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Create Video Captions using the STAMP Add-in in PowerPoint 2010

Author: Geetesh Bajaj

Product/Version: PowerPoint 2010

Date Created: April 6th 2011
Last Updated: April 6th 2011

Excerpt/Capsule: Learn how to create new captions for your video clips with the Caption Editor within the STAMP add-in for PowerPoint 2010.

After you have installed the STAMP add-in, you can find captioning options within the Video Tools Playback tab on the Ribbon. Do remember though that the Video Tools Playback tab is a contextual tab which appears only when you have a video clip selected in your presentation. Before adding captions, you need to insert a video (movie) clips in PowerPoint.

Follow these steps to add new captions to a video clip in your presentation:

1. Select the inserted video -- this will to activate the two Video Tools tabs in the Ribbon. These two tabs are Format and Playback -- click the Playback tab, highlighted in red in Figure 1.
   
   
   Figure 1: Select the Playback tab
   
   
2. Within the Captions group of this tab, click the bottom part of the Add Caption button to bring up the menu shown in Figure 2. Then choose the Create Captions option.
   
   
   Figure 2: Create Captions option selected
   
   
3. This opens the Caption Editor window, as shown in Figure 3.
   
   
   Figure 3: Caption Editor window
   
   The options within the Caption Editor window are explained below:
   
   
   1. Preview: In this section the video previews and plays.
   2. Play Controls: Click the Play button to play the video. You'll also find the rewind, forward, and volume controls in this area.
   3. Set Start Time and Set End Time: Click Set Start Time button to set the starting point of the active caption and click the Set End Time button to set the caption end time. You can also manually enter the end time of each caption in the End Time list next to the Caption Text field.
      
   4. Caption Text field: Click in this field to type the text you want appear as the caption.
   5. Add Caption and Delete Caption: Click the Add Caption button to insert a new caption text field. To delete a caption, just select the caption in the Caption Text field, and click the Delete Caption button.
   6. Create Captions: When done with adding, editing, and deleting captions in Caption Editor window, click the Create Captions button to get back to PowerPoint interface with all the captions inserted for the video.
      
      You don’t have to create captions in order. To add a new caption between two existing captions, click Sort button to put them into time sequence order.
4. Now click the Play button to start playback your video.
   
   
5. With the video playing, decide were you want the caption to appear (or listen for the dialog that you want to caption), then click Add Caption button. The caption will be created with the current media playback time as the Start Time of the caption.
   
   
6. Then click in the Caption Text field and type the text to appear in the caption
   
   
7. To set the end time for the caption click the Set End Time button to match the current media playback position. You can also manually enter the end of each caption.
   
   
8. Repeat steps from 4 to 7 to create additional captions. Figure 4 shows three captions added. Once done, click the Create Captions button (highlighted in red, refer to Figure 4 again).
   
   
   Figure 4: Create Captions Button
   
   
9. This will take you back to the PowerPoint with all the captions added to the video, as shown in Figure 5
   
   
   Figure 5: Video with captions
   
   
10. Play the slideshow to see all the captions playing. Save your presentation.