Sounds in PowerPoint

Updated 2008.09.15

Sound Files

Computers store sounds in files. There are many different file formats for storing sounds. The file format determines the size of the file and the quality of the sound. Some common sound file formats:

 

o    Quality: Very good.

o    Size: Very small.

Converting a song (from a CD) into an MP3

You can use the Windows Media Player to convert a song on a CD into a format that can be used in your PowerPoint presentation. This is called "ripping" the song. If you do not have the current version of the Windows Media Player (version 11 as of September, 2008), you can download it for free from the Microsoft web site: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/. After installing Windows Media Player, start it and follow the instructions below. If you cannot use Media Player 11, instructions for Media Player 10 are here.

Start Media Player 11

Click on "Start". Then click on "All Programs". From the sub-menu, select "Windows Media Player".

Start playing the CD

After you have started Windows Media Player, insert the CD into the CD drive (probably drive D). If Media Player doesn't start playing your CD, bring up the menu by bouncing on the "Alt" key once. From the menu, click on "Play". Then from the submenu, click on "DVC, VCD or CD Audio":

Select the format for your files.

From the menu, click on "Rip". Then click on "Format". Then click on "MP3". This will convert your song into an MPE (small) file. Note, however, that you have five other choices for the format of your music file (see below):

Select the location for your files.

To select where the ripped track will be saved, from the menu, click on "Rip", then click on "More Options…" from the drop-down menu:

Click on the "Rip Music" tab, examine the "Rip music to this location" option and change it if that's not where you want your music files to go.

Select the tracks you want to rip.

From the list of songs, un-check all of the songs except the one that you want to rip. Below, I want to rip track #4 only:

Rip the song.

After you have checked/un-checked the tracks, from the menu, click on "Rip". From the drop-down menu, click on "Rip…" (either the name of your album will appear here, or "Unknown Album" will appear).

Wait for Media Player to rip the song.

The progress will be shown in the "Rip Status" column (see green bar below). It will take around 30 seconds to rip a single song.

Find the track on your hard drive.

Click on "Start". Then click on "My Computer" and navigate to the location on your hard disk where the song was saved. The song is now ready to be used in PowerPoint (or any other application that can use songs in the format you have chosen – MP3 in this case).

Adding a sound to a single slide

  1. Click on the "Insert" tab, and look in the "Media Clips" group. Click on the "Sound" button. Then click on "Sound from file".
  2. When the "Insert Sound" dialog box appears, locate your sound file and click on "OK".
  3. When PowerPoint asks "How do you want the sound to start in the slide show?" choose either "Automatically" (to have the sound begin playing as soon as the slide appears) or "When Clicked" (to have the sound begin playing when you click on the speaker icon that is placed on your slide).

Adding a sound to play in the background and span multiple slides

  1. Note that a WAV file would be huge. Instead of using the WAV file, use a utility (such as Windows Media Player—see below) to convert the WAV file (on the CD) into an MP3 file and put it in the same folder as your PowerPoint file.
  2. In PowerPoint, move to slide number 1.
  3. Click on the "Insert" tab, and look in the "Media clips" group. Click on the "Sound" button. Then click on "Sound from file".
  4. In response to "How do you want the slide to start in the show" choose "Automatically".
  5. Click on the "Animations" tab, and look in the "Animations" group. Click on "Custom Animation".
  6. Click on the down arrow next to your song. Choose "Effect options".
  7. In the "Play sound" dialog box, on the "Effect" tab: (a) under "Start Playing" choose "From Beginning", (b) under "Stop playing" choose "After" and enter a large number (greater than the number of slides in your show).

The song will start playing with slide 1 and continue to play through the entire slide show.

 

Recording a sound using the microphone

If you have a microphone for your computer, you can record your own sounds (like your voice). Do the following:

  1. Plug your microphone into the microphone jack on your computer (this is usually on the back of older computers but is frequently on the front of newer computers – see below). It is usually red, and is identified by a picture that looks something like this:

  1. Open the Windows Sound Recorder utility. Click on "Start" | "All Programs" | "Accessories" | "Entertainment" | "Sound Recorder". The following program should appear:

  1. When you are ready to begin recording, click on the record button (the red circle) and begin speaking or singing or playing music into the microphone.
  2. When you are done recording, click on the "Stop" button (the black rectangle).
  3. To save your sound file, from the menu, choose "File" | "Save As" and enter the name for your file. The file will be saved in WAV (huge) format. You can shrink it by converting it to an MP3 file (see below).

 

Editing a sound using Audacity

Audacity is a free sound editor that can be downloaded from the Internet. See

With Audacity, you can do the following: