Adding background audio to your Xplains is as easy as selecting a file. It must be an MP3 audio file. Other audio formats are not supported because this is the standard for web audio.

1.Select the Slides Overview at the top of the Slides list. Then select Background Audio in the Properties pane on the right.

2.Click on the File... button and select the MP3 audio file you want to insert.

3.Set your options:

Audio for individual slides is added as single audio "objects" that are handled in the same way as animations. They are included in the animations list automatically so that you can control when they play. You can have them play before or after other animations, or at the same time as other animations, using the same methods that you use for controlling the order of normal animations. If you have background audio activated it will play at the same time as the individual audio objects, i.e. audio objects don't stop the background audio.

Inserting the audio element

1.Select the slide where you want to add audio.

2.Select the Audio tool in the Home tab and choose From File or Record Audio (see further below for instructions on recording audio). If you choose a file it must be an MP3 audio file.

3.A dialog is displayed asking you how you want to insert the audio object:

Player Control:

This inserts a visible audio object that can be controlled by the user. By default it does not play automatically. The user must click on it to make it play, and again to make it stop. You can also make it play automatically by selecting it and assigning the Play animation to it in the Animations tab. Then the user can click to replay it or to stop it.

By Animation:

This adds the audio object in the animation sequence of the slide. It will then play automatically when its position in the sequence is reached. You can move it around in the animation sequence like any other animated element (see below). By default audio object is invisible when the Xplain is viewed by the user. However, you can make it visible by selecting it and activating Show Player Controls in the Link & Interaction section in the Properties pane on the right. The user can then start and stop it with the player controls.

4.A blue audio icon with an animation number and the duration of the audio is inserted in the slide.

Reduce volume of other sounds and stop other sounds

When a voice-over is playing you want the user to be able to understand it. You can improve this by using the option to automatically reduce the volume of other sounds when an audio object is playing. Select the audio object, then you can adjust the relative volume of all other audio (background audio and any other audio objects playing at the same time) with the option in Link & Interaction in the Properties pane.

Stop audios on slide stops or pauses all other audios that are currently playing excluding the background audio. Reduce other audio by reduces the relative volume of all other audios currently playing including the background audio.

Audio with player controls: Formatting and positioning the audio object

A visible audio object with player controls is really just a Play/Stop button shape. It is shown in the editor as it will appear in your Xplain presentation. You can position and format it like a normal shape, with a couple of restrictions:

•The fill property of the audio object can be transparent but its outline cannot be.

•If you select "no outline" the outline will be displayed in white.

•Invisible audio objects (Show Player Controls disabled) are still visible in the editor.

Audio in animation sequence: Defining when the audio starts to play

If the audio is inserted in the animation sequence it will play when its animation sequence number is reached. This works the same way as any other animation, except that the audio plays instead of an element appearing or moving.

1.Select the audio icon (use the Objects list if the icon is covered by another element) and switch to the Animations tab.

2.Make sure that Play is selected in the animations list. This is the only animation you can select for audio objects.

3.Use the Reorder Animations tool to make the audio play before or after other animations. Select Start with Previous to make an animation play at the same time as the audio, or vice-versa. (This only applies if there are animations, of course.)

4.Set a delay before the audio starts and a pause after it finishes, if you wish. You can't change the duration of an audio object.

You can also record your own voice-over directly in HelpXplain. You just need a microphone or headset with a microphone connected to your Windows computer.

Recording the audio

Make sure that your microphone is connected and set as the input device in the Windows audio mixer before you start.

1.Select the slide where you want to add audio.

2.Select the Audio tool in the Home tab and choose Record Audio.

3.Click on the Record button and speak into the microphone. Click Stop when you are finished. The recording plays back automatically when you are finished. You can also click on the Play icon in the recording to play it back again.

4.If you aren't satisfied with the result, adjust the Volume and Quality sliders and try again. You can delete the previous recording by right-clicking on it and selecting Delete.

5.OK closes the recording dialog and asks you how you want to insert the audio object (Player Control or By Animation, see further above for details).

You can then adjust when the audio plays as described further above in this topic.

The mode that you choose when you insert an audio object isn't permanent. You can easily remove a By Animation object from the animation sequence and make it visible, or hide a Player Controls object and add it to the animation sequence. You can also make a By Animation object visible so that the user can play it again by clicking on it if they want to. And you can animate Player Controls objects like normal shapes – for example to make the audio object appear at a specific time, so that the user doesn't click on it when it's not relevant.

Turning audio object visibility on and off

Just select the audio object and then enable or disable the Show Player Controls option under Link & Interaction in the Properties pane. This also works for objects that are in the animation sequence. Then the user can click to stop the audio or to play it again.

Warning: If you turn this option off for an audio object that isn't in the animation sequence it will not play and will be invisible!

Including an audio object in the animation sequence

To do this you just need to select the audio object and then select the Play animation in the Animations tab:

Note that this adds the audio object to the animation sequence. You must then use the Reorder Animations control to choose when you want the audio to play. If you also activate the Player Controls option (see above) the user will be able to stop and restart the audio object by clicking on it.

Animating audio objects

Visible audio objects with player controls that don't start automatically can be animated like normal shapes. Since the Play animation is not assigned you can assign normal Show, Hide or Move animations. This can be useful for making a clickable audio object appear at a specific time so that the user doesn't click on it too early, for example.

Just select the audio object and then select the animation, just as you would for a regular shape or image element:

Warning: You can only do this for audio objects with Player Controls activated!

When you create audio objects you may notice that the Execute a script option is automatically activated in the Link & Interaction section of the Properties pane. The xplain.playmedia(this) command is activated, which makes the audio object the script is attached to play.

If you wish, you can attach audio scripts to other shapes to provide additional, separate controls for the audio object in your slide. For example, you could create separate Stop and Play shapes in different locations. You just need to get the name of the audio object from the Objects list on the left and then insert it in the corresponding script command.

Attaching audio commands to other shapes

1.Check the name of the audio object you want to control in the Objects list. In our example the object is called Audio1.

2.Insert a shape that you want to use for your audio command. We are going to use a "play" shape:

3.Select the shape, then open the Link & Interaction section in the Properties pane on the right and select Execute a script:

4.Select the xplain.playmedia(... script option from the drop-down list and then edit it to make sure that it looks as follows:
 
xplain.playmedia('audio1', 'play', false)

5.The first parameter must be the name of the audio object in all lower case letters. Check the name of the selected audio object in the Objects list on the left (it may not be audio1) and enter the correct name between the single quotes.

Other audio controls

You can also attach Pause and Stop commands to shapes or images, and combined commands to restart the audio at the beginning if you want. See Object Scripts in the Developers chapter for full details.