Feature request?

[Macola]

I'm working on a software training video where I will be using a professional narrator. Due to the logistics involved, I will need to first capture the screenshots and then record the narration later. There doesn't seem to be a way AFAIK to have Captivate run a preview of the slides while the audio narration is being recorded. This would really help the narrator pace his/her speaking. I know that I can adjust the audio timing later, but that's a lot more work and does not produce quite the results I need.

If this isn't possible at present, I'd like to suggest it for the next version.

[CatBandit]

Hi Macola,
What's "AFAIK"? Thanks and forgive my lack of geek-speak.

I've read your post twice and am still not sure I know what you are wanting to do. While you have the audio-dialog open, you can use the double-arrows (left-right) to move through the slides, adding appropriate audio to each as you go.

Before doing this, move the audio-dialog to the top of your Captivate application window (or elsewhere on the screen out of the way), and as you move from one slide to the next, the slides themselves will change in the Edit area below. Can't get much more "preview of the slides" than that. If this isn't what you want, can you restate your desired behavior? Thanks.

Last, you can't "suggest this (whatever it is) for the next version" on these forums. Adobe staff members seldom read these posts, because these forums are "peer-to-peer". BUT you can make any enhancement suggestion you wish by clicking this link to the "Feature Request and Bug Report" form.

Have a nice day!

[CatBandit]

AFAIK = "As far as I know"

Is this correct? WWYCJTW. WNTWP?

[Macola]

Ha! You beat me to it :)

I know I can step through the slides with the arrow keys, but what I'd like is a full preview of the action (like when I hit F3). This would let the narrator see exactly what was happening on-screen while s/he was speaking. Thaks for the tip about the feature request, I'm off to that now.

[CatBandit]

Interesting - I wonder how in the world they will handle that one . . .

Here's the only thought I have: Either publish the movie to SWF and play it while recording the audio in Captivate > OR > open a second instance of Captivate, save the project to a new name (so it can be run concurrently with the original) and play it in "Preview" mode, again, while doing the audio recording in the first instance of Captivate.

Honestly, it sounds to me like you'd be akin to a one-legged spider in a race to the fire; I just can't imagine ever actually trying to do something like this, but --- to each his own.

[Macola]

Larry, I know this is not the ideal way to record audio. I'd prefer to do it simultaneously with screen capture. However, professional narration is expensive (and billed by the minute), so I don't want to spend a lot of the narrtor's time sitting around while I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing on screen.

Mark, your suggestion about using a third-party app is a good one. This would enable me to run the slides in full preview while recording audio as I wanted. Do you have any suggestions? I have used Audacity in the past but not for professional recordings. I think it would be suitable, but let me know if you have other recommendations.

Thanks!

[Newsgroup_User]

Well, having worked with a number of other screen capture tools in the
past I can see where Macola is coming from. At first I thought this is
something that would be beneficial to Captivate. However, having used
Captivate extensively for a couple of years now, I think that this is
just a matter of getting used to Captivate's workflow.

Macola, to be honest, you best bet is to take the narration and add this
manually to each of the slides. Yes, you can adjust the timing via the
Adjust Audio Timing dialog, but I have never had much success with that
particular feature.

I spend on average 20 hours per week creating Captivate movies which
include narration and I always add my narrative manually as this gives
me the best level of control, especially if I need to make further changes.

FWIW. I also never use the built-in audio recording tool. I use a third
party app to do this.

Regards,
Mark




CatBandit wrote:
> Interesting - I wonder how in the world they will handle that one . . .
>
> Here's the only thought I have: Either publish the movie to SWF and play it
> while recording the audio in Captivate > OR > open a second instance of
> Captivate, save the project to a new name (so it can be run concurrently with
> the original) and play it in "Preview" mode, again, while doing the audio
> recording in the first instance of Captivate.
>
> Honestly, it sounds to me like you'd be akin to a one-legged spider in a race
> to the fire; I just can't imagine ever actually trying to do something like
> this, but --- to each his own.
>
>

[CatBandit]

HI Marcola,
For my part, you misunderstood my message. I actually believe that placing the audio at the slide-level IS the ideal way to do it. I am completely opposed to ANY idea that has the developer (or his professional voice) doing anything other than just working on the audio.

