How to Insert Closed Captions to Audio and Video Files in PowerPoint 2010

PowerPoint is a powerful medium for presentation of information. Nowadays, both audio and video files are increasingly used in presentations to add creativity and richness to the content contained therein. While audio and video representation  may be appreciated by most people, there may be others with certain disabilities who may not be able to fully comprehend such content. Additionally, you may also want to add subtitles to your media files in a foreign language to reach a wider audience. In such situations, you can add closed captions (CC) to video and audio files to make such content more understandable. In this tutorial, lets learn how to insert closed captions to audio and video files in PowerPoint 2010.

The tool that’s needed to include closed captions to your presentation is called Sub-titling text add-in for Microsoft PowerPoint or STAMP. You can add CC in two ways, either by creating one from scratch or by importing a standard Timed Text Mark-up Language (TTML) file. Captions created with this PowerPoint add-in will be saved within the file, but can also be exported.

Features of STAMP

• Ability to import captions from a Timed Text Markup (TTML) file
• Options to create, edit, delete and export closed captions
• Turn captions on and off in presentation mode
• Ability to do a video or audio playback while editing Timed Text captions
• Align captions
• Import text formatting information from TTML files
• Works on PowerPoint 2010 (32-bit or 64-bit)

How to Insert Closed Captions to Audio and Video Files in PowerPoint 2010

1. Confirm your PowerPoint 2010 version. Select the File tab, click Help and in the About Microsoft PowerPoint section, check the version information and close PowerPoint.

2. Download STAMP for 32 bit. Extract the files to a folder and run the EXE file to install the PowerPoint add-in.

3. Now open PowerPoint and display the slide containing the audio or video file. Select the audio or video file. In the Audio Tools Playback or Video Tools Playback contextual tab, you will see the options to add captions.

4. In the Captions group, click Add Captions and choose Create Captions.

5. In the Caption Editor, click Play to play the audio or video.

6. As the video plays, listen to the content and note the areas where you want to add the caption. When you reach the time in the playback where you want to insert the caption, click the New Caption button. The caption is created with the current playback time as the Start Time of the caption. You can reset the starting time of the caption by clicking Start Time again.

7. Click the Set End Time button to set the end time for the caption. (The Start and End Times buttons are displayed to the right of the Sort button.)

8. Click the Caption Text field and type the text to appear in the caption. Then click Create.

You have created captions to your audio or video files in a matter of minutes. You will notice that on the slide, the caption appears to overwrite each other. When you play the slide as a slideshow, the captions will appear according to the timelines set. You can use the various commands in the Captions group, to adjust the area where the captions will be displayed, set the background color for the caption, edit, sort and perform other useful tasks.

STAMP is a brilliant add-in that’s a must for anyone using PowerPoint 2010. Check out the add-in and let us know your thoughts.