Paul and Kate (English version) are included in the package, the question is: "how does one import and utilize multi-lingual Paul and Kate into Captivate 4 so that the same training package can be directed to a multi-lingual audience?"

Hi Frank,
We do not have an option to import and utilize additional voices (including multi-lingual choices).
Regards,
Shameer
Adobe Captivate and eLearning Suite

I have downloaded the free version of Captivate 4 and would like to test the text-to-speech feature. I have tried to down load several times, but have been unsuccessful. Can you instruct me on accessing this download on the adobe site? I need to make sure this works before I purchase this software package. Thanks.

Carol, you can download the voices from this link (you will need to log in):
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=captivate

On this page there is hyper linked text that reads: 'Run this executable to install NeoSpeech...'
Regards,
Shameer
Adobe Captivate and eLearning Suite

Are their plans to allow for additional voices in the future?

The intonation in the speech for both Kate and Paul is a little disappointing. Is there a way technique to use to make it sound a little more natural?

Thank you for posting the direct link. While not as smooth as a professional voice actor, the benefits of this flexible tool is amazing. I hope you will consider a way to edit or apply different inflections directly in the sound editor. If not maybe a guide to assist in manipulating the scripted words to make them sound more natural.

Tip: After I downloaded the Text to Speech from the link I just kept seeing the Download button which kept taking me back to the Adobe site. Once I closed the project I was working on - and reopened - the button "Convert to Speech" then appeared and worked perfectly. So after you download from the link - close your project and reopen.

I have a lot of text labels only visible for a few seconds in my slides. I would like to add audio such that all text labels are read by the text-to-speech functionality. You have a nice feature to easily record audio that corresponds to a label. Why is there no possibility to convert a label automatically to speech? Will that feature follow in short term future?

Greetings,
I am very pleased to hear that Captivate 4 has text to speech now. I tried to use the Kate and Paul voices in my last Captivate 3 project but found out that Kate's and Pauls creator, NeoSpeech require you to purchase a distribution license from them before you can distribute ANY product(s) (software, training material, presentations, etc)that includes thier voices. Last month they quoted me a price of $1,500 per year for a license to distribute Kate or Paul with a training package I wanted to create. That was thier NON commercial license price I was given. Since I was trying to launch a new business I didn't reply to thier salemans to ask what a commercial license would cost. Does anyone know if this requirement has been waved if you upgrade or purchase Captivate 4. This would make CBT creation so much easier.
Thanks

Hi Hauke,
Although currently you cannot convert the text label directly to audio, yet you can achieve the desired effect. You can write down the text in slide note panel and convert to audio using 'text to speech'. Then use these audio files from library and insert it in respective text captions (as caption audio). Now whenever the movie plays and text caption appears, even the audio will play.

Regards,
Mukul

Hi Charles,
Of-course, you can distribute any training content that is created using the text-to-speech feature in Cp4. This is part of the license.
Regards,
Shameer Ayyappan
Adobe Captivate and eLearning Suite

I have downloaded the trial version of the upgrade software and the text to speech voices; however, when I try to convert the text to speech, I keep getting the same "You must download the voices" message. Any ideas why the voices are not available?

Hi Denise,
Please make sure that you have installed text to speech voices. this can be done by performing following steps:
1. Close Adobe Captivate instances
2. Go to the Captivate installation directory. It can be found at /Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Captivate 4/
3. Please look for a folder called 'VT'
4. Approximate size of the folder should be 464mb
5. If you find this folder present, please launch Captivate 4 and try using the text to speech feature
This time when you mark a text for 'text to speech', you should get a button with label 'convert to speech' in slide notes section.
Hope it works

Regards,
Mukul

Awesome! I saw the Text to Speech button and was sure it was gonna be an added cost. VERY happy to find out otherwise.

Now, here's my question -- I see how I can use this for slide audio; but, what about using it in the various elements: roll-over captions, etc.? Can that be done?

Joe

Regarding my last post:

As I was saying, I didn't see a "convert to speech" button in the captions; but, I discovered a workaround...

I entered my text as a slide note; converted it to speech (which stored a cut in the library); deleted the audio track from my slide; opened caption properties > audio tab and imported the cut from the library.

So, that worked fine; but, is a bit cumbersome. Is there another way to do it (or, will there be?).

Having the text-to-speech for the slide main audio is great -- but, for the more interactive bits, having a straight-forward way to convert text to speech for captions and such would be even better!!!

Joe

I have downloaded Captivate 4 and the file for the Text to Speech voices. However, I still get the same "Donload Adobe Captivate Voices" message, and the software keeps sending me back to download the voices application. Please help!

Hi Joe,
You are correct. It is the only way we can use the text to speech audio inside Captivate objects.

Regards,
Mukul

Hi Kevin,

Please make sure that you have installed text to speech voices. This can be done by performing following steps:
1. Close Adobe Captivate instances
2. Go to the Captivate installation directory. It can be found at /Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Captivate 4/
3. Please look for a folder called 'VT'
4. Approximate size of the folder should be 464mb
5. If you find this folder present, please launch Captivate 4 and try using the text to speech feature
This time when you mark a text for 'text to speech', you should get a button with label 'convert to speech' in slide notes section.
Hope it works

If you dont see the folder 'VT' in Captivate installation folder, it means, text to speech utility is not installed. Then please run the text to speech executable which you have downloaded from web site.

Regards,
Mukul

My team of Instructional Designers is just getting started with Captivate. I initally purchased two licenses for Captivate 3 and have several training programs developed in Captivate 3. I'm planning to purchase more licenses for Captivate 4 and possibly upgrade the existing Captivate 3 licenses. If I upgrade all of my current licenses, will I encounter a problem if we attempt to update an existing program developed in Captivate 3 using Captivate 4?

When I go to convert text to speech, the dialog that pops up to where you can choose Kate or Paul doesn't pop up anymore, I must have clicked 'don't sho me again'. Can I get this to pop up again....or set the converter to default to Paul rather than Kate??

Hi,

Above I read a question about whether there will be additional voices available, however I didn't see a response. I was wondering whether you would be able to offer an answer to this.

I work in Australia for the Australian government, and although the voices provided are great, unfortunatley it doesn't work having an American accent on our e-Learning packages.

I have found companies that have got Australian accents available (Nuance RealSpeak, TextAloud), however I was wondering if there is a way to import these accents into Captivate 4.

Kind regards,

Duncan

I purchased the e-learning suite with Captivate and I have followed the directions regarding downloading the voices (twice). Still no voices, and no "VT" file in the Captivate directory... sigh. However, oddly enough, it will allow me to chose either "Paul" or "Kate" in the voice options, but when I try to activate the the text to voice within the slide it still tells me I need to download the file. I tried to download a third time, from the link provided here, and now it won't even go through the motions of downloading... sigh, please help.

I have a similar problem to some already posted, however I cannot locate a 'VT' Folder. When I attempt to download again as instructed, I get a message saying 'a problem occurred while extracting the archive - please try downloading Adobe Captivate 4 Content again'. However when I go to the download link as described above it automatically tries to extract the files and tells me there is a problem extracting the archive. (I am on a trial of captivate and need to analyse the text to speech functionality)

Please help me get out of the circle.

Kind regards

Andrew

Andrew

When I use the voices in Captivate 4, they sound scratchy or tinny. Kind of like a lisp or something that is hard on the ears. When I type the same text on the NeoSpeech website, it sounds much smoother. Any thoughts on why this happes or what I can do about it? I installed captivate 4 as part of the eLearning Suite.

Hi Rich Ison,
'dont show me again' confirmation options can be set in the Preference menu.
Open a blank project > menu item 'Edit' > Preference > category 'Global > General Settings'

Click on 'confirmation messages' button and look for 'speech selection'. Please check the box and you should see the 'speech selection' dialog coming up everytime.

Regards,
Mukul

Hi Adobe,
We have developed a few demos using the text to speach feature. They were well received by our enployees but the main complaint was the voice, in particular the accent and the pitch. Are there any plans to increase the number of voices (currently 2) or voice options, eg speed, pitch, accent etc. in Adobe captivate 4 ?

Adobe-

Neospeech has just released a new voice, Julie, that is much more natural sounding. Will the Captivate 4 community be able to take advantage of the new Julie voice from neospeech? If so, where can we get it?

Hi- We've started using Captivate 4 with the NeoSpeech TTS voices. There is a lot of great potential here. I would like to tweak the pronounciation of some words as well as add our software product names to the custom dictionary. I have tried the UserDicEng.exe and vt_eng.exe apps. Those are exactly what I'm looking for...however, I receive a notice saying I need to obtain a valid license. Are we not able to use those 2 apps under Captivate 4? Is there a way to obtain a license? Thank you.

I installed Captivate as part of the eLearning Suite installation, but the VT folder was not listed in the Captivate program files. However, I found the NeoSpeech utility on installation Disc 2. Launch the NeoSpeech.exe from Disc 2. Once installed, the VT folder appears in the Captivate program files.

For those who purchased and installed Captivate as part of the Adobe eLearning Suite, you can find the Captivate4_NeoSpeech.exe on installation disc 2 under English/Goodies/Adobe Captivate 4/NeoSpeech Text to Speech Voices/Captivate4_NeoSpeech.exe.

How can I change the type of file that "Text to Speech" converts text to speech into -- from .wav to .mp3?
(the default is set at .wav, but the files are way too large, so I'd like to convert them to mp3's instead)

How can I change the type of file that "Text to Speech" converts text to speech into -- from .wav to .mp3?
(the default is set at .wav, but the files are way too large, so I'd like to convert them to mp3's instead)

If you would rather convert into MP3 than WAV, you can convert text, documents or anything else into MP3 directly on iSpeech.org. They also have an API to automate things.