I've said many many times that adding audio (narration) during the recording process is the same thing as patting your head while rubbing your stomach. Not many can do it at all, and NONE can do it well.

As for the 3rd party audio software, I differ with Mark. I have found Captivate's built-in audio features, when used wtih a decent quality headset uni-directional boom mic, to be perfect for all my uses. Mark and a few others differ with me on that (and that's fine), but no one has ever convinced me that introducing one more element (software or human) into creating a finished movie has ever justified the cost in either money or additional development time.

Have a great day!

[Macola]

quote:

---

Originally posted by: CatBandit
HI Marcola,
For my part, you misunderstood my message. I actually believe that placing the audio at the slide-level IS the ideal way to do it. I am completely opposed to ANY idea that has the developer (or his professional voice) doing anything other than just working on the audio.

---

Sorry, I misread your post. I would agree that recording audio at the slide level is the most efficient way to do it (and it seems to be the best way for my projects). However, I can also see that for short clips, narrating while recording the screen would work just as well, especially for a one-person production.

I'm glad that Captivate offers the flexibility that it does. It just seems so obvious that the narrator should be able to watch a full preview while narrating!

[CatBandit]

Me too. I'm glad Captivate offers the ability to work in multiple ways. To expand slightly on why I don't care for "narration", you must understand that I believe the first step to creating a now movie is to plan it. That is, to sit (without Captivate even open) and write the "story" I am going to tell with this movie. That includes what events I'm going to cover and what I'm going to click or display in order to show and explain those events.

My paper and pencil "story" also includes the "script" that I want to prepare ahead of time. The script will tell me (during the actual cration of hte movie) exactly what my text-captions will read, and what the voice-over will say - on a slide-by-slide basis.

With all that in mind, when I start recording my movie, I have my eyes on the "target" application and the mouse-pointer (cursor) as I click my way through the steps. There is no way I can shift my eyes from the target application to the script to read the narration while I am doing this. So my problem with narration during recording is that it is not just possible to make a verbal mistake, but is almost impossible to avoid it. And the frustration of editing that "off the top of the head" narrative later, during editing, is when Captivate developers begin driniking heavily, cheating on their wives, and picking fights with Flash developers. Who needs it ...

[Newsgroup_User]

I use a third party audio recording tool primarily because of the sort
of projects I get to work on, which can consist of anything from 5 to 35
files. The main problem I have with Captivate's built-in recording
feature (due to the recording calibration feature which is essentially
the same that is found in Breeze PowerPoint plug-in) is that the color
and tone of your voice varies so much from one day to the next that you
just cannot guarantee a consistent quality of vocal tone.

This is also compounded by the fact that Captivate does not enable you
to save the normalization setting you may need to use to ensure that the
tone of the voice is constant.

HTH

Regards,
Mark



CatBandit wrote:
> As for the 3rd party audio software, I differ with Mark. I have found
> Captivate's built-in audio features, when used wtih a decent quality headset
> uni-directional boom mic, to be perfect for all my uses. Mark and a few others
> differ with me on that (and that's fine), but no one has ever convinced me that
> introducing one more element (software or human) into creating a finished movie
> has ever justified the cost in either money or additional development time.
>
> Have a great day!
>
>

[CatBandit]

Mark!
Do NOT post any more from your mail client (go on-line please). The duplications (five-at-a-time) are causing major scrolling to reach the end of a thread and getting worse each time you post. REALLY!!!

It appears to e a problem with the forums and I'll let Jason know. Your RSS/mail replies are making the threads a shambles. Thanks Mark!!

But so you don't think I was ignoring the *content* of your duplicated posts, I DO see your point, and am certainly not saying my way is better. It may be just that my clients are not as discriminating ... maybe ??? Whatever, different strokes for different folks.