November 2010 – Page 3 – The Logical Blog

November 4, 2010

PowerPoint 2007 & 2010: How to Extract Audio & Images from a Presentation

by AJ George

As an eLearning developer, sometimes you're given a completed PowerPoint project and told to "fix it" or you need to use it in another program (such as Captivate). Often the presentation is given to you as a .ppt or .pptx file and does not have separate audio or image files.

While there is no way from within PowerPoint to directly extract audio and image files from a presentation, there is a workaround.

Note: In this scenario, your working file must have a PowerPoint 2007 or 2010 file extension (.pptx, .ppsx, .pptm, .ppsm or .potm)

With the PowerPoint presentation closed, right-click the file and choose Rename.
Change the name of the presentation by adding a .zip to the end of it. (e.g. filename.pptx.zip).
Click Yes if the following dialog box appears after changing the name.

The renamed file will take on the appearance of a zip folder.
Double-click the zip folder to open it.
Open the ppt folder.
Locate the media folder and drag it (or copy and paste it) elsewhere (your desktop or another folder).
All of the sound and image files used in the presentation will be inside this folder.
Right-click the pptx zip file and choose Rename.
Delete the .zip file extension.
Doing so will allow you to open the file in PowerPoint again.

For an alternate way to do this:

PowerPoint 2007 & 2010: How to Extract Audio & Images from a Presentation, Part II

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About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

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November 2, 2010

Adobe Captivate 5: Control the Volume of Background Audio

by Kevin Siegel

Captivate developers have been able to add background audio to their projects since Captivate was known as RoboDemo. The process of adding background audio hasn't changed much over the years. In Adobe Captivate 5, you simply choose Audio > Import to > Background and open the audio file (wav or mp3).

One of the options missing from RoboDemo and older versions of Captivate was the ability to control the volume of the background audio on slides that already had audio (voiceover audio for instance). When importing audio, you always had the ability to lower the background audio, but you couldn't control how much the audio was actually lowered. Adobe Captivate 5 addressed this shortcoming. When importing background audio, you are able to raise or lower the background audio by dragging the slider left or right. (You will find the slider just to the right of Adjust background audio volume on slides with audio.)

If you didn't see the volume slider and have already imported the background audio, it's not too late to adjust the volume. Choose Audio > Edit > Background. You will find the volume slider on the Add/Replace tab.

If you've added background audio and want it to stop playing on some of your slides, select the slide and, from the Audio group on the Properties panel, select Stop Background Audio.

Stop background audio

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Looking to learn Adobe Captivate 5? We are now offering Beginner and Advanced classes, as well as a half-day course on Advanced Actions. Both Windows and Macintosh developers can attend the classes.

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November 2, 2010

Audio for eLearning: The First Steps

by Rick Zanotti

One of the key elements in multimedia and eLearning development is sound. Without it, the content is bland, boring and often forgotten.

If you're not using audio in your eLearning you are losing more than half your audience, and that is never a good thing. If you think audio is too expensive to use, think again!

The first step to consider is whether you do your own audio or hire a voice talent to do it for you. This will depend on your budget as well as your skill set. Another thing to consider is whether your content will change often or be pretty stable.

If your content changes often, make sure you budget enough money to re-record audio as needed. In this scenario, it may be cheaper to do the audio in-house.

If your content remains stable and requires few changes over time, going to external voice talent can be more cost-effective. Talent rates are flexible and can range from $75-$250/hour depending on the talent. On the other hand, rates can jump as high as $600 per hour even though the end result isn't any better than what you would get by going with the less expensive talent.

Voice-over talent can be found at www.voice123.com and www.voices.com. You can also find talent at local radio stations, college theatre groups and maybe right inside your own company.

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About the author: With over 35 years of experience in IT and Learning, Rick Zanotti is an instructional designer, multimedia author, voice-over talent, video producer and Management consultant. He has managed multi-million dollar projects and believes in a simple and practical approach to providing solutions. Rick founded RELATE Corporation 26 years ago, a successful eLearning and media development company. Rick teaches our Audio Basics for eLearning online class.