eLearning logistics – how to create files in seconds

The eLearning Challenge!

If you’re a voiceover artist that works in eLearning, you’ll know that one of the more trickier aspects of it is coping with the need to split and name sometimes hundreds of files.

Splitting and individually naming files can sometimes take longer than the recording itself and ultimately, time not spent behind the mic is time wasted. To try and help out with this I’ve created the video below. Frustrated by how long it took to deal with this logistical challenge I put my 12 year IT career to some good use (finally) and created a very simple Excel file to help out.

Watch the video below and download the Excel file from here and you’ll be renaming eLearning files almost instantaneously!

The basic premise I have followed is to split the files at the point of recording using the free audio software, Audacity (get it here). I then use Excel to create a set of commands we can dump in to a command prompt to rename all the files in one fell swoop!

Hopefully this will work for many of you out there and it really has not only improved my efficiency but also allowed me to improve my turnaround times for customers. It also frees up my time to spend on other activities, such as more recording, some marketing or just relaxing with a cup of tea!

If you have any issues or need some help getting it to work for you, please feel free to hit me up on Twitter or drop me an e-mail and I’ll do what I can!