At the top right, enter a term in the [...]]]> The Freesound Project is a web site that collects sounds and sound effects (not music) that are available under Creative Commons licensing, and therefore free and legal for anyone to use. It’s also a community; you can register and upload your own sounds for sharing.

At the top right, enter a term in the Search box. For example, try entering thunder or bell, and you’ll find lots of options.

Usually, [...]]]> When you add narration to a presentation, especially with slide timings, you create a self-running presentation. It’s almost a video-like effect. Such a presentation is great for sending to potential customers on a CD, posting on your website or a presentation-sharing site, or displaying at a trade show or in your company’s lobby.

Usually, I prefer to record my voice using Audacity, a free sound recorder and editor. You can get it at   http://audacity.sourceforge.net.  If you download it, be sure to also read the instructions for, and download, the LAME MP3 encoder, which lets you save files in MP3 format. The advantage is that it’s easier to edit the files, in case you tend to trip over your own tongue, as I do!

However, recently I wanted to post a presentation with narration at authorSTREAM.com. This slide sharing site has some nice benefits:

• You can upload presentations with embedded sound
• It plays many animations
• You can convert presentations of under 5 minutes to video for free, to post at video-sharing sites (like YouTube) or on your own site.

But the sound must be embedded, which means using the narration feature (or doing a trick with MP3′s to make PowerPoint think they’re WAV files—because PowerPoint can only embed WAV files).

Get the best quality sound

So I tried the narration feature and discovered that the quality was awful! There was a huge amount of noise in the background. When I tried used the same equipment in Audacity, the sound was just fine. That’s when I discovered the first secret: CD quality.

To start narration, you go to the Slide Show tab and click Record Narration (in 2002/2003 choose Slide Show> Record Narration).  Click the Set Microphone Level button to set and test your audio setup.

Then be sure to click the Change Quality button! You need to do this every single time; you can’t change the default.

Change the quality when you narrate

Then, in the Sound Selection dialog box, choose CD Quality from the Name drop-down list, and click OK twice to start narrating.

Use CD Quality for your narration

You then go into Slide Show view automatically. Narrate the presentation, clicking to move from slide to slide. At the end, you’ll be asked if you want to save the slide timings. Do so to set the timings for each slide to match the narration.

Note: Unfortunately, this setting isn’t always available. Apparently, it varies with the version of Windows that you are using.

Edit narration successfully

If you make a mistake, you can re-narrate a slide. Go to the slide, re-open the Record Narration dialog box and start again. Record the narration for that slide and then press Esc. Be careful not to go to the next slide.

However, if your new narration is longer than the original, you may run into a recognized problem—truncated narrations! This can be very frustrating. It apparently happens because PowerPoint saves narratioan timings separatly from slide timings. Even if you increase the timing for the slide, PowerPoint will truncate the narration!

I’m going to tell you what Microsoft says to do and then tell you what worked for me.

Microsoft’s instructions are:

1. Make sure that all animations are set to advance on mouse click and not automatically.
2. If the last item to be animated on the slide is a text frame of an AutoShape that contains text, create one new shape and place it outside of the slide’s area. Set the shape’s Custom Animation setting to Appear. Make sure that the shape is the last item to animate and that it is set to animated on a mouse click.
3. Make sure that any slide transitions are set to advance on a mouse click and not automatically.
4. Re-record the narration and click No when asked if youwant to save the slide timings.
5. Preview the presentation in Slide Show view manually and check the narrations.
6. Then add the automatic slide and animation timings.

No matter what I did, my new narration was cut off. I made it shorter than the original and still the same amount was cut off. Finally, I realized that that the problem wasn’t the length. PowerPoint was cutting off a certain amount no matter what the length. So, I recorded a silent period at the end  of a narration. Then, when PowerPoint cut it off, I was fine!

Ellen Finkelstein can train you or the presenters in your organization to create high-impact, engaging, professional presentations for training, sales, business, or education. [...]]]> I just posted a presentation on authorSTREAM. It’s called “Latest Trends in Hi-Impact Lo-Cost Marketing with Presentations.”

Before I start, let me say that I’m not a lawyer. If you have questions, get legal advice. That said, here’s my understanding. [...]]]> A subscriber recently asked me how to insert songs that he bought from iTunes into a PowerPoint presentation. He wanted to use them for a presentation to a Rotary Club conference.

Before I start, let me say that I’m not a lawyer. If you have questions, get legal advice. That said, here’s my understanding. (Correct me if I’m wrong.) In most cases, you need permission to use copyrighted music in a presentation to someone else. One exception is when a teacher uses it in a classroom, as part of a lesson. Students should also be able to use copyrighted music for a student class project.

However, if you want to use the music for a non-profit organization, you may be able to get permission to do so. Contact either the publisher named in the credits (you may be able to find the publisher in the iTunes description), or one of several music industry organizations (ASCAP, BMI, or SOCAN for Canada).

There are sources for copyright-free music that you can use. This article, “How to Get Free Music for PowerPoint Presentations,” offers some ideas. You can also purchase royalty-free music, but even then may need to give credit in your presentation if you’re using it for a commercial purpose.

