I am currently creating training videos for one software company and have been in discussions with another to possibly do the same. I mentioned that I use Camtasia, and both were receptive (good!) However, one of the biggest concerns each company had concerning using a product like Camtasia is that, with the constant upgrades that web-based products make (and TechSmith mentioned this is one of their "how to" training videos) is that video content becomes obsolete. And it's not just that it becomes obsolete, it also becomes obsolete and, without going back and watching each video, or reading each script (which would have to have a notation as to which screen is being viewed) it is hard to know which video needs sections to be replaced.
SUI can be used in some situations, but it cannot be used all the time because of the necessary detail on the form being captured. What needs to exist is a companion option for each video where the developer can make entries describing the various screens captured throughout each video. I've never created a video where, after I finished it, I simply shared it to the appropriate desination. I always have a need to go back through the video and make small changes here and there. So, if I could, at each time a screen is captured in the video (say, switching from a menu choice form of the product back to the home screen, and then to a new dialog), I would be able to make entries noting which screen I included, then those entries would be stored in the database. Then when a project is completed, the database entries of the various screens are included, making it easy to do a search for the different screens used.
Making it even easier is that the data from each project could be added to another project to keep track of all screens captured for a specific version of the product. (For example, I create a project that includes Making a Word document is just a cumbersome way of tracking data that needs to be consistent (from project to project) and needs to be kept "with" the video. (Leave it in the original project file - so it is available to the developers, but it wouldn't increase the size of the finished project.)
This need is similar to a "marker" but it is not something that the end user should see. If you could create a "developer's marker" that stored each marker in a database file which is stored in the project file, then the information could be used to keep track of what screens were used, and an easy search could provide a list of updates that would need to happen (before a contemplated UI update were scheduled.) Having the ability to estimate what % of a project would need to be "re-shot" would be a huge help in anticipating possible costs and necessary timelines before updates are scheduled.
Hopefully the above scenario will provide enough evidence that TechSmith will strongly consider adding such a feature. (And if the database were flexible enough so that each project could have its own field names created by the user, then this option could be used for many different users for reasons besides the above.)
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Posted 3 years ago
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For starters, you do know that a .cmproj file is nothing more than a folder on your system. You can explore the contents easily. The folder stores everything -- stuff you've deleted, clips that are no longer used, parts of clips that you think you've trimmed -- everything. I personally regard this as A Good Thing. You may have a different opinion. But please realize that this complicates your request quite a bit. Do you want a database of the edited clip, the original clip, or some intermediate edit?
As a database guy I think this is a great idea, but implementation is likely to be tricky. If all you want is a catalog of video clips, it's a little work but you can create your own database using, e.g., MySQL. You will, of course, have to divide the video into separate clips, cataloging each. If you want the actual video clip included in the data tables, that's possible but it also produces pretty big tables. Study up on database normalization to optimize performance.
BUT these are not the crucial issues. There's audio and various added effects. These require synchronization with the video. Do you want the raw video clip, video plus audio, video plus audio plus effects, or some other combination?
FYI my workflow is to begin by writing a script and laying out the storyboard. The work I'm doing now requires Powerpoint slides for the boards. Once I have the Powerpoint deck and the script, I record the audio using Adobe Audition. I fix up the audio, then load the file onto my iPhone. I record the video while listening to the audio. Putting the two together and adding various emphasis effects is the final step.
I know this post is all over the place. I hope there are some good ideas in here. Apologies for rambling on.
Best,
Tony Lima
kayakman, Champion
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considering the comment re " ... "developer's marker" that stored each marker in a database file which is stored in the project file ... ", perhaps try/experiment with using captions to store that information
captions are a part of a project, a caption can be as short as 1 frame and still be searchable in the UI; if you use very a small font, you can put a lot of text in a single caption [3 lines per caption, , 30 captions per each second on the timeline]; and, the captions text can be exported/imported as an SRT [easily read with a text editor]
you can put these "developer" captions on their own track and disable/show as needed
perhaps worth considering?
just brain storming here
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In going back to the "marker" concept, it seems like part of the concept exists: the program allows the user to pick a point in the video and then label it. (Using the marker's properties.) The difference in what my clients are looking for is the ability to keep that in a database (not display it on the video screen) and then be able to search it. It seems like the "properties" option may be an option.
So, if CTRL-D turned on DB mode (as opposed to Marker mode), and then the user clicked on the video timeline and Camtasia wrote a record to the database which included (automatically, and in addition to the user-defined fields - see below), the name of the video, date, time and Camtasia Version #, to name a few), then the only thing left to do would be to display the small db form and wait for the user to fill in the form (using the properties area of Camtasia) and then write the records to the database.
Just like markers, once a db entry is made, it is visible on the timeline, and a developer could go back and edit the record by right-clicking on the db marker and filling in the "properties" of the marker.
If every project came with a 5-or 10-field database that could be defined by the developer (field1 is screen name; field2 is version#, field3 is a comment field, etc...) then every project the developer could set up the same fields in the same order. Then, when the project is finished, the database could be imported into a SQL db and then searched, when necessary. (or it could be imported into Excel, for those who want to go that route.)
I don't want this to be different from what Camtasia offers (CTRL-D like CTRL-M, for example), and I don't think that it would be too difficult if it is a limited offering (5, maybe 10 fields.) Who knows, if the properties approach would work, part of this may already be written in some form or another...
Again, just brain storming, and trying to use what Camtasia already offers...
(Full disclosure, other than playing with Pascal, Cobol, C and Javascript over the years, and learning that I am NOT a devloper or programmer, I have no concept of what goes on behind the scenes in Camtasia, so my observations that "part of this may already be written in some form or another..." may be just wishful thinking.)
Thoughts?
kayakman, Champion
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How To Use Time Captions As A Pseudo Database To Hold Project Data
http://www.screencast.com/t/t0jc5ODQ8
kayakman, Champion
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How To Use Time Captions As A Pseudo Database To Hold Project Data
http://www.screencast.com/t/Kvp4iAH8k
[original deleted]
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I've noticed that no one from Techsmith has commented - is that because this happened late Friday? I would be curious to hear what they have to say...
Thanks again - I learned some stuff from your video.
kayakman, Champion
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re library item, are you aware that library assets can be shared among multiple users [export as .libzip file]; the template would only have to be created 1 time, then shared?
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I've shipped over 100 Camtasia productions over a twelve-year period (production meaning it was shown to an audience at a trade show or online, as opposed to innumerable shorts for casual use). Of those 100 productions:
- Nearly all clients (90+) described a reuse goal at the start ("We'll want to reuse parts in the future" or "We may want to revise the video as our product )
- To enable this reuse, I carefully name capture files and audio files and project files, store them in carefully named folders, and archive everything in two places.
- How many of those productions were revised, or had content reused for a future production? Exactly three.
In all three cases where the client ended up revising the video, the work I had done to name and organize the capture files and audio files was more than sufficient to enable the reuse. And even in those three cases, the savings for reuse were not more than 20% of the final budget, because of the amount of new material needed.
So in my case, I'll continue labeling capture files and audio files and project files and archiving them where I can get to them, and once every five years or so I'll go back and reuse some of them.
What I learned from this: When clients say, "We'll want to reuse this content in the future!" I now explain the above to them, then say, "But here's a better idea: Think of this video as the first of many videos that you can build into a gallery on your web site, each one explaining a key feature or benefit. Then you can keep adding new videos for new features, and most the old ones will have a long, useful life!"
This has worked really well for the clients who adopt the idea. Three short videos indeed have a longer useful life than one long video, and you just remove the occasional video that describes features that have changed or that they don't want to talk about anymore. Plus, you get a lot more projects!
kayakman, Champion
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I might break the total subject matter into maybe 26 chapters and many more sub chapters, then screencast those subjects with something like 225 separate, very short videos [I call these "snippets"]; these are organized as linked videos [hotspot end of video launch-next buttons] within each chapter/sub chapter; all are front-ended with searchable menus [database tool hosting the links to the videos, a PDF of the links, and sometimes with button-style menus made from a hotspot-only CS project where the hotspots launch the videos]
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kayakman, Champion
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this PDF menu front-ends those videos ...
http://www.cookbookplus.com/Videos/Menus/CookBookPlusWebSiteVideos.pdf
most are software tutorials; the kayaking stuff videos are photo slide show music videos
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kayakman, Champion
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the reason is that it does not seem possible in CS9 to export all captions as a single text file like was possible in CS8; with CS8, you could right click on any caption in the caption UI and copy all text, which could then be pasted into any text app to get a csv w/each caption on a separate line, and nothing returned for blank captions; that worked great; but alas, not possible in CS9; and exporting as an srt doesn't cut it
over the past few days, I've invested some bench time playing with workflow scenarios where an Access DB is used to externally document project properties; being able to grab all captions w/start time as a csv wold enable an easy import into Access
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Download it at: http://www.screencast.com/t/eWG7QsYnAWJU
kayakman, Champion
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so should I assume that modifying CAMLOC.EXE to export CAPTIONSs [start time and text] as a CSV is not doable?
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kayakman, Champion
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see me immediate previous post [3 days ago]
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Download it at:
http://www.screencast.com/t/eWG7QsYnAWJU
kayakman, Champion
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kayakman, Champion
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https://www.screencast.com/t/xpwWxqWl0J
thanks
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http://www.screencast.com/t/eWG7QsYnAWJU
I'm not sure what sort of Captions you are referring to that it failed to handle. (I don't use Captions much myself). Maybe you could post a sample project with a few such Captions so i can look at the raw code *.TSCPROJ and see if I can handle it properly.
kayakman, Champion
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5.1 works perfectly; the new time format sorts correctly as-is; great, fast work :)
I'll post a short screencast ASAP describing the captions non-handling issue
but 5.1 works perfectly when the timeline holds only a single captions object, like when you import an SRT file or you manually keep adding captions but never allow any "cuts" to the captions themselves
Bob
kayakman, Champion
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https://www.screencast.com/t/kn8bZXJH
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kayakman, Champion
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kayakman, Champion
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http://www.screencast.com/t/qd9Gbod0
as is, it works fine with CAMLOC
but add a split at each marker; then, you'll get bad results, way too many listed captions
let me know if you need another screencast describing how to reproduce with this project
kayakman, Champion
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kayakman, Champion
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if you use the tools button on the captions UI, there is an option to export the captions; that will give you a .srt file, which is a specially formatted txt file [change extension to .txt and see]
SRT files are used to share caption files; the captions UI tools also have an option to import captions [from an SRT file]
SRT formatted files, even as .txt, do not import into Access
again, CAMLOC works perfectly if the project has only a single caption object
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kayakman, Champion
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solution: export all captions to get SRT file; delete all captions in project; import that SRT to get a single captions object on timeline; then, all works OK
note: even if there are disabled caption tracks in the project, they are still detected when CAMLOC runs; so, those must be deleted too
otherwise, you app works great
a small thought: how hard would it be to reverse the order of the fields in the screen display and the export?
current [caption,time] is OK, but if it was reversed [time,caption], the result would be easier to work with
captions in Camtasia offer the best project navigation; the captions UI shows both time and caption text; the UI can be scrolled and the eye can quickly pick out a target item
personally, I use captions for project navigation; easy to use compared to markers which are terribly presented in the CS9 editor; and markers cannot be located [like scrolling a list], only by jumping around the timeline
your app is helping me a lot, as described in the tutorials in this thread
greatly appreciate your help here
have you thought about a utility to extract quiz data from the .tscproj?
adding a quiz to a project can add a lot of time and labor; I externally document my quizzes in an Access DB; the CS9 UI for quizzes is terrible, and worthless for quickly editing what's been entered as quiz stuff [think impossible]
at least my Access approach lets me get a "quiz report" that shown questions/answer choices that can be used to manage the quiz in the project
really bad: quiz questions have no number schema in the quiz UI in Camtasia editor; try tracking down question 18 out of 40 in the quiz UI in the editor? mission impossible
again, really appreciate what you've done for me re CAMLOC and captions
Bob :)
kayakman, Champion
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SO WHY THIS TUTORIAL?
As I recall, this thread was launched as an "idea" to add the capability to Camtasia's editor to enable creation of database-like records to hold manually entered project specific details, that could then be used in managing project evolution over time. As that is not a built-in function in the current version of Camtasia, is there a viable workaround?
Camtasia project files essentially track and manage properties in the time domain; databases track records of stuff in the "related to" domain. A built-in Camtasia function to achieve the database thing would most likely require many of the functions found in true database applications.
One way to do this now is to build out a Camtasia project in such a way that "key fields" in Camtasia could be used to "look up" related data in a true database, like one made with Microsoft's Access.
I mention Access because it is very easy to use, especially for non-DB types, and, with data records stored in a simple, single, table, a lot of DB functionality can be accomplished with very little effort.
I've worked with Access since the mid 1990's; it is a file-based DB as opposed to a server-based DB [like SQL], and its user-friendly UI makes it easy to custom design and modify DB solutions.
Accordingly, I've worked out one possible approach to linking Camtasia project details to records in an Access database.
The challange was identifying Camtasia project specifics that could be used as "key fields" for a database look-up.
I finally settled on the need for 2 keys: "timeline time" and "captions text", which together would serve as psudo composite keys.
The premise in the initial post in this thread was the need for tools to help with video projects about software apps [tutorials].
Assuming that most software tutoriuals would be carefully narrated, where the narration is specific to the screen action at any point intime, the "narration text" might make for a viable search key.
Narration text can be created using speech-to-text in Camtasia, but there is no way in Camtasia to search for and locate a instance of narration text.
But Camtasia does makes it relatively easy to find a location in a project using a "timeline time" value.
Using 2 keys [caption start time and narration text] in Camtasia's captions UI makes it relatively easy to quickly locate [search] for a desired project location.
With an Access data table that has the same 2 keys, searching and locating for companion DB records is a slam dunk.
The main problem is getting the caption start time key embedded with its companion caption text, and then into an Access data table.
My initial approach was to hand-enter a time value in HH-MM-SS text format into the beginning of each caption, with a coma separating the time from the narration text. Tedious and time consuming, but it did the trick. Note: this approach requires that there be no commas in any of the captions text, except for the one comma used to separate time from narration text. Once done, the captions could be exported as an SRT. Then, in an instance of CS8, the SRT was imnported into a new, otherwise empty project, and all captions text copied to the clipboard, to be pasted into Notepad, and saved as either .txt or .csv.
The saved captions file could then easily be imported into an Access database.
Fortunately, thanks to forum member Charles Welford, things have become a lot easier, and the need to sidetrack through CS8 is no longer required if you use Charles' utility CAMLOC.exe. CAMLOC.exe also eliminates the need to hand-enter time points into the captions text.
Charles was kind enough to modify his CAMLOC.exe utility to export captions directly from a Camtasia project file; his utility exports captions text, along with their start times in the same format as displayed in the captions UI; the export is in CSV file format, and this data can be easily imported into an Access database.
The above approach is viable as long as the project is not further edited with respect to narration text in the captions, and their time points. Editing the project by deleting/adding time will throw off all downstream time points. Inserting or deleting captions will also throw off the relationships between project keys and the keys used in the database.
Although not full-proof, the above approach could work if sufficient discipline is used throughout the process.
But under any scenario, because of the manual data entry required, documenting a project beyond what is done by the current Camtasia editor will add significant time and labor to managing a collection of videos.
IS IT WORTH IT?
kayakman, Champion
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How To Use Numbered Captions To Save Time And Labor And Skip STT
http://www.screencast.com/t/evXIvSQN
kayakman, Champion
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How To Work With The Access Database Table
http://www.screencast.com/t/8j3Ws32aI
kayakman, Champion
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The following tutorial describes a method of populating captions with multi-field data records instead of narration text; works well if you do not need to track a lot of fields in your database records; and, there is no need to do speech-to-text to create reference keys.
Captions are exported using CAMLOC.exe and saved as CSV; the CSV is slightly edited in Notepad, then imported into Access to yield a single, simple table where most data fields are already populated.
How To Use Data Fields In Captions To Document Project Details
http://www.screencast.com/t/wBrxHOE2SF
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http://www.screencast.com/t/eWG7QsYnAWJU
kayakman, Champion
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CAMLOC worked fine [no more duplicates]
thanks for fixing
kayakman, Champion
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if there are multiple caption tracks in the project [common for me], and where each track holds only a single caption object but captions are different, and where all but one caption track is disabled, 5.2 will still list all captions on all tracks; disabled tracks are still detected
workaround: export the [disabled] captions tracks as SRT [for safe keeping], remove any disabled caption tracks so project has only 1 set of captions on timeline
in my opinion, not worth trying to fix?
kayakman, Champion
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if you're still following this thread ...
this tutorial describes a way to store project data in delimited fields in captions
How To Use Data Fields In Captions To Document Project Deta
http://www.screencast.com/t/wBrxHOE2SF
this tutorial describes how delimited fields project data [in captions] can be used as the master data source, while exports to Access can be used for data field entry/edits, then brought back into the captions for archival
How To Round Trip Captions Data Through Access Table And Back To Project
http://www.screencast.com/t/zGEQMgLk
the captions are acting as delimited data rows, where the delimiter used is the "+"
this approach accomplishes most of what your initial posted idea seeks?
data is held in discrete [caption] records [as delimited text values] and explicitly tied to the project timeline location; the data can be viewed and interacted with as-is, but, as you mentioned, a database is a much better tool for working with multi field data
since Camtasia has no DB capability [though desired], it is fairly easy to round trip the data through an Access data table, using CAMLOC.exe to export the captions as CSV
tedious part is posting the [exported-as-text] Access table records back into the appropriate caption
I suspect this could be automated in Access with a function or procedure that would cycle through the table records and past them sequentially into an SRT of original captions; then the updated SRT could be imported back into the project ??
just more brainstorming
kayakman, Champion
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SOMETIMES IT NECESSARY TO GO LONG WAY AROUND BEFORE SEEING THE SHORTCUT
@ Jeff Stouse's initial "idea" post was for a built-in database-like capability within the Camtasia editor and project file
turns out it's already possible, as-is, using captions as a data entry form and captions as a recordset holder
so no need for an external DB like Access [still usable if desired]
How To Use Captions As A Data Entry Form And As A Recordset
http://www.screencast.com/t/n2muGgpQ7
the only critical DB-like functions missing within the editor are records filtering and searching; however, by using an exported SRT, simple record searching is possible using the "find" function in any text editor
however, if you still want to work with the data in an Access database, here's how ...
How To Round Trip Captions Recordset Through Access Database Table
http://www.screencast.com/t/cnfapuCeq
kayakman, Champion
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I have found that it is very easy and straight forward to use the existing captions UI as a platform to host multi-field data records, by using a simple [data entry form] caption as a placeholder template.
The resulting captions recordset can be subsequently edited directly in the captions UI; or, exported as an SRT, and the SRT edited directly, then imported back into the Camtasia project to replace the original captions.
However, if there are a lot of captions involved, or, there are captions from multiple, related projects, then a more robust data manipulation is easily accomplished by exporting the captions as a CSV file [using CamLOC.exe], then importing the [edited] CSV into an Access datatable.
In Access, records can be easily manipulated and edited; then only the edited records exported back out as a CSV text file.
The [reformatted] text file can then be easily used to copy/paste the edited records back into their resppective project files.
The challange with round-tripping records from one record source [the Camtasia project] to another [the Access datatable] is ensuring data integrety and synchronization. If the original project captions [data records] contain suitable reference keys [like a unique caption ID #, and the timeline location], then keeping the 2 datasets synchronized is a snap.
For the most part, the roundtrip through Access is quick, easy, and mostly automated. Only the final posting of edited records back into the project remains a copy/paste manual process.
For those that have an appetite for this subject matter ...
How To Synchronize Captions Recordsets With Access Recordsets
http://www.screencast.com/t/UETLB49bBvPP
I'm glad that Jeff Stouse created this thread; it's given me an opportunity to combine my interest in both Camtasia and Access, in a "beyond-the-envelope" quest for a "workaround" solution.
kayakman, Champion
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How To Use Access Forms To Expedite Post Back Of Edited Records To Project
http://www.screencast.com/t/OLxIcxPM
kayakman, Champion
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http://www.screencast.com/t/0SmxcrZ06
kayakman, Champion
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minor bug in CamLOC.exe re captions
if there is a caption at t=0 but it contains no text, it will import and show OK in list, but I cannot export CSV; always get msg that have not picked a source file
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kayakman, Champion
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using STT that way yields more accurate translations [at least for me] compared to STTing an entire project in one action
the STT gives often you 2 captions across each segment; 1st is a blank, 2nd is the STT caption text; no clue why this happens
but I just merge the 2nd caption with the 1st; that gets rid of the blank caption
so no need to fix on my account as I always do the merge thing; I just reported it as an FYI
again, your CamLOC app is being put to good use as I'm still testing various theories related to this thread
kayakman, Champion
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By restricting the caption record form to only 3 fields, by not bothering to manually enter markers into the project, by not bothering to copy the caption [marker] number into the record form, and by not bothering to copy the caption time hack into the record form, I've found that creating a captions recordset for use in an external database can go almost as fast as you can scrub a project on the timeline.
This simplified data schema eliminates the need for any data "forms" because you can easily work directly in a query view of the imported records. And, if you just use the external database as a road map identifying specific locations within various related projects that might need updating, then there should be no need to post any database record changes back to the captions themselves.
How To Create Recordset Captions Database For Managing Large Collections Of Related Software Tutorials
http://www.screencast.com/t/lek2YxzJ
kayakman, Champion
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How To Speed Up Workflow For Creating Captions Recordsets Database
http://www.screencast.com/t/aRK1iizcNPbA
For me, this was an enlightening exercise, one that has exposed some interesting concepts for "beyond the envelope" uses for captions in CS projects.
Many thanks again to Jeff Stouse for proving the "spark" for all this, and, to Charles Welford, for making his CamLOC.exe app available, with modifications, to support exporting captions from project files as CSVs.
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