Add and edit audio in projects

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Use audio in your Captivate projects to listen to narration or voice-over, or even introductory music. Add introductory audio at the start of your presentation or record narration in your project.

Also, you can insert text in the form of slide notes and then use NeoSpeech to convert this text to audio.

Assets and samples

The procedures in this document require you to use assets such as images and sample Adobe Captivate project files. You can choose to use your own assets and samples. However, it is recommended that you download and extract the following zip file to your computer:

add-audio.zip

Import slide audio

You can easily add an external audio clip to a slide in a Captivate project. Let's add an audio file to the introductory slide of our project:

  1. In the downloaded files folder, navigate to the samples subfolder and open:

    add-standard-objects.cptx

    Note:

    It is not mandatory that you download the project file that ships with this tutorial. You can still follow along with the steps in this procedure. However, you will need to create a new project in Captivate with a slide into which you will import audio.

  2. In the Filmstrip, navigate to the first slide.

  3. In the toolbar, click Record.

    The Slide Audio dialog box is displayed. Use this dialog box to import audio for slides or objects. You can also use this dialog box to record audio.

  4. Click Import Narration in the lower-left corner of the dialog box.

  5. In the Import Audio dialog box, choose an audio file (.wav or .mp3) from your computer and click Open.

    The Slide Audio dialog box now displays the waveform for the audio file that you imported.

  6. To add this audio to the selected slide, click Save.

    If the length of the audio file is more than the time duration of the slide, you are prompted with the following message:

  7. Click No to truncate the audio to make its length the same as that of the slide.

    Alternatively, click Yes to extend the duration of the slide. Or you can click Cancel to go back to the dialog box without saving. If you click Cancel, you can either choose another audio file or you can edit this audio.

    Before we end this procedure, let's quickly preview the slide to which we added audio.

  8. Click Preview in the toolbar and then choose Play Slide.

Import object audio

You can import audio into an object on a slide in Captivate. The benefit of this functionality is that the audio will play for the exact duration for which the object is displayed to the user.

On the second slide in our project, there is a border with a blue highlight. Let's add audio that plays for the duration that the highlight is displayed on this slide:

  1. In the downloaded files folder, navigate to the samples subfolder and open:

    add-standard-objects.cptx

    Note:

    It is not mandatory that you download the project file that ships with this tutorial. You can still follow along with the steps in this procedure. However, you will need to create a new project in Captivate with a slide that contains an object into which you will import audio.

  2. In the Filmstrip, navigate to the slide titled Samantha.

  3. Select the object on the slide into which you want to import the audio.

  4. In the toolbar, click Record.

    The Object Audio dialog box is displayed.

  5. Click Import in the lower-left corner of the dialog box.

  6. In the Import Audio dialog box, choose an audio file (.wav or .mp3) from your computer and click Open.

    The Object Audio dialog box now displays the waveform for the audio file that you imported.

  7. To add this audio to the selected slide, click Save.

  8. Click Preview in the toolbar and then choose Play Slide.

Record slide audio

You can add narration to your project by recording audio for the slides. The audio is recorded for each slide. This means that you can create a narration for only selected slides or the entire project.

Let's record audio for the following slide in our project:

  1. In the downloaded files folder, navigate to the samples subfolder and open:

    add-standard-objects.cptx

    Note:

    It is not mandatory that you download the project file that ships with this tutorial. You can still follow along with the steps in this procedure. However, you will need to create a new project in Captivate with a slide for which you will record audio.

  2. In the Filmstrip, navigate to the slide titled Summary.

  3. In the toolbar, click Record.

    The Slide Audio dialog box is displayed.

  4. Click Record Audio.

    Use the mic on your computer to record your narration for the slide.

  5. When you are done, click Stop Audio.

  6. To review your recording, click Play Audio.

    When you record narration, you often make mistakes or pause for longer than required. You can either record the audio again or you can edit the audio to remove or add pauses where required.

  7. To add this audio to the current slide, click Save.

  8. Click Preview in the toolbar and then choose Play Slide.

Edit audio

When you insert audio into a slide or object, or if you record audio for a slide, you often need to edit the audio.

Let's remove the extra pauses from the slide audio that we recorded in the Record slide audio section, above.

  1. In the downloaded files folder, navigate to the samples subfolder and open:

    add-standard-objects-recorded-audio.cptx

    Note:

    It is not mandatory that you download the project file that ships with this tutorial. You can still follow along with the steps in this procedure. However, you will need to create a new project in Captivate with a slide that contains an audio recording.

  2. In the Filmstrip, navigate to the slide titled Summary.

  3. In the toolbar, click Record.

    The Slide Audio dialog box is displayed containing the waveform of the audio for this slide.

    Let's make the following edits to this audio:

    • Reduce the silence at the start
    • Increase the volume

  4. Click the waveform at the point from where you want to remove a section of the audio.

  5. Click the red indicator and drag the mouse right to create a selected area.

    Notice the icons in the Edit section that are now enabled. They allow you to cut, copy, delete the current selection.

  6. Click the Delete icon to remove the selected section of the audio.

  7. Click Adjust Volume and use the volume control to increase the volume.

  8. After you're done with the edits to the audio, click Save.

  9. Click Preview in the toolbar and then choose Play Slide.

Convert slide notes to speech

When you're creating your project, you can use slide notes for additional information (or notes) about a slide. You can use this information whenever you (or a colleague) revisit the slide for updates.

However, Captivate allows you to add multiple notes for a slide. You can also use slide notes for slide narration. This means that you can run a text-to-speech converter on selected notes in a slide and convert the text to speech that will be output for your users.

Let's add slide notes to the following slide in our project and convert the notes to speech:

  1. In the downloaded files folder, navigate to the samples subfolder and open:

    add-standard-objects.cptx

    Note:

    It is not mandatory that you download the project file that ships with this tutorial. You can still follow along with the steps in this procedure. However, you will need to create a new project in Captivate with a slide to which you will add slide notes that will be converted to speech.

  2. In the Filmstrip, navigate to the slide titled Summary.

  3. From the Window menu, choose Slide Notes.

    The Slide Notes panel is displayed below the slide.

    Let's add some notes to this slide.

  4. Click the Add Slide Notes icon and in the box enter the text for the note.

    Use the Add Slide Notes icon to add more notes to the slide.

  5. To convert the text on one or more of the slide notes to speech, click the Text-to-Speech icon in the upper-right corner of the Slide Notes panel.

    The Speech Management dialog is displayed.

  6. Go to the Slide Notes tab.

  7. For each slide note that you want to convert to speech:

    1. Click the drop-down to the left of the note and choose a voice.
    2. Select the Mark for TTA check box to the right of the note.

  8. Click Generate Audio.

  9. Click Preview in the toolbar and then choose Play Slide.

For more on adding audio, see How to insert audio into an Adobe Captivate project.

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