Streaming Media @ UW | Accessibility | Captioning Tutorial | Creating the Transcript

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Creating the Transcript - a Simple .txt File

This Text file will later be opened in MAGpie, so it is important that the text is formatted properly.

*All of this assumes you will use the default settings in MAGpie, where the caption height is 80 pixels. This value is found in the New Project Window of MAGpie and can be changed to allow more or less room for captions. You will need to change this value (and others) if you are working with a full-screen video, or any video that is not 320 X 240.

1. Open Notepad or SimpleText.
2. Traditionally, captions consist of one or two lines. For a 320 X 240 video, 40 character spaces fit in each line. When transcribing the dialogue in your text editor, a single return indicates the end of a line, and a double return indicates the end of a caption. This line is aproximately the right length Keep in mind, two lines fit in the caption area
3. Limit the number of words per line and space carefully in NotePad or SimpleText. Long lines without breaks will not properly import into MAGpie. The picture shows how not to transcribe
4. Save the document as a .txt file

Next import this transcript into MAGpie.

Magpie Tutorial

Home

1. System Prep

2 .Download & Install

3. Creating Transcript

4. Importing to MAGpie

5. Timecode & Exporting

6. Captioning with QuickTime

7. Captioning with RealMedia

8. Captioning with Windows Media

This material has been developed by the Department of Academic Technology Solutions, Division of Information Technology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This site is made possible in part by the UW-System and the UW Madison Division of Information Technology.

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