Text to Speech,Captivate 5,TTS,T2S,Speech Management,Loquendo,Neo Speech

Text to speech was introduced in Captivate 4 and I am sure many will have used it to generate professional narration audio instead of the manual narration to generate  high quality learning content.

Text to speech does the same functionality in Captivate 5 as it used to do in Captivate 4, i.e. it converts the text to speech. The distinctive part being that it has quite a number of enhancements to make it even more easier to use.

Following are the Enhancements in “Text to speech” feature in Captivate 5.

1. Dedicated Speech management dialog for every slide.

2. Multiple speakers can be used to generate speech in a slide.

3. Slide notes, Closed Captions and Text to speech share a common slate. They are tightly coupled leading  to closer integration between these three features.

4. Re-ordering of text in the Speech management dialog.

5. New speakers from Loquendo.

6. Custom speakers can be installed on the system.

7. Project level speech management dialog.

Let me explain each of the above enhancements.

1. Dedicated Speech management dialog for each slide

This is the Slide notes panel. Slide notes panel can be invoke from Window >> Slide notes or by using the shortcut “Control + Alt + N” in Windows or “Command + Option + N” on MAC. The Speech management dialog for a slide can be invoked by clicking on the “Text to speech” button

Clicking on the “Text-To-Speech” button will invoke the speech management dialog for the slide as shown above. Each slide will have a dedicated speech management dialog.

Label Headings

A: Speech Agent Selection Drop down. B: Add TTS Text. C: Delete TTS text. D: Save button.

E: Close button. F: Slide label G: Generate audio button. H: Help link.

2. Multiple speakers can be used to generate speech for a single slide

In Captivate 5 with the help of Speech management dialog multiple speakers can be used to generate speech. Following snapshot shows the use of multiple speakers.

The workflow to use multiple speakers is as follows

1. Invoke the Speech management dialog for the slide from the Slide notes panel

2. Select the speaker in the Speech agent drop down.

3. Click on the “+” button to add TTS (Text to speech) text with the selected speaker.

4. Perform steps 2 and 3 to add text with different speakers.

5. To generate speech for the text. Click “Generate audio” button

6. To save the TTS text changes and to generate speech at a later stage, click on the “Save” Button.

3. Tight Coupling between Slide notes, Closed Captions and Text to speech.

The Speech management dialog , Slide notes panel  and Closed captions dialog share a common slate. i.e. Editing a Slide note which is a TTS and CC will reflect the changes in Speech Management dialog and Closed Captions dialog. Editing a Closed Caption which is also a TTS will reflect the changes in Speech management dialog and Slide notes panel. Similarly editing a TTS text which is a closed caption will reflect the changes in Slide notes panel and Closed captions dialog.

-Adding TTS from Slide Notes Panel

1. Add few slide notes in Slide notes panel and enable the Slide notes for TTS using the Checkbox present under the TTS column.

2. Launch the Speech management dialog for the slide and notice that all the Slide notes with TTS enabled appear in this dialog.

3. Now select a TTS text in the Speech management dialog and select the Speaker. Click on “Generate audio” to generate audio for the TTS text with the set speakers.

-Adding  CC from the Slide notes panel

1. Add few slide notes in the Slide notes panel and enable the slide notes for CC( after importing audio to the slide) using the CC checkbox present in the CC column.

2. Launch the Closed Captions dialog by clicking on the “Closed Captioning” button

3. Notice that the Closed Captions are distributed in the audio.

4. Re-ordering of the TTS text.

In Captivate 5 you have the flexibility to write the text in random sequence and then re-order the text to suite your needs by drag drop of TTS text over other text.

5.  New Speakers from Loquendo.

In Captivate 5, three new speakers from Loquendo are added. Loquendo’s voices are expressive, clear, natural and fluent; and would be a great complement to the current set we have. Captivate 5 will offer 3 new voices from Loquendo: Stefan (German), Juliette (French), and Simon (British English).

6. Custom Speakers can be installed on the system.

Captivate 5 picks up the speakers installed on the system. The speakers can be the default ones installed on the operating systems, or voices from third-party vendors that  you have purchased and installed as system speakers. Captivate detects these speakers and lists them in the Speech Management dialog box. You can then select these voices to convert text to speech.

 Note:  Captivate supports NeoSpeech and Loquendo voices that are installed on the system as system speakers. For Neo speech you need to install the Win Speech API compliant SAPI5version of the speaker. Successful installation of the speaker would list it in the System accessibility speakers list. Captivate picks up these speakers and they can be used to convert text to speech .

7. Project level Speech management dialog

 This is the snap of Speech management dialog – project level. This dialog can be invoked from Audio >> Speech management. This dialog lists all the slides present in the project and the TTS text present in the slides. It is possible to add/edit/delete  the TTS text across slides and generate speech in one shot using this dialog.

In the coming weeks i will post more details on this feature. Stay Tuned !!