Exporting and Importing Captions

From a production point of view, the ability to create captions using word processing software is a huge productivity boost. For example, in certain situations the words on the screen may require approval. A text-based document meets this need. Other examples are the creation of a voiceover narration script using the captions in the presentation and a document that can be submitted for client approval. Further, with a text-based document, you can edit all of the captions in a movie in one place rather than on a slide-by-slide basis.

The format used for this process is the Microsoft Word DOC format. By creating this document, you not only preserve the text in the caption, but also retain (and can change) any formatting applied to the text.

To export captions to Microsoft Word

1.	Open a movie and select File > Import/Export > "Export movie captions" (Figure 5.15) to open the Save As dialog box. Figure 5.15. You can export captions to Microsoft Word.
2.	Enter a name for the caption and click Save. The dialog box closes, and a progress bar appears, displaying the status of the export process. When it finishes, you're asked asked if you want to view the captions in Microsoft Word (Figure 5.16). Figure 5.16. You will be asked if you want to view the Word document.
3.	Click Yes to open the document. Microsoft Word opens, and all of the captions appear in the Word document (Figure 5.17). Figure 5.17. The Word document enables you to edit and format the captions.

Tip

• If you have a consistent style for your captions, develop a Microsoft Word style sheet that contains the styles' formatting. When the exported document opens in Microsoft Word, you can then load the style sheet and apply the styles to the captions.

To import Microsoft Word captions into a movie

1.	Open Captivate and select File > Import/Export > "Import Movie captions."
2.	Navigate to the folder in which the DOC file containing the edited caption is located, and select the file.
3.	Click Open. Two progress bars appear. The first displays the progress of the import of the text file; the second shows the updating of each slide of the movie. When finished, Captivate displays a dialog box telling you how many captions were imported successfully.
4.	Click OK.