Simon automatically generates the captions for your video and audio files when you add them to your course. When you add languages to your course, Simon automatically translates the text in the course and captions. The translated captions are used to generate the translated audio. We 

recommend that these translations are reviewed and edited by native speakers or professional translators to ensure the translations reflect the intended meaning of the base language. 

This process will require two individuals: 

• Course Builder: individual that is building the course in Simon - this is likely you.
• Translator: Native speaker or professional translator who will assist you in updating the translated captions and audio, using these instructions.

There are 4 steps to this process: 

• Before adding languages to your course, the Course Builder will review and edit the course text and captions in base language to ensure quality of translations The Course Builder will add languages to the course in Simon 
• The Course Builder will download the translated course and caption files from Simon and send them to the Translator 
• The Translator will review and edit the translated course text and captions and send the edited files back to the Course Builder 
• The Course Builder uploads the updated files to Simon 

Edit base language captions 

To ensure the best quality of your course captions and translations, we strongly encourage you to review and edit the captions for any audio and video in your course BEFORE adding languages. 

The quality of the base language captions is critical to ensuring the highest quality of translations added to the audio and video assets. Follow these steps: 

1.  Create the entire course before adding translations
2. Download the “Manual translation source file” for the course. To review and edit the captions, open the “Media-transcripts” file in a spreadsheet tool (Excel, Google sheets, Numbers, etc).

 

3. Review the entire course with the captions turned on. You can either take notes with what needs to be fixed/added to the captions or you can pause the video/audio and find the incorrect text in the spreadsheet. 

4. Make corrections in the spreadsheet in the column named: “Translated Text”. 

 a. NOTE: this is the ONLY field of the spreadsheet that will be updated when uploaded to Simon so you cannot change anything else that you see in the spreadsheet (filename, timing/duration, audio speed etc.). 

b.

5. When you have finished editing the captions for the entire course in the spreadsheet, download the CSV file from the spreadsheet:

a.

b. NOTE: The file name for the CSV can be changed from what was originally downloaded. The information about the course and captions to update is included in the CSV. 

6. Return to the Simon Course Manager view select the three dots next to the course to open the Action Menu and select “Upload”: 

a.

7. When the upload is complete, you will see a confirmation dialog and there will be an out of sync icon on the course. Click on the out of sync icon and then click Update so that Simon will then use the edited captions in your course:

a. b.

c. NOTE: Depending on the number and length of the audio and video files the update can take anywhere from 5-60 minutes. For that reason, we encourage you to finish the editing for all your captions before updating. 

d. Keep in mind that updating the captions for voiceover files will ONLY update the captions. If you need to update the audio for the voiceovers, you will need to do that in the course editor. 

8. When the update is complete, review the course with the captions turned on to confirm that the captions are now correct. If you missed something, you can edit the spreadsheet content you previously downloaded then export a new CSV and upload to Simon. You do not need to download a new copy of the source files unless you have added videos or voiceovers to the course since you last downloaded the source files. 

Prepare translated files for review and send to Translators 

After you have added languages to your course, we recommend that you have the translations reviewed and edited by Translators. Here are the recommended steps: 

1. Download the translated transcripts for the course and then open the zipped file:

a.

b. You will find 2 types of files for each language: 

i. .xlf files include all the course transcript content (title, slides, quizzes, etc.) 

ii. .csv files include the captions transcript content (video and audio captions) 

2. If you have added multiple languages and are sending files to multiple Translators, we recommend you make sub folders for each language, make sure to share the instructions file to explain to Translators how to edit the files, then zip the subfolders to share with Translators:

a.

3. Send the zip files to the Translators that will review/edit the course. In the email, include a link to preview the course because the Readme instructions will include information on how to review the translated content in the course. 

a.

Upload translated files to Simon 

1. The Translators will send back the edited translation files for you to update in the course. Open the Simon Course Manager then select the three dots next to the course to open the Action Menu and select “Upload”: 

2. When the upload is complete, you will see a confirmation dialog and there will be an out of sync icon on the course. You can upload the individual files from each of your native speakers separately. After you have uploaded all the edited files you have received, click on the Update button and Simon will begin processing the assets with the edited content. 

a. Depending on the number and length of the audio and video files the update can take anywhere from 5-60 minutes. For that reason, we encourage you to finish uploading all the available edited translation files before selecting Update.

b. Keep in mind that updating the captions for voiceover files will ONLY update the captions. If you need to update the audio for the voiceovers, you will need to do that in the course editor. 

3. When the update is complete, create a new link to preview the course and send it along to the Translators to review and confirm that the edited translations are correct.