Coahoma Community College
Tech Prep Consortium
Fall 2003 Professional Development

Making Music with PowerPoint
November 8, 2003

Lynnette D. Morrison

Adding sound to animations
Some of the animations in PowerPoint, for example, the Flying Effect, already have sound built into them. But most of the animations do not have sound effects.
In PowerPoint you can add sound to any animation. You can also replace the current sound effect on an animation with a new one.
Try adding a sound effect to an animation.

1. In Slide View, select the animated object you want to add the sound effect to by clicking it.
2. Click the Slide Show menu, then click Custom Animation. You can also click the Custom Animation button on the Animation Effects toolbar.



 

3. The right hand panel changes, this time to show the Custom Animation panel. The entire area will probably be inactive; this is because nothing on the slide has been selected to be the item animated. Move to the first slide of the presentation (scroll up in the design view area). Click on the title of the presentation. Now you should see the Add Effect button activated.



4. Click on Add Effect. When than menu opens, select Entrance. Entrance dictates the manner in which that element of the slide (in this case, the title) will appear on the slide. Check out the various options and select one.
5. Modify is now active. Below Modify, click on Direction to set from which side of the slide the title will enter. Again, whