Narration is a very special content element, unique to Tribal Habits. Put simply, Narration allows you to create a narrated, slideshow video using just text in just a few minutes. It allows you to create simple explainer videos, to turn text into something more interesting or to prototype videos you plan on recording in the future.
Expand the sections below to learn more.
Steps to add a Narration element to a course
Steps to add a Narration element to a course
Add the element to your topic or article by selecting the 'Narration' option from the Content box, then follow these steps:
Enter a title for your narrated slides. The title is a mandatory field for the Narration element and acts as an introduction slide to your content. This title will be what is displayed on the element before a learner clicks to start it.
2. Start adding your slides, you can create up to 10 slides. Each slide can consist of either text or an image.
Text. Text-based slides can have up to four lines of text. You can select words to format as italics or underline, as well as create lists and change the text alignment. The platform will style each of your slides in the narration using your organisation's colours. Try to keep your slides simple - just a few words or 1-2 sentences highlighting key points on that slide.
Images. You can alternatively upload or import an image for your slide. Images for Narration should be in a ratio of 900 px by 475 px. Other ratios will be stretched to fit. Please note, images on Narration slides do not support 'click-to-zoom' functionality.
TIP! If you import an image or upload an image of a different size, click on the option to 'Open image editor', then select the Crop tab. Under the Aspect Ratio button, there is a custom ratio called 'Narration' which will perfectly crop your image to suit the Narration slide. You can learn more about the image editor here.
TIP! If you are using Power Point, there is a template slide deck attached to this article which has slides in the exact ratio required for Narration. You can then just export your slides as JPG or PNG and they will perfectly fit the Narration element.
You can use any combination of image and text slides throughout the narration. You can also add slides after your current slide, delete the current slide or move the current slide left or right in the slide order.
3. Select your voiceover from the options explained below:
Option 1 - Automatic. If you select Automatic, you can select a character that will read your script for you. That's right - you just type the script and our text-to-voice process takes over! There are several characters to choose from for your voiceover:
Olivia - Australia - Female - Gen 2 (realistic).
Aria - New Zealand - Female - Gen 2 (realistic).
Joanna - US - Female - Gen 3 (very realistic).
Kendra - US - Female - Gen 2 (realistic).
Salli - US - Female - Gen 2 (realistic).
Kimberly - US - Female - Gen 2 (realistic).
Ruth - US - Female - Gen 2 (realistic).
Matthew - US - Male - Gen 3 (very realistic).
Stephen - US - Male - Gen 2 (realistic).
Emma - UK - Female - Gen 2 (realistic).
Amy - UK - Female - Gen 3 (very realistic).
Brian - UK - Male - Gen 2 (realistic).
Arthur - UK - Male - Gen 2 (realistic).
Niamh - Ireland - Female - Gen 2 (realistic).
Ayanda - South Africa - Female - Gen 2 (realistic).
Kajal - India (Bilingual - English and Hindi) - Female - Gen 2 (realistic).
Lupe - Spain (Bilingual - English and Spanish) - Female - Gen 2 (realistic).
Pedro - US (Bilingual - English and Spanish) - Male - Gen 2 (realistic).
Léa - France - (French only) - Female - Gen 2 (realistic).
Remi - France - (French only) - Female - Gen 2 (realistic).
Tayana - Russia - (Russian only) - Female - Gen 1 (somewhat realistic).
Hala - Arabic - (Bilingual - English and Arabic (Gulf)) - Female - Gen 2 (realistic).
Vicki - Germany - (German only) - Female - Gen 2 (realistic).
Daniel - Germany - (German only) - Male - Gen 2 (realistic).
Ines - Spain - (Portuguese only) - Female - Gen 2 (realistic).
Bianca - Italy - (Italian only) - Female - Gen 2 (realistic).
Adriano - Italy - (Italian only) - Male - Gen 2 (realistic).
See our Tips for Voiceovers
Option 2 - Record. If you select Record, you can use a microphone on your computer to directly record your own voice for each slide. Upon selecting Record, you will see 'Record' and 'Stop' button. Just press 'Record' and start speaking - pressing 'Stop' when finished. You can then replay your recording to check the quality.
Remember that you need to record each slide separately.
NB: Record uses the latest in-browser technology to record and encode your voiceover, without requiring any software downloads. As a result:
Record only works with Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge. Internet Explorer 11 will never support this technology and Apply Safari is still implementing support. This means that you can only record your voice in those three browsers. Playback, however, is supported in all browsers.
Record uses your computer CPU to encode. If you notice stutters or skipping in your recording then your computer is struggling to maintain a constant encoding process. This may be because your computer is under heavy load (too many tasks running in the background) or your computer is not fast enough. Try closing programs or using a more powerful computer.
Option 3 - Upload. If you select Upload, you can upload an audio file for that slide - usually of you or someone else reading the script.
4. Type your script to be narrated over each slide as a voiceover.
5. Manage your quiz settings, as preferred
6. Click Save
Video demonstration
Video demonstration
In the video below, we show you how to use the narration element. Please note, certain aspects of the UI may have changed since the video was recorded.
Settings
Settings
You can choose to turn on the setting to force explorers to watch the entire narration, by marking the checkbox at the bottom of the element.
Turning this setting on will mean that explorers will be unable to progress within the topic or article until they have watched the narration in full.
Best practices
Best practices
Tips for voiceovers
You can mix and match your audio choices, for example, using Joanna to present content slides and your own voices to provide roleplays. Or you can use your own voice for the entire slide deck.
Test your Automatic voiceovers. Sometimes the automatic voiceover doesn't quite pronounce things as you expect or might stumble over a piece of jargon or an acronym. You may need to substitute a word or two, or 'spell' a word differently to improve the pronunciation.
Tips for a great narration
Keep your scripts to one paragraph. That's about 20-30 seconds of narration, which is enough for each slide. The character limit for scripts (per slide) is roughly 830 (depending on spaces), however, we recommend being guided by time (i.e. 20-30 seconds) rather than the number of characters that will fit into text box. If you have more than one paragraph of script, split that over two slides and change the text on the slides.
Use the image editor for perfect slides. As noted above, the Image Editor has a Narration aspect ratio built-in. It can perfectly crop your images to suit the size of the Narration slides.
Use commas for Automatic narration. Our characters sometimes aren't sure when to 'take a breath' in your scripts. Often, just by adding a comma, you can help the character to present your script in a much more natural manner. So write your script, add in a few commas and then test it out.
Keep slides simple. Just a few words or 1-2 sentences per slide. Make sure the text on the slide aligns with the script. Don't have too many words on the slide to read, as its hard to both read and listen at the same time!
Finishing touches
Once you are happy with your slides and script, just add a title for your narration and save it. Then pop into preview mode to test it out.
You will see that we brand your narration in your organisation's colours and logo, play your slides like a video, add fade effects between slide, and randomise the colours of each slide to suit your organisation. There is also a pause and play button and progress bar - just like a real video!
You can change any word of your script or slide, and any Text slide or Automatic narration will be instantly updated (might require a reload of your browser page to fetch the changes).
Examples
Examples
Let's take a look at some examples of the narration element in action. Click play on each of the videos below to view the examples.
Example 1: Text only slides
Example 2: Text and image slides
Example 3: Image only slides