Skip to Page Content | Navigation for Module


Navigation for Module 5: Flash
Page 8 of 11

  1. *Introduction
  2. *Files You Need
  3. *Interface of Flash MX
  4. *Accessibility Issues
  5. *Text Equivalents
  6. *Speaking Order
  7. *Animation
  8. * Closed Captioning
  9. *Publish to Blackboard
  10. *Publish to WebCT
  11. *Resources

Closed Captioning for Flash

Estimated Time to Complete:

45 minutes

Objectives

Upon completion of this lab, you will:

Prerequisite Knowledge:

To gain the most from this lab, you should have familiarity with:

Version Information:

MAGPie 2.01 and Flash MX Professional 2004 or Flash MX are used in this lab. You will also be using Quick Time Player in conjunction with MAGpie, so when prompted for the MIME settings make sure the Miscellaneous box is checked.

Macromedia Flash creates different file types, but the formats used in this lab are:

Files

Note: Files You Need for Module 5 are available in one compressed file for download in Windows and MacIntosh formats; upon saving, this compressed file automatically extracts into a folder called "mod5lab" on your hard drive.

For this lab, you will need the following:

Note: More information on MAGpie can be found in Module 4: Making Video Accessible - MAGpie. Please refer to the MAGpie website for detailed documentation as well as links to download the relevant files when Installing MAGpie 2.O (browse to website) .

Once you have installed all the necessary files and software, you will be ready to begin the lab.

Introduction

Captioning Flash content is one of the most effective options for helping Flash presentations, especially those created with older versions of Flash, be more accessibile. The National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) developed a free tool called Media Access Generator (MAGpie) Media Access Generator (MAGpie) that provides captioning for audio and video. MAGpie Version 2.01 was written in Java to enable it to work across multiple operating systems including the Mac OSX and performs equally well with Flash content as with full motion video. In this lab, you will caption a Flash presentation using MAGpie 2.01.

Getting Started

To make a new project:

  1. Open MAGpie, two windows will pop-up. One is a DOS prompt and the other MAGpie.
  2. Shrink the DOS prompt window. We will be working only with the MAGpie window.
  3. Under the file menu, select new project. A new window will pop-up (see Image 16).

    Description of Image 16: Open New Project Window from Magpie File Menu

  4. Use the 'Browse' button to locate the directory where you saved the Lab4.swf file.
     
  5. Make sure that Apple Quick Time Player, Style Segments Manually and Caption Styles radial buttons are selected.
     
  6. You can change several settings here, but make sure your Video and Caption dimensions are set the same as the window below, which should be 550 by 400.

    Note: It is recommended to have the caption width be the same as the width of the movie, but this is not a strict requirement.
  7. Change the Caption Styles font family and size as you see fit, but make sure your captioning is readable. This includes using a clean font with sufficient contrast with its background, as well as a large enough font for readability.
  8. Press the OK button.
  9. A new window should pop-up (see Image 17); since you are captioning, choose Captions and press OK.
  10. There should be two windows in front of you, the MAGpie window and a video window. The video window should not be covered by the MAGpie window; so place the windows in a way that permits access to both.
Note: In this lab, you are using the Apple Quick Time Player but you can also use the Oratrix GRiNS Player. If you use the Oratrix GRiNS Player, Windows users might get an error message about the "jawt.dll" file. To fix the problem copy the jawt.dll file from /Program Files/JavaSoft/JRE/1.3.1_03/bin to /system32 (usually found under the /WINNT directory).

Project Track
Image 17: Create New Project Track Window for Captions

Captioning

From here, there are two ways to caption the video; you will start with the simplest way. First, have the transcripts saved in a .txt file. Be careful of the formatting; transcripts need to have a blank line between each caption for them to be inserted correctly in MAGPie. You will be importing the 'Lab4.txt' file.

Lab4.txt
Image 18: View of 'Lab4.txt' File

To insert captions:

  1. Under the 'Captions' menu, select 'Insert Captions' from File.

Import Track
Image 19: Import Track from 'Tracks" menu

After inserting the captions, there is going to be an extra row.

To remove the extra row:

  1. Right click on the row.
  2. Select "Delete selected row(s) from table" (See Image 20).


    Description of Image 20: Deleting the extra row after inserting Captions

Note: It is also possible to delete the one visible row before inserting captions.

Synching the Captions

Now is time to synch up the captioning with the video. Events in your Flash movie start at well-defined points in your time line, and you can use this knowledge to caption your presentation.

To synch captions:

If you know the start time for each caption segment you can

  1. Select the Start Time column.
  2. Type it in.
  3. Press F9.
Note: The given format for time is hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds.

- OR -

  1. Use the slider at the top of the MAGpie window in conjunction with the video window to search for the time you want a caption segment to start.
    Note: sometimes MAGPie has difficulty playing audio from random points in the video, so this is a good approach if there are some kinds of video cues.
  2. Once you have the desired frame, make sure you have the right row highlighted.
  3. Press F9.

However, the following other way you can synch is recommended.

  1. Highlight the first row.
  2. Press the play button.
  3. Watch and listen to the presentation and press F9 when you hear the first word from each caption.
    Note: After pressing F9 the next row will be automatically highlighted. The times are editable simply by selecting them.

Publishing your Work

Once you have completed synching the captions, you need to publish by saving and exporting the project.

To save a project:

  1. Under the 'File' menu, select 'Save As'.
  2. Give the file a descriptive name.
  3. Make sure to save the project in the same location as your swf and txt file.

To export a file:

  1. Under the 'Export' menu, select 'QuickTime-SMIL' format.
  2. Two files will be exported to where you saved your project. Note: You can also export your work using the Real Player format but most choose the Oratrix GriNS Player when starting a new project.

You can now open your final product with Quick Time Player, making sure to choose the SMIL file. In this case, you will open Lab4.qt.smil. Note: Your default player might not be Quick Time player; if you have installed the Real Player you can right-click on the file and select 'Open With', then select 'QuickTime Player Application'.

Segmenting

If you are interested in segmenting your captions to highlight each word as it is spoken, you will want to look at the Lab: Media Access Generator (MAGpie) from Module 4. Segmenting provides a 'karaoke' type feel, but involves a lot of time because of synchronization issues.

The next page will discuss publishing Flash to the course management system, Blackboard.

Top of Page arrow up
       Page 8
Next Page Next
Page 9:
Publish to Blackboard


 
-- END OF PAGE