Articulate doesn't record the sound from Speech-Over

[joelh]

Finished a PPT training presentation, and followed the steps for publishing it with Articulate (recording each slide). All seems to work fine, until we go to publish. Then we get multiple "Presentation file doesn't exist - can't save notes..." messages as Articulate compiles the slides (it is the only thing open). We keep clicking "ok" to continue the compile, but the finished Articulate preso plays with no sound.

Using an IBM ThinkPad X61, with Windows XP.
Has a SoundMAX card, but no Waveout, or Aux settings are available.
Articulate version is Articulate '09

Mark

[joelh]

Mark

You have to verify that you are recording from the speakers. To do this you need to set your sound card to the equivalent of Waveout or Aux - ask your IT guy how to do it. To test it, do Articulate/Record while playing some sounds through the speakers from any source and see if it records.

My sound card has Stereo Mix which does the same thing.

Joel

[joelh]

Mark

There is another possibility for working with Articulate: to use the Articulate Import Files function to import the wav files produced by Speech-Over. These wav files are located in the [Presentation_name]_MediaFiles subfolder and can be distinguished as to slide number and sequence.

Joel

[joelh]

Joel

I found that the Import file function in Articulate Audio Editor seems to work the best, and is really fast and easy. If I have made no changes or re-records in a series of slides in SpeechOver, the batch import works, but if I've gone back to redo a missed slide, or make a correction on a slide, and re-record it, the way that SpeechOver names/numbers and then renames/numbers any corrected files makes it better to just do individual file imports, to prevent getting files out of sequence/order with the slides - even just doing individual file imports, to check and maintain proper sequence is really fast and fool-proof. We have now done four CBT training modules that we use to train our Appliance Field Service partners, using SpeechOver and Articulate, and will be doing more. Really pleased with the performance and quality output of SpeechOver, and how easy it is to use and interface with Articulate.

Mark

[joelh]

Here is the procedure for using Speech-Over with multiple animations on a slide in Articulate:

1. You first add the animations and the Speech-Over clips in PowerPoint. There are two possibilities for adding animations:
a. First add animations to bullets or graphics by yourself with Custom Animation. Each animation must be of the type On Click. Subsequently you add the narration clip to the animated object with Speech-Over.
b. Let Speech-Over add the animation when it adds the narration clip. In this case you need to set the Add Narration Clip/Animation tab/Effect Trigger to Trigger on Page Click, as below

2. Look at Custom Animation. You will see On Click object animations and After Previous or With Previous Speech-Over media and subtitle animations (the latter should not be OnClick).

3. In Articulate, select Audio Editor from the main menu. The vertical dashed lines in a slide represent the On-Click animation timing for the slide. The non On-Click animations are there but not visible.

4. Click on the first On-Click animation vertical line - it turns red. When the cursor hovers over it the bullet text or graphic type is displayed to identify it.

5. Now you Import the first sound file - click on Import and navigate to the Speech-Over media file folder and select the file that goes with the selected animation. Use the Current Position option and the sound file audio graph is placed next to the selected animation line. (Be careful, in my Articulate, the sound file slips back to a previous line and you have to do CTRL Z and do it again - the second time it works.)

6. Repeat this operation for all On-Click animation lines on the slide.

7. There are two things to do now:
a. Using its top button, drag the vertical animation line from just after the sound graph to just before it to have the animation take effect before the speech, if you want
b. Erase blocks of empty space between the sound graphs to diminish the waiting time between animations/narrations - select the empty area and hit Delete. Articulate gives you a lot of extra time gaps between animations for work space that needs to be removed for the final version. To create more of a gap, use the Silence button.

Now hit Save & Close.

8. Do Articulate/Preview to check the timing. The subtitles will display in order. To fine tune, do Audio Editor again.

9. To change the narration clip for an animation, first change it in PowerPoint, open Audio Editor, select and delete the previous file graph and then Import the changed file to the same location, as before.