Power Point® All?in?One Desk Reference For Dummies®

Chapter 3. Making Sound and Music a Part of a Presentation

In This Chapter

• Surveying the ways to include sound in presentations

• Understanding sound file formats

• Making sure that sounds play when you move your PowerPoint file

• Getting sound files from the Internet

• Using sound to mark the transitions between slides

• Inserting a sound file on a slide

• Fine‐tuning how sounds are played

• Playing sound during a presentation

• Recording your own narration or sounds for a presentation

Hark! I hear the sound of PowerPoint presentations! Yes, it can be done. You can make music, voice narrations, and sound a part of your presentations. This chapter explains how.

This chapter explains how to mark slide transitions with sound effects, play sound files along with your presentations, and record a voice narration for slides. You also get the background you need to use sound files wisely.

Ways to Include Sound in a Presentation

To include sound in a presentation, you need a sound file or a CD with sound. With the sound file in hand, you insert it in a PowerPoint slide. From simplest to most complex, here are the different ways to make sound a part of a PowerPoint presentation:

• Mark transitions between slides with a sound: Play a sound as a new slide comes on‐screen. See “Marking Slide Transitions with Sound,” later in this chapter.

• Play sound while a slide is on‐screen: You can play sound automatically when the slide appears, when you give the order to start playing, or a few seconds after the slide appears. See “Inserting ...