Exploring and Modifying Your Audio Track

Once you have finished capturing your screens, the audio files are converted into MP3 format and added to each of your project slides (see Figure 5).

Figure 5. The audio is added to your slides

In order to listen to the audio track you have created, simply press the Spacebar; the playhead will now move from one end of the Timeline to the other. Pressing the Spacebar again stops the playhead at the current position.

Another way of moving through the audio track is to drag the playhead. This technique, known as scrubbing, enables you to move through the track and play the audio at the rate you scrub.

Note: The term scrubbing originally comes from the days of reel-to-reel players when rocking a reel would give the impression of scrubbing the tape across the playhead.

Changing the Audio Quality

After you add the audio to your Macromedia Captivate project, you can specify the audio quality. The options are as follows:

• Medium quality (AM radio)
• High quality (FM radio)
• Highest quality (music CD)

Perform the following steps to change the quality of your audio:

1. Choose Movie > Preferences.
2. Select the Preferences tab.
3. Click the Audio Quality pop-up menu and choose the quality you want to use.
4. Click OK to close the Movie Preferences dialog box.

Note: Although the Highest Quality option provides the best quality of sound, it also results in a larger file size, which may not always be appropriate if you export your Macromedia Captivate project to a SWF file that is going to be viewed over the web.

Editing Your Audio Timing

Recording narration as you capture your screens can result in the audio becoming unevenly distributed across many slides. This occurs because whenever Macromedia Captivate takes a screen shot, it splices the audio, which can result in breaking the narration between a phrase or word. However, using the Edit Timing command you can adjust where the audio is cut.

It is important to realize that splicing the audio is in no way a limitation of the ability of Macromedia Captivate to record narration. The audio is still stored in one file and you will not experience any breaks in the audio track when you publish your SWF files.

Adjusting the Timing of a Recorded Audio Track

In order to adjust the timing of a recorded audio track, follow these steps:

1. Choose Audio > Edit timing. The Edit Timing dialog box displays the audio as waveforms. Slide numbers are shown along the top of the waveform so that you can see exactly how the audio files are currently distributed across the slides. This dialog box also gives you the ability to edit all the audio files associated with your slides.
2. To alter the timing position, place the insertion point where you want to change the audio timing and click the Start Next Slide button (or press Ctrl+S). This changes the duration of the audio of both the current and next slide.

Note: You can also adjust the slide timing by clicking and dragging one of the slider dividers located at the top of a red slide marker line. If you find that you cannot drag the slide divider, then close the Edit Timings dialog box and check to see if there is an object on the slide; if this is the case, then change the object time first. You have two options:

• Drag the end of the object on the Timeline to make the object shorter.
• Select the object, choose Edit > Properties, and select the Options tab in the Properties dialog box. Under Timing, change the value in the Display for Seconds text box.

Editing an Audio Track

Occasionally you may find that you need to make some further adjustments to your audio tracks. For example, having listened to the narration on a certain slide you may find that you need to change the wording of a certain phrase, remove the sound of a dog barking in the background, remove a pregnant pause, remove the sound of pages turning, or even replace some original narration with a new audio file. You may also want to add a block of silence for timing's sake, or change the audio volume in a certain section of your audio track.

Macromedia Captivate enables you to modify the data of any audio file using the built-in audio editor.

Click the following link to view a Macromedia Captivate demonstration of how to delete data from an audio track:

Play the demo: Using the Macromedia Captivate Audio Editor

The following example demonstrates how to remove the sound of a hypothetical cat meowing in the background:

1. Choose Audio > Edit Audio. You can also open the Edit Audio dialog box by right-clicking the audio slide of the Timeline and selecting Edit Audio from the context menu, or by clicking the speaker icon located on each slide that contains audio of the Filmstrip.

2. Play the audio track by clicking the Play button or by pressing the Spacebar.

   Note: You can also move the playhead to the desired location by clicking at the beginning of wherever the audio you want to change starts.

3. Locate the start and end of the cat's meow and make a note of them.
4. Position the playhead at the beginning of the cat's meow (start time) and drag until the playhead is at the end of the meow (end time).
5. Click the Play button or press the Spacebar to play the audio to make sure you haven't missed any data or accidentally selected too much data.
6. Click the Delete Selection button to remove the cat's sound from the audio track.
7. Play the selection again.
8. Click OK to close the Audio dialog box.

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