Hi can someone from Adobe answer some of the valid and important questions about audio and voices please?
The TTS is a bit crappy as the issues with TTS (intonation, accents, file size) have exiosted for several years, so this is not an imporvement on current practice.
Ideally we should be able to link to audio files as can be achieved in 'even' powerpoint.

Hi

I would like to know if we can market our demos built in Trial Version of Adobe Captivate?

Sadaf

Hi,

I have used the test to speech but I can't seem to find a way to reorder the text. For example, if I have audio for a slide and then convert it, but then realize I want an intro sentence, it seems like I can only add that to the end and then have to cut and paste the actual audio. Is there an easier way to do this?

Thanks!
Kara

Love the text to speech. I turned off the change voice prompt box - now I can't find it to change back to Paul.... and I miss him. I even reinstalled the voicees, but all I have is the default Kate voice. What do I need to do?

Is there a way to move the closed captioning? I'd like it to appear in a frame on the right side of my page so it can be larger and more pronounced. I also want it to scroll and generate with customizable line breaks (as Captivate does).

Where to you change the default setting so that text to speech records as mp3 file instead of wave files? I can't seem to find it within Captivate 4.

Thanks!

Colin

I too am trying to get the Text to Speech to work with my ELearning Suite, but when I use the links provided to download the NeoSpeech TTS voices is downloads the full version of Capitvate. I have not been able to find any options to set up the Text to Speech Features.

Hi David

Check my link here:
http://www.robowizard.com/RoboWizard/Tutorials/Captivate/TTS.htm

Hi. Text to Speech is great. However, i cannot figure out a way to lower the speed of talking. Can anyone help with this?

I took the robowizard tutorial which was helpful, however, when I click download trial I get a web page error. Can you assist me in completing the NeoSpeech download?

Adobe -

I have started using the text to speech capability. I used it on a small file. ZI was very disappointed with the sound quality. The voices (Kate or Paul) are very tinny (as others have described here) and scratchy.

I've looked high and low for a fix but have not been able to locate one. So, is there a fix for this problem? Also, can you import other voices?

Thanks for your help!

On June 11, 2009, Kara Todeschini wrote:

"Love the text to speech. I turned off the change voice prompt box - now I can't find it to change back to Paul.... and I miss him. I even reinstalled the voicees, but all I have is the default Kate voice. What do I need to do?"

Hard won answer:

1.From your open project, on the Edit Menu, choose Preferences.

2.Under Global > General Settings, click the Confirmation messages… button.

3.In the Confirmation Messages box, make sure the Speech Selection box is checked, and click OK.

You will then be able to select between Kate an Paul instead of getting stuck with using Kate all the time.

Joy!

Mike Davis

Hi Adobe,

I'm currently using Tech Com Suite 2 with Captivate 4.

I tried to use text to speech but didn't work. After selecting "Kate", the popup "Unable to decode and import the selected wav/mps file" appears. Then i went to Command prompt to run the DLLRegisterServer and it prompted as error message: DLLRegisterServer in NSAudio.dll failed. Return code was: 0x80070005.

Please help. Thanks!
Kai

There is a global change process available under Audio|Speech Management.

Once you are in this dialog box you can make global changes to the voices through out your project using the dropdown box on the far right of the dialog box.

If you click the elipsis to the right of your text you can make changes to the desired text.

To apply your changes click the apply changes button.

Anyone have word about downloading the new voice Julie for use in Capivate 4?

Jim

I have installed Captivate 4 on my PC, and have created several movies. Unfortunatley text-to-speech was not loaded during the original install. I am told that I need to re-install the software to obtain the feature. My fear is that even if I do backups, I may lose my movies when I do the new install. Do you have any suggestions?

The Closed Caption text does not appear. I have converted the text to speech which works fine, but the closed caption text never appears on screen. Is there somethign else that needs enabling? All the rows are ticked for Closed Caption text.

Hi Dominique,

You need to enable closed captioning for your project. You can do this by going to menu item Project > Skin Editor and check the checkbox "Closed Captioning"

Hope it helps.

Regards,
Mukul

Hi friends,
I am new to this adobe Captivate tool.I want to know
how to reduce the speech speed in the adobe Captivate.

Hi Mariarj,
Please check this link. It might be helpful to you
http://blogs.adobe.com/captivate/2009/04/vtml_tags_in_text_to_speech_1.html

Regards,
Mukul

I have the software installed for text to speach. However, when i convert text to speach i do not receive the pop up where i can choose a speach agent.
The only way i can access is to go through the speach management tool.
Is there a way to default which speach agent you wish to use for an entire project?