When inserting a text caption in Adobe Captivate 3, you can add bullets to selected text simply enough by clicking the Bullets tool.
Of course, if you use the Bullets tool, you’ll quickly realize that the tool is a bit limited. If you only want standard (round) bullets, this is the tool for you. But let’s pretend for a moment that you’re feeling a bit frisky. So frisky in fact, that you’d like to use a wacky bullet symbol like a happy face, a sad face, thumbs up… thumbs down. Whatever. Hmmmm… given that the Bullets tool only returns standard bullets, what’s a Captivate developer to do? Read on.
While Captivate’s bulleting ability is limited, you can export your project’s text captions to Microsoft Word, apply a custom character bullet in Word and then perform a round- trip back into Captivate. Once the round-trip is complete, you’ll find that the custom character formatting used on the bullets is retained. Nice!
To Export Your Captivate Captions to Word:
- Open a Captivate project
- Choose File > Export > Project Captions and Closed Captions
- Name the resulting document and specify a save destination; then click Save
You will be notified when the captions have been exported.
- Click Yes to view the Word document
The captions will open in a Word table. There will be five columns: Slide ID, Item ID, Original Text Caption Data, Updated Text Caption Data and Slide. You can make any changes you want to the Updated Text Caption Data, but you should not change any of the other information. The Slide ID identifies which slide your edited captions go to. The Item ID identifies which caption goes with which caption data.
To Apply a Custom Bullet Character in Word
- Select text in the Updated Text Caption Data column
- Choose Format > Bullets and Numbering
- On the Bulleted tab, click the Customize button
- On the Customize Bulleted List dialog box, click the Character button
- Select any Font you like from the Font drop-down menu and then select any symbol you like (in the example below, the happy face Wingding symbol was selected)
- Click OK
- Click OK
- Save the Word document and then close it
To Import The Captions from Word Back into Captivate:
- Back in Captivate, choose File > Import > Project Captions and Closed captions
- Find and open the document you edited in Word
A dialog box will appear confirming the number of captions that were imported. And that’s that.
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Hello,
I´m want to create a swf video file using captivate. However, I also want to create both the audio and the subtitles (to make an accessible video) in external programs. For the audio I know I´m able to import it in captivate. However, what about the subtitle file? I´m using subtitle workshop.
Thank you
Hello,
I´m want to create a swf video file using captivate. However, I also want to create both the audio and the subtitles (to make an accessible video) in external programs. For the audio I know I´m able to import it in captivate. However, what about the subtitle file? I´m using subtitle workshop.
Thank you
Hello,
I´m want to create a swf video file using captivate. However, I also want to create both the audio and the subtitles (to make an accessible video) in external programs. For the audio I know I´m able to import it in captivate. However, what about the subtitle file? I´m using subtitle workshop.
Thank you
After you’d added audio to the slide, choose Audio > Advanced Audio. You’ll see a button at the bottom of the window that you can use to add closed captions (the subtitles).
After you’d added audio to the slide, choose Audio > Advanced Audio. You’ll see a button at the bottom of the window that you can use to add closed captions (the subtitles).
After you’d added audio to the slide, choose Audio > Advanced Audio. You’ll see a button at the bottom of the window that you can use to add closed captions (the subtitles).
Hi,
I am using Captivate 6. I followed your instructions here, and a message came up that 2 captions were imported, but the bullets did not change. (I want to change the colour, so it is different from the text). Is there something else I need to do?
Thanks
Hi,
I am using Captivate 6. I followed your instructions here, and a message came up that 2 captions were imported, but the bullets did not change. (I want to change the colour, so it is different from the text). Is there something else I need to do?
Thanks
Hi,
I am using Captivate 6. I followed your instructions here, and a message came up that 2 captions were imported, but the bullets did not change. (I want to change the colour, so it is different from the text). Is there something else I need to do?
Thanks
I’ll have to check this Danielle… I wrote this article years ago and things have likely changed in Captivate 6.
I’ll have to check this Danielle… I wrote this article years ago and things have likely changed in Captivate 6.
I’ll have to check this Danielle… I wrote this article years ago and things have likely changed in Captivate 6.
I just tested this in Captivate 6. The bullets do come in, however, colors are ignored. I don’t see a workaround for this, which is a bummer.
I just tested this in Captivate 6. The bullets do come in, however, colors are ignored. I don’t see a workaround for this, which is a bummer.
I just tested this in Captivate 6. The bullets do come in, however, colors are ignored. I don’t see a workaround for this, which is a bummer.
I’m attempting to do this in Captivate 5.5 and I’ve followed the directions explicitly but the changes never show up! I can’t figure out what the problem might be. Do I need to close the Captivate file and re-open it before importing? Is there some setting on the text caption in Captivate I need to alter? Should I export it without bullets and just add them in Word (though I tried that to no avail as well)? I’m at a loss and quite bummed because I loved the potential of this elegant solution!
I’m attempting to do this in Captivate 5.5 and I’ve followed the directions explicitly but the changes never show up! I can’t figure out what the problem might be. Do I need to close the Captivate file and re-open it before importing? Is there some setting on the text caption in Captivate I need to alter? Should I export it without bullets and just add them in Word (though I tried that to no avail as well)? I’m at a loss and quite bummed because I loved the potential of this elegant solution!
I’m attempting to do this in Captivate 5.5 and I’ve followed the directions explicitly but the changes never show up! I can’t figure out what the problem might be. Do I need to close the Captivate file and re-open it before importing? Is there some setting on the text caption in Captivate I need to alter? Should I export it without bullets and just add them in Word (though I tried that to no avail as well)? I’m at a loss and quite bummed because I loved the potential of this elegant solution!
LoriG, I’ve only had trouble with this when using the Cloud version of Office. I have seen instances where the import process didn’t work the first time. However, upon exiting and restarting Cp, the import process worked as expected.
LoriG, I’ve only had trouble with this when using the Cloud version of Office. I have seen instances where the import process didn’t work the first time. However, upon exiting and restarting Cp, the import process worked as expected.
LoriG, I’ve only had trouble with this when using the Cloud version of Office. I have seen instances where the import process didn’t work the first time. However, upon exiting and restarting Cp, the import process worked as expected.