If you believe you have a legal use for music that you downloaded from iTunes in the M4P format (a protected format), you can convert it to MP3, which you can play on any audio player or insert into PowerPoint. An easy way to do this is to use Audacity, a free, open-source sound recording and editing program. You’ll also need the LAME MP3 encoder, which you can get at the same location (after choosing your computer platform). Follow the instructions to download and install both.

Start playing your iTunes music on your computer and immediately click the Record button in Audacity. Audacity will record directly from your sound card. The result may be softer than the original. If necessary, choose Edit> Preferences in Audacity and try various options in the Recording section of the Audio I/O tab. You sound card needs to allow direct recording, but most do. This is sometimes called recording “what is heard.”

After recording, choose File> Export as MP3. The first time, you need to specify the location of the LAME MP3 encoder file that you downloaded. Then you can save the recording as an MP3 file.

Audacity lets you easily cut unwanted silence at the beginning and end. Just select a portion of the timeline and click the Cut button.

Video files come in several formats. The formats that work well in PowerPoint are:

Before you start, you must put the video file in [...]]]> How do you put video files into PowerPoint? Can you show video in a PowerPoint presentation? The answer is yes! In fact, it’s very easy.

Video files come in several formats. The formats that work well in PowerPoint are:

• AVI
• WMV
• MPG (or MPEG)

Before you start, you must put the video file in the same folder as the PowerPoint presentation. The reason for this is that if you ever move your presentation to another computer, you video probably won’t play. Not following this advice is probably the #1 reason videos don’t play in PowerPoint.

Then, choose Insert> Movies and Sounds> Movie from File. (In PowerPoint 2007, go to Insert tab> Media Clips Group> Movie.) From the dialog box, find and double-click the video file. (Note that “video” and “movie” mean the same thing.)

You see a message asking you if you want the video to play automatically or when clicked. Choose whichever you want. You can change the option later. The first frame of the video appears on your slide.

Change how the video plays in PowerPoint

You have some control over how the video plays in PowerPoint. Right-click the video on the slide, and choose Edit Movie Object to open the Movie Options dialog box. (In PowerPoint 2007, select the video, and click the Movie Tools Options tab. Most of the options are on the tab, but not all. For more options, click the dialog box launcher arrow at the right side of the group’s title bar to open the Movie Options dialog box.)

Here’s what you can do:

• Loop the video: Check the Loop Until Stopped check box.
• Rewind the video: Check the Rewind Movie When Done (After) Playing checkbox. You would do this if you might need to play it more than once during a presentation
• Hide the video when it isn’t playing: Check the Hide While Not Playing check box.
• Zoom the video to full screen: Check the Zoom to Full Screen/Play Full Screen check box. (This was a new feature in PowerPoint 2003.) This will probably result in low resolution.

If you want to change whether the video plays automatically or only when clicked, choose Slide Show> Custom Animation (in PowerPoint 2007, Animations tab> Custom Animation) to open the Custom Animation task pane:

• If you chose to play the video automatically, you’ll see two items; the first has a Start setting of After Previous and the second has a trigger (the video itself) and a Start setting of On Click. To change to playing when clicked, delete the item that has a Start setting of After previous.
• If you chose to play the video when clicked, you’ll just see the trigger and the On Click setting in the Start box. To change to playing automatically, click the item’s down arrow in the Custom Animations task pane, and choose Timing. Under the Triggers button, click the Animate as Part of Click Sequence option. In the same dialog box, set the Start to With Previous. Click OK. (Note that there still may be a slight delay after you display the slide before the video starts to play.)

You can size the video so that it’s appropriate for the resolution of your screen or projector. This is useful if you switch to a computer or projector with a different resolution than the original computer where you created the presentation. Follow these steps:

1. Select the video.
2. Right-click the video and choose Format Picture to open the Format Picture dialog box. (In PowerPoint 2007, right-click and choose Size and Position to open the Size and Position dialog box.)
3. Click the Size tab.
4. Check the Best Scale for Slide Show check box.

Troubleshooting video in PowerPoint

Sometimes, videos in PowerPoint don’t play. There can be a number of reasons for this:

• Videos are linked, not embedded. If you move your presentation, or send it to someone, you must include the video file. The Package for CD feature can do this for you. Choose File> Package for CD and use the Copy to Folder button. (In PowerPoint 2007, choose Office button> Publish> Package for CD.)
• When created, videos are compressed using compression/decompression algorithms. These are called codecs for short. If your computer doesn’t have the codec that was used when the video was created, PowerPoint won’t play the video.
• PowerPoint for the Mac plays MOV (Quicktime) files; but PowerPoint for the PC doesn’t. So, if the presentation was created on the Mac, your video might not play because it’s a MOV file.

For more information on troubleshooting video, go to Echo Swinford’s excellent article, Troubleshooting Multimedia in PowerPoint.

Play, Pause, and Stop buttons give you extra control in case you want to stop to answer questions or discuss something in more [...]]]>

Follow these steps: