text for Narration Script

Feb 09, 2018

Hi Everyone,

Does anyone know a way to export the text used to generate TTS audio in Storyline 360?

15 Replies
David Henry

Hi, 

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the above Leslie but this export button mentioned seems to only be available where closed captions are turned on with the TTS.

Is there a way to export all TTS text from a course so that we can generate a script for translation without needing to individually enable closed captions and export segment by segment? And can that translated script be imported back into the course in the same way as regular text for translation? 

Thanks

Dave Neuweiler

I may be misunderstanding what you are trying to do ... but if your need is just to produce a recording script, then ensure that the script is entered in Storyline in the Notes section at the slide level. It can then be used to generate the TTS audio. But then you can publish to Word.

In this regard, Storyline is not a 100% "clean" solution. There's no option to publish to Word without including screenshots of each slide (or quiz information).

Also, the Notes section is solely at the slide level; there are no separate Notes sections for layers within a slide.

So if you have narration on levels, and/or quiz questions, you have to do some manual editing to get a clean script.

David Henry

Thanks Dave, you've kinda understood :) and have offered some useful points to think about.

I work in localisation and so standard procedure has until now been to use the 'Translation', 'Export to Word' functionality to generate a script for translation. Once this script is translated we can then import it back into Storyline and go to work fixing up the aesthetics of each slide and sub layer.

With the introduction of TTS in Storyline, my clients have started to make use of this functionality and are now adding TTS audio to their slides and sub layers which of course means I need to be able to export this TTS text so I can have it translated. Currently the 'Translation', 'Export to Word' function does not include TTS in it's output meaning that I have to go through the course slide by slide and manually extract the TTS text via copy and paste to create my own translation script. Once thats translated I have to then manually copy and paste that translated text back into each individual TTS segment. 

This feels like something that Articulate should be able to automate in the same manner as the 'Export to Word' functionality so thats what I was specifically asking about. TTS is a new tangent for Storyline so I accept it's not a clean solution just yet. Maybe the support team could take this as a feature request for future updates?

Thanks

Phil Mayor

As Dave says above, I will always add scripts to the notes section this way it gets exported in the translation document. You will have to have added the text to create the TTS and Storyline offers an import from notes feature. I don't think Storyline saves the TTS text if you paste it into the dialogue.

Gary Young

Count me in as upvoting this feature request. When courses are in revision, it's not always practical to copy/paste from Text-to-speech to Notes—it's easy to forget some edits, etc. It would be much better if the original TTS was exportable for generating a narration script that you can be certain is accurate.

This conversation parallels another one about exporting Closed Captions that I see has been updated in the last day or so...hope one or both gets traction. :) https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/translation-export-5e9b9840-fa87-4dd2-bcb6-d9bde68298d1

Amaia Quesada

Hello! Are there any updates on the automatisation of the TTS export into Word or is the solution still to:

  • either copy all TTS to the Notes section of each slide so that it gets exported with all the rest of the content into a Word file
  • or to copy-paste the TTS manually into a separate document?

Thanks!
Amaia