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Exporting To Audio Files (WinFlash Educator Only)

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WinFlash Educator has very flexible options for the output of audio study files. Using either the SAPI4 or SAPI5 voices, it can export .wav or .mp3 files at three quality levels and produce a single file of all pairs selected for output or produce a file for each pair. The latter is especially useful on players with 'shuffle play' as it allows the player to randomize the order of the pairs, improving learning efficiency.

 

 

Before exporting your audio files you'll want to set up WinFlash's Text-To-Speech capabilities so that they are operating as you would like. See the Speech topic for more detail on this.

 

Note: If you use SAPI4 for the export, the time to export the file can be quite long, as the SAPI4 engine 'reads' each pair in real time when creating the output. SAPI5 can create the output much more quickly as it 'reads' each pair at computer speeds when exporting to an audio file.

 

Output

Select whether the study file is to be exported as a single file or a file for each pair.  The latter allows the player to randomize the order in which the pairs are presented - a significant advantage in study effectiveness.

Output Format

Unless you have a reason for choosing the .wav format you'll want to select .mp3 format, as this produces smaller files and is generally easier to use on portable sound players.

Output Quality

Experiment a bit to see what quality level is acceptable for your use. Higher quality means larger file sizes.

Pair Settings

Include question audio file

 

Selecting this check box appends the question's audio file (if one exists) to the question text separated by the number of seconds in the pause between text and audio setting.

 

Include answer audio file

 

Selecting this check box appends the answer's audio file (if one exists) to the answer text separated by the number of seconds in the pause between text and audio setting.

 

Pause between text and audio

 

Set this edit box to the number of seconds of silence you wish to have between the end of the spoken text and the beginning of the associated audio file (if any).

 

Pause between Q and A

 

Set this edit box to the number of seconds of silence you wish to have between the end of the question section and the beginning of the answer section.

 

Pause between pairs

 

Set this edit box to the number of seconds of silence you wish to have between the end of the answer section of one pair and the beginning of the question section of the next.

 

Use information in Pair Code below

Check this box if you wish to program a specific organization for the content of each pair rather than accept the standard arrangement used by Pair Settings.

Pair Code

If the Use information in Pair Code checkbox is checked, then the export operation will be controlled by the code contained in the Pair Code edit box. The coding is quite simple and is made up of instances of the following 'tokens':

QT - Question Text

AT - Answer Text

QA - Question Audio File

AA - Answer Audio File

Whole Numbers - Pause of that number of seconds

For example, the default code that is loaded into this edit box initially is

QT 5 AT 5

This would result in each pair's audio being output as the Question Text, a 5-second pause, the Answer Text and lastly, another 5-second pause.

You can repeat tokens and omit tokens as well.  The code

QT 5 QT 5

would result in each pair's audio being output as the Question Text, a 5-second pause, the Question Text again and the final 5-second pause. No audio relating to the answer would be recorded at all.

You could even have a quite complex code - e.g.

QT 1 QA 1 QT 5 AT 1 AA 1 AT 5

resulting in the Question Text, a 1-second pause, the Question Audio File, a 1-second pause, a repeat of the Question Text, a five-second pause, the Answer Text, a 1-second pause, the Answer Audio, a 1-second pause, a repeat of the Answer Text and finally a five-second pause.

Important Note: When you are exporting to sound files using SAPI4, the voices designated "for Telephone" produce 8Kbps .wav files vs. 32Kbps files for the other voices.  This has the effect of increasing the pauses between Q&A pairs and between Q&A's by a factor of 4.  So if you wish to use the telephone voices to save space in your output audio files, you'll need to set the pauses for 1/4 of the value you actually want them to be.

 

Page url: http://www.openwindow.com/helpfile/exporting_to_audio_files.htm