Digital Workshop

Hi All
Iam using Opus Pro4 to create a help system for another program.
I want to include a voiceover track that narrates the on-screen activity that the user sees. Like while I am speaking an arrow will appear, then hide, then an image will show for a few seconds and then be replace by something else.

In a typical 30 sec segment I would like the user to be able to be able to jump from the 20 sec point back to the 5 sec point and vice-a-versa.

I would like to ask the best way to approach this?

I looked at using:
1.) Auto Narrate
2.) An animated path
3.) Auto Start Timeline
4.) Slideshow

All 4 of these tools offers alot, but Iam can't seem to get everything (voice + actions) "glued together" to go forward and reverse, w/o a mountain of code and conditions.

Any suggestion would be much appreciated.

Till then Iam burin the.......MidNightOil

BTW Opus is a great progy, only been using it for a week.
I am consistently astounded at its depth and breath, yet simplicity.

Hi,

Thank you for your enquiry.

There are various ways to achieve this, but perhaps the easiest would be to record the voiceover first, then set the resulting audio file to play as soon as the first page displays. To do this, simply open the actions for the page and apply an On Show trigger, followed by a Play Sound action set to the appropriate audio file.

You can preview the publication and use the Time Marker to catalog the exact points in the voiceover at which actions should take place. If you do not see the Time Marker when you preview the publication, simply click Tools > Options > View > General and enable the Use Time Marker in preview option.

Once you have a list of the times at which actions should take place, simply apply a Timeline object to the page and start inserting the required actions at the appropriate points in the timeline.

This procedure should make it relatively simple to synchronise on-screen action with the voiceover.

Kind regards,

To be able to "jump back" you will need to make your Page's components in separate, compartmentalized pieces. The End of each piece triggers the beginning of the next. If you press/click an object which is to take the viewer back, then it will jump back to the previous segment.

Make each segment 20 or 30 seconds long, with the total Page's content is a couple of minutes long. If it's shorter than that, I would make it one segment, and have the Action to view this Page, which would start it again.

Hi Fred
Thank you for taking the time to read my post.
Segmenting the actions would work although I kinda need to break them up into 5sec segments, because I am trying to create a help system for another program.

I wouldn't want a user to sit through more than a 5sec segment of a larger help topic to get to the part that the user wants to her/see again.

I was experimenting last night and I reckon a series of animations, one triggering the the other (as you stated) is the best concept.

I gonna experiment a bit more tonight and see if I can come up with something that can control the animation array programmatically. Like having a ticker or clock recording the lapse time, or getting the elapse time position of the sound track and somehow syncing which animation should be running at the same time within 5sec.

I will have to put so more oil in the lamp tonight...... thanks again- MidNightOil