In steps that use Read text, the step's video is played repeatedly from the beginning until the narration finishes. If the narration is longer than the step's video, the same video plays two, three, or more times.

The same thing happens in the app, but since you move forward with [Next], it is less noticeable. In MP4 export, steps advance automatically, so the extra repeats remain in the video. If you want to stop the repeats, use one of the methods below to fit the "narration length" into the "step video length".

How repeats occur

Read text narration is not synced with the video. When you open a step, the text in the Text pane is read aloud from the start, and the video plays separately. Read text is turned on by default.

If the video reaches the end before the narration finishes, the video goes back to the beginning and keeps playing. Once the narration has finished, the video plays through to the end of that round before moving on to the next step. For example, if the step's video is 5 seconds long and the narration is 12 seconds long, the video plays three times.

The narration length is determined by the total of not just the body text, but also Tips / Quality warnings / Safety-critical items.

Subtitle narration is read in sync with the subtitle display timing, so this repeat does not occur.

Find steps where repeats occur

This applies to steps where, when you play the SOP in the app, the narration continues after the video reaches the end and the video returns to the beginning.

Fix 1: Narrow down the items to read aloud

This method lets you shorten the narration for the entire procedure at once, in one place. With Read text, in addition to the body text, Tips / Quality warnings / Safety-critical items are also read aloud. If you exclude these from narration, the narration becomes shorter.

On the SOP edit screen, open [Basic information]
Open "Advanced display settings" under "Playback & display settings"
In [Items to read aloud], uncheck the items you do not want to read aloud

The body text is always read aloud. Excluded items are removed from the narration audio, but the on-screen display does not change. This is done from a PC browser.

Fix 2: Switch to subtitle narration

Subtitle narration is read in sync with the subtitle display timing. Because the narration speed is adjusted to fit within the subtitle's time slot, the video does not repeat.

In the Audio settings that appear when you select a step in the video editor, choose [Subtitles] under [Narration target]. Because this is set per step, you can also switch only the steps where repeats occur.

Only the subtitle text is read aloud, not the Text pane. In steps without subtitles, nothing is read aloud. Also, in steps that use subtitle narration, the video's original audio is automatically muted.

If a sentence is long for the subtitle's time slot, the narration becomes rushed. In that case, please refer to For short steps, subtitle narration is too fast to understand.

Fix 3: Lengthen the step's video

This method extends the playback time of the step's video to match the narration. In the video editor, do one of the following.

Adjust the step split to widen the range of video included in that step (Adjusting step splits)
Insert a shape and set a "Still Duration." The video stops during that time, and the step's playback time is extended by that amount (Change the "Still Duration" when inserting a shape (how many seconds to stop during playback))
Slow down the Playback Speed of that step (Change the Playback Speed)

Fix 4: Shorten the text

Shorten the text of the body, Tips / Quality warnings / Safety-critical items. Because the narration length is the total of these, even if you shorten only the body text, the repeats will remain if the other items are long.

Fix 5: Turn off narration

If you select [None] under [Narration target], that step will be set to No narration. In MP4 export, the video plays once, and then moves on to the next step. The display in the Text pane does not change.

After changing settings, recreate the MP4

If you change Items to read aloud, the text, or Narration target, the narration audio is recreated. Because this is not applied to MP4s that have already been created, recreate the MP4 after you publish the SOP.

If MP4s created earlier remain, check [Discard the existing data for these settings and recreate] on the MP4 export screen and then export. If you create MP4s for each translation language, or for each Advanced settings option (such as video orientation), each one needs to be recreated.