You may build and present an interesting presentation to an audience using the program PowerPoint. But what if you’re delivering it as a link or file if the audience isn’t in the same room?
This is why it’s beneficial and useful to include audio narration in PowerPoint slide timings. The narration may be recorded inside your presentation and played back as people are watching. Your PowerPoint presentation or movie will become evergreen stand-alone content if you add voice-over narration to it.
For Windows 10, this post will go over how to include audio narration in a PowerPoint presentation.
Examine your default microphone
A functioning microphone is the first item you’ll need. Nowadays, the majority of computers include a built-in microphone. You don’t need to install a microphone if you want to utilize the built-in microphone on your computer.
You should check to make sure it is operational and audible, though. Make sure your microphone is operational before setting it as your default. The steps listed below can be used to modify the characteristics.
- Type Settings in the search bar to get started.
- Select Sound under System.
- For options to customize your microphone, see under Input. To choose your default microphone, select your input device from the drop-down box.
- There is nothing to choose if there is just one microphone available. Click Device properties > Additional device settings to get additional microphone settings.
- Under the General menu, you may turn on or off the speaker and get audio driver details.
- You may choose whether to let your microphone listen to the speakers by using the Listen tab.
- Under Levels, change the settings for the microphone’s balance and loudness.
- Under the Advanced tab, you may alter the bit depth and sample rate defaults.
- The audio experience can be improved if spatial sound is enabled on your computer.
Revisit the Input area and click the Test Microphone button. Use the Troubleshoot button to see if you can fix it if it’s not working.
Connect a USB microphone.
- Connect the USB microphone for Audio to PowerPoint to your computer first, then turn on your microphone. then do a right-click on the taskbar’s volume icon.
- Select Sounds.
- Select the microphone you wish to configure and click Configure under the Recording menu.
- Click Set up microphone under Configure your Speech Recognition experience.
Select the kind of microphone you’re installing when the setup screen opens by clicking Next.
- The instructions for utilizing your microphone are on the screen that follows, along with some information you may read to check your settings.
- As you follow the wizard’s steps, try the microphone to make sure it is functioning properly.
Use a USB microphone as your input device.
You must choose it as the input device if you intend to record your narration using the external USB microphone you just set up.
Open Sound Settings by performing a right-click on the volume icon located on the taskbar’s right side.
- Scroll down to Input in the Sound Settings window and check the box next to Choose your input device.
- A USB microphone should be chosen as the input device.
Practice and Take Notes
Instead of starting to record straight away after setting up and testing your microphone, spend some time to prepare your lines of dialogue.
To save time, reduce errors, and guarantee that your audio sounds fluent and natural, take notes, type down a script, and practice the timings.
You are now prepared to begin recording.
Set the Recording Tab to On (Office 365)
Navigate to File, choose Options > Customize Ribbon > Recording > OK to enable the Recording tab.
How to Take a Slide’s Audio Narration
(Add Audio to PowerPoint)
One slide at a time recording is the simplest way to add audio to your PowerPoint presentation.
- Choose the slide to which you wish to add the audio first.
- Select Insert > Audio > Record Audio from the menu.
- Change Recorded Sound to the name you’ve chosen for your voiceover.
- Click the button with the red dot to begin recording. When you have done reading from your script, press the pause button.
- While you are recording, the center square, which is the stop button, will be highlighted in red.
- Press the play button to hear your recording. Click OK if you want to keep it because you like the way it sounds.
- By selecting the embedded audio icon on your slide, you can also hear the audio. Underneath, a bar will appear that you may use to play audio.
- A clear audio symbol will now be present on your slide. Click on this symbol to make it disappear for your final presentation.
- Check the box next to Hide During Show when you click Playback in the top bar menu.
Record a voiceover for the entire slideshow (Office 365)
- Record Slide Show by selecting Recording from the top navigation menu.
- Decide whether to start recording from the beginning or the current slide. The Recording window will then display the slideshow.
- The controls for recording, pausing, halting, and playing are located in the upper left corner. To start the recording, click the red, rounded button. There will be a countdown of three seconds for you to prepare.
- The primary pane of the window will display the slide you are recording. Use the arrow on the right side of the window to move to the following slide. Use the left arrow to go to a previous slide. The amount of time you spend speaking on each slide in Powerpoint with Office 365 will be automatically recorded.
Any set up animations are included in this. - The buttons on the bottom right corner of the screen may be used to turn on or off your microphone, camera, and camera preview. Powerpoint will delete the previous recording if you decide to redo all or a portion of your narration.
- When you are done recording, click the square button in the recording window’s upper left-hand corner.
- In the Slide Sorter view, the timings for each slide will be visible. Click View > Slide Sorter to view your timings.
- The picture below shows the timings from the Slide Sorter view underneath the slides.
View Your Slide Show in Preview
- Click Slide Show from the top bar navigation to get a preview of your slideshow that includes the narration, animations, and timings that you put up before you began recording. Make sure the Home tab is selected.
- Select either the first slide or the current slide.
- Go to Normal view, click the sound button, and then press Play to listen to the audio for only one slide. Please take note that while previewing from a single slide, recorded animations won’t appear.
Set Slide Timings by Hand
- Additionally, you have the option to manually time your slides to match your narrations. To achieve this, click Transitions after selecting the slide from Normal View.
- Choose the After checkbox under Advance Slide from the Timing group.
- You can specify how long a slide should remain on the screen before moving on to the next. If you want to utilize manual timings, repeat this procedure for each slide.
Share Your Presentation By Publishing It
To share your presentation with others, you may save it as a Powerpoint Show (.ppsx) or a video. A slideshow file starts in slideshow mode as soon as it is opened by a viewer.
Go to File, Save As, and choose the format from the dropdown menu to save your presentation.
You might need to compress the file if your presentation is large and you wish to send it as an email attachment. Sending the URL to the intended recipients after uploading the file to Dropbox, OneDrive, or Google Drive is a preferable approach.
