Adding Sound to a Slide

Sound, when used sparingly, adds a nice element to your presentation. For example, if you want to get the audience’s attention at the beginning of a presentation, you can add an upbeat audio track to the title slide. The audio track will alert attendees that the presentation is about to begin.

You can also record your own audio to add to a presentation. However, recording your own audio track requires that you have a microphone attached to your computer.

Sound can be as simple as a sound effect. The three types of sound files you can include in a presentation include audio files stored on your computer, sound files included with PowerPoint, and audio tracks from an audio CD in your computer.

PowerPoint can use audio files stored in common formats such as AIFF, MIDI, MP3, and WAV files. If your audio file is stored in a different file format, such as Real Audio, you will have to convert the file first before you can add it to a PowerPoint presentation.

Adding an audio file to a presentation

If you already have music, sound effects, or a speech stored as a file, such as an MP3 file, you can add it to your presentation. To add an audio file to a slide, follow these steps:

1. Click the slide (in either Slide or Outline view) to which you want to add an audio file and then click the Insert tab.
   
   
2. Click the downward-pointing arrow underneath the Sound icon in the Media Clips group. A pull-down menu appears, as shown in Figure below.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Choose Sound from File. The Insert Sound dialog box appears and then click the audio file you want to add and then click OK.
   PowerPoint adds your audio file to the currently displayed slide (represented as a horn icon) and displays a dialog box, asking whether you want the sound to play automatically or when you click the mouse.
   
   
4. Click Automatically or When Clicked. PowerPoint displays your audio file as a sound icon on your slide. You may want to move the sound icon on your slide so it does not obscure part of your slide.
   You won’t hear your sound file play until you view your slide show by pressing F5.

Adding an audio clip to a presentation

PowerPoint includes a library of sound files (such as cheering or applause) that you can add to a presentation. To add a PowerPoint audio file to a slide, follow these steps:

1. Click the slide (in either Slide or Outline view) to which you want to add an audio file and then click the Insert tab.
   
   
2. Click the downward-pointing arrow underneath the Sound icon in the Media Clips group. A pull-down menu appears and choose Sound from Clip Organizer. The Clip Art dialog box appears.
   You can preview each sound by clicking the downward-pointing arrow on each sound icon in the Clip Organizer. When a pull-down menu appears, click Preview/Properties.
   
   
3. Click the audio file you want to add. PowerPoint adds your audio file to the currently displayed slide (represented as a horn icon) and displays a dialog box, asking whether you want the sound to play automatically or when you click the mouse.
   
   
4. Click Automatically or When Clicked. PowerPoint displays your audio file as a sound icon on your slide. You may want to move the sound icon on your slide so it doesn’t obscure part of your slide.

You won’t hear your sound file play until you view your slide show by pressing F5.

Adding a CD audio track to a presentation

You might have an audio CD that contains a sound that you want to play during your presentation. To play an audio CD track during a presentation, follow these steps:

1. Click the slide (in either Slide or Outline view) to which you want to add an audio file.
   
   
2. Insert an audio CD in your computer’s drive and then Click the Insert tab.
   
   
3. Click the downward-pointing arrow underneath the Sound icon in the Media Clips group. A pull-down menu appears and then choose Play CD Audio Track. The Insert CD Audio dialog box appears, as shown in Figure below.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Click in the Start at Track and End at Track text boxes to choose one or more tracks to play.
   
   
5. Click in the Seconds text boxes to define the time to start playing the audio track and the time to end it and then click OK. PowerPoint adds your audio track to the currently displayed slide (represented as a horn icon) and displays a dialog box, asking whether you want the sound to play automatically or when you click the mouse.
   
   
6. Click Automatically or When Clicked. PowerPoint displays your audio file as a sound icon on your slide. You may want to move the sound icon on your slide so it does not obscure part of your slide.

You won’t hear your sound file play until you view your slide show by pressing F5. If you copy your presentation to play on another computer, you must bring along the audio CD, too.

Be careful of copyright infringement when using audio CDs. Depending on your location and audience, using copyrighted material may not be acceptable.

Telling PowerPoint when and how to play a sound file

To tell PowerPoint when and how to play a sound file, start by selecting the Sound icon and going to the (Sound Tools) Options tab. From there, you can select options on the tab or click the Sound Options group button to open the Sound Options dialog box and select options there. Here are your choices for telling PowerPoint when and how to play a sound file:

Controlling the volume:
Click the Slide Show Volume button (on the tab) or the Sound Volume icon (in the dialog box) to control how loud the sound is. The tab offers Low, Medium, High, and Mute settings, the dialog box offers a slider.

Hiding and unhiding the Sound icon:
Select the Hide during Show check box (on the tab) or the Hide Sound Icon during Slide Show check box (in the dialog box). If you hide the Sound icon, the sound file must play automatically, otherwise, you won’t see the Sound icon and be able to click it and make the file play.

Continuously playing a sound:
Select the Loop until Stopped check box (on the tab or the dialog box) to play the sound file over and over again or until you move on to the next slide.

Changing the Automatically or When Clicked status:
Open the Play Sound drop-down list on the Options tab and choose Automatically or When Clicked to tell PowerPoint when to start playing sound.

Starting, pausing, and resuming a sound file

While a sound file is playing during a presentation, you can pause and resume playing it as long as the Sound icon appears on your slide. (If you have hidden the Sound icon, you are out of luck because you have to click it to pause a sound file.) Follow these instructions to start, pause, and resume a sound recording during a presentation:

Starting a sound file:
Click the Sound icon.

Pausing and resuming a sound file:
Click the Sound icon to pause. To resume playing, click the Sound icon again. Be careful to click the Sound icon and not another part of your slide when you start, pause, or resume playing a sound file. Clicking another part of the slide advances your presentation to the next slide.