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Video
Page 7 of 13

1. Introduction
2. Files You Need
3. Basic Concepts
4. Transcripts
5. Captioning
6. MAGpie
   1. Interface of MAGpie
   2. Captioning in MAGpie
   3. Synch/Publish in MAGpie
   4. Lab: MAGpie
7. Publish to Blackboard
8. Publish to WebCT
9. Resources

Interface of Media Access Generator (MAGpie)

The previous page introduced the features, requirements, and installation of the video editing software with captioning capabilities, MAGpie.

This page will introduce the interface and some techniques for using MAGpie including:

• Opening a New Project.
• Properties of the Project.
• Track of the Project.

Opening a New Project

When MAGpie software is started, a new window opens with most options grayed-out because nothing is loaded. You will need to open a new project, which provides organization for your files and software settings.

To open a new project:

1. Start the MAGpie software by two options:
   • Select the 'MAGpie' icon on your desktop.
   • Or, go to the 'Start' menu and select the 'Media Access Generator (MAGpie)' item.
2. MAGpie opens in a new window with most options grayed-out.
3. Go to the 'File' menu.
4. Select 'New Project'; the 'Open New Project' window appears.

Properties of the Project

Once a new project has been initiated, you need to select the file to be captioned and establish numerous properties for the project in the 'Open New Project' window (see Image 23).

To establish properties for the new project:

1. In the first line (named 'Base Media') of the 'Open New Project' window, you need to enter the location of the audio or video file you wish to caption. You can type in the location or dynamically generate the location by selecting the 'Browse' button in the upper-right corner and going to the location of the desired file.
    
2. If desired, you can enter authoring information such as your name or company information in the second line labeled 'Author info.'
    
3. In the third line you must choose from two options which 'Media Toolkit' you will use with the video: Apple QuickTime Player or Oratrix GRiNS Player; this depends on the kind of media you are using.
   
   Note: Both can handle the .AVI and .MPG file formats. However, QuickTime is good for handling .MOV file formats while GRiNS is good for working with .RM file formats.
   
    
4. The fourth line of the 'Open New Project' window contains several properties for controlling the appearance of the captioning (see Image 24).

   
   Image 24: Properties in the 'Open New Project' window which control captioning appearance

   The properties for controlling caption appearance include:

   • Font type - Choose a sans-serif font such as Verdana or Arial(set by default) which is easier to read online.
   • Font size - It is recommended to start with 12 (set by default) to 14 pt font size and then adjust to your particular situation.
     
     Note: Smaller font sizes are more difficult to read and increase the likelihood of getting lost in the correlation of transcript to the events occurring in the media. Alternately, larger font sizes take up more space which causes the captions to change more quickly.
   • Font style - Three choices: "b"(bold), "i" (italics), "u" underline. Avoid italics as difficult to read; use bold and underline sparingly.
   • Font alignment - Three choices: right (set by default; recommended), center, or left aligned.
   • Foreground color - Preceded by the letter 'F' and by default set to white, this is the color of the lettering.
   • Background color (behind letters) - Preceded by the letter 'B' and by default set to black, this is the color that appears behind the lettering.
   Note: Being able to change the colors of and surrounding the captioning provides a way to match the color theme of the website where the video or audio is embedded. However, it is important to have a high-contrast color scheme that ensures accessibility of the material to all users. Examples of color schemes that are difficult to read are demonstrated in Images 25 and 26.

   
   Image 25: "Here's something hard to read" because the color scheme is blue foreground with red background.

   
   Image 26: "This text is too low of contrast" because the color scheme is gray foreground with black background.

5. In the fifth and sixth lines of the 'Open New Project' window, you can choose either 'Caption Styles' or 'Speaker Styles'. Caption styles refer to the spoken text, while speaker styles refer to the person who spoke it. Choose one style and the 'Sample Text' next to that style will display according to the properties such as font size, font type, etc. that were selected in step 4.
   
   Note: The style must be selected to enable changing the properties of its appearance.
   
    
6. The seventh line of the 'Open New Project' window allows you to choose the overall 'Background' which appears behind everything else and is by default set to black.
   
   Note: Being able to change the background color provides a way to match the color theme of the website where the video or audio is embedded. However, it is important to have a high-contrast color scheme that ensures accessibility of the material to all users.
   
    
7. You can change the way captions are segmented in the eighth line of the 'Open New Project' window, which is labeled 'Segment Annotation Style'. Segmenting allows individual words or lines in a caption to be highlighted as they are spoken either by being underlined, changing the text color (foreground), changing the background behind the text, or by manually applying your own styles (see Image 27).

   
   Image 27: Segmenting Options

   Note: Segmenting is non-automated and very time consuming; it is discussed in more detail later in this module in "Segmenting the Captions". For now, set the segmenting option to 'Underline segments.'

8. The ninth and last line of the 'Open New Project' window offers the ability to alter the layout of the screen in which the video will be played by changing the width and height of the video and the captioning.
   
   Note: Changing the 'video width' and 'video height' does not stretch or shrink the video, it only affects the space provided for the video.
   
   
   Other considerations for altering the screen layout are:
   • If you make the font size of captions (set in step 4) larger than the standard 12 pt, you should adjust the caption height to more than 80 pixels and the caption width to greater than 320 pixels.
      
   • If the width of the captioning is larger than the width of the video, the video is centered and empty space surrounds it (see Image 28).
     
     

     Image 28: Video is centered when captioning width is larger than video width
     
     

9. Select the 'OK' button to establish the properties you selected for the project in steps 1-8.
   
   Note: You can always go back and change the settings of the project properties.

   To change the settings of the project properties:

   1. Go to the 'File' menu.
   2. Select 'Properties'; the 'MAGpie Project Properties' window appears.
   3. As desired, change the settings of any project properties.
   4. Select the 'OK' button to set any changes made in the project properties and close the 'MAGpie Project Properties' window.
       

Track of the Project

Once you have selected the properties of the project, a "Create New Project Track" dialog box appears asking what kind of track you would like to create for the project.

To select the project track:

1. Choose the appropriate track, which you can rename if you desire.
   • If working with video closed-captioning, you should select the "Captions" option.
   • If only adding sound or voice descriptions to your media, you should select "Audio Descriptions."
      
   Note: If you want multiple tracks (both captioning and audio description), select the "Captions" option. You can add an audio description later to an existing project by creating a new track; this is discussed in more detail later in this module in "Adding an Audio Description."
   
    
2. Choose the appropriate language; the default option is English.
    
3. Select the 'OK' button to set the project track.

The next page discusses captioning a video using Media Access Generator (MAGpie).

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