Editing Audio! Seriously losing patience :)

Question

Hi there,
I was after any advice or input anyone could give me
regarding audio editing.
I have tried to do this in two ways, both times, similar
problems seem to occur. I've tried either a single large piece of
audio (recorded in audacity, import to captivate as wav file) or
smaller sections. I spent all day yesterday using the audio >
edit > project function within captivate to match my audio to
the slide lengths, and amend the slide lengths appropriately. I've
come to listen to it today, and the whole audio has gone whoopsie!
it starts off okay, but captivate is repeating and looping certain
sections of audio, sections are in the wrong order. So all the work
I did yesterday is kind of wasted.
I'd really appreciate any advice on the cause of this issue,
or suggestions as to the best method of working. I'm still fairly
new to captivate so am open to any suggestions. I am creating a
training project where I have recorded the screens within my
application and recorded the audio (either in small sections, or in
one block as a whole). I didn't think it would be practical to
record each slides audio individually as some slides could be very
short - just clicking on one button for example.
Many thanks. If you need any more informaiton, please let me
know.
Kind regards,
Rebecca

Answer 1

Here's the technique I've been using in software demo movies
that have a few PowerPoint intro and wrapup slides before and after
the demo:
As others have suggested, I record in Captivate without
narration. I then go through my project, slide by slide, and record
the narration for each one by pressing F5 to open the audio editor,
F5 again to start recording, and F5 again to stop recording. I
usually edit the audio right there to remove long pauses, sounds of
breathing, etc., as well as the audible "click" at the very
beginning of the track.
If I need the narration to span several slides, such as the
Login sequence in which the user enters her User ID, then her
password, and then clicks "Login", I first (temporarily) extend the
duration of the last slide in this sequence. I then select "Audio
> Record from this Slide." In the "To:" field, I enter the
number of the last slide in this sequence, and record my narration.
After I edit the audio and click OK, C3 distributes the audio track
across the specified slides. Finally, I reduce the duration of the
last slide in the sequence to accommodate the portion of the audio
track that C3 placed on this slide. (I find it necessary to
manipulate the duration of the last slide in the sequence, because
if the recording exceeds the total duration of the slides C3 simply
stops recording.)
It's a bit tedious, I admit. But so far it seems to work
every time. I have not yet tried "Audio > Edit Timing >
Project" to adjust how the audio is distributed across the slides
in the sequence.
Also, I usually record narration by reading a printed script
that I wrote in Microsoft Word (double-spaced; heading for each
slide or slide sequence), so I am not looking at the screen while I
record the narration. Sometimes, for a multi-slide sequence I will
copy my script into the "Notes" area of each slide in the sequence,
because in "Record from this Slide" mode C3 always shows a preview
of the slides in the sequence. I find it helpful in this situation
to watch the preview while I speak.
HTH,
Bill