Day 10: Voice Typing, Google Slides, Transcripts, & Captions!

The last two days have demonstrated how to transcribe a video in YouTube and Google Drive. Today calls for using voice typing to complete the initial transcript. Why? Let's be honest. Sometimes, we do not always record a video with a well-thought out transcript written in advance. Also, for younger students, students without typing proficiency yet, and/or students with motor difficulties, transcribing a video, whether in YouTube or Google Drive, can be difficult. Voice Typing to the rescue!  It's not an 100% perfect solution as edits will be required but voice typing will provide users a head start.

Back in October, I published a blog post describing using Voice Typing in Google Docs to Create a Transcript Caption File. This remains a viable workflow and now you have more options with recent Slides updates. With Google Slides now offering Voice Typing and the ability to embed videos from Google Drive, here's another captioning workflow with the added benefit of having the video transcript available in the speaker notes for any users who may require them. Very high on my Google update wish list would be the ability to do all of this in a single tab. Sadly, that doesn't work (yet?) and like using Google Docs it requires two tabs open as described below and demonstrated in the video tutorial.

How to Create Accessibility

  1. In one tab, open a Google Slides File and cue up Voice Typing (Tools > Voice Typing Speaker Notes) on a blank slide.  I recommend resizing the speaker notes box on the bottom so you'll have more space.
  2. In another tab, cue up video in Google Drive that you wish to create a transcript of. 
  3. Display these browser tabs, side-by-side. I recommend using a Chrome extension such as Tab Resize or Tab Scissors to more easily display the two tabs side-by-side. 
  4. Press play on your video and quickly press the voice typing icon. And let your video play and watch voice typing transcribe it in the speaker notes.
  5. Stop voice typing when video is complete.
  6. Edit transcript in Speaker notes. Correct any spelling, punctuation, and spelling errors. You will probably need to replay parts of your video to capture any content that was missed by voice typing and type it manually into the speaker notes.
  7. Once satisfied with edits, download transcript as .txt file by going to File > Download as.  It's important that you are using speaker notes on a blank slide. Any text on the slide would be included in your transcript file which would make it inaccurate for captioning purposes.
  8. Right click on video title found in Drive > Manage Caption Tracks > Upload transcript file you just downloaded > Done 
  9. Wait for the autosync process to complete.  While waiting, this is a great time to insert the video onto the Google Slide with the transcript if you intend to use and/or share via Google Slides.
  10. Enjoy your accessible video which in slides, also now includes the transcript which can be very helpful for some users.

If you are curious about the accuracy of Voice Typing, I tested this out several times with the same video in the same environment and had different errors each time. There wasn't necessarily fewer errors over time just different ones which is why editing is important. If you're curious, I've included a comparison of the Voice Typing transcript initially captured in Google Slides before edits and the transcript with edits below.  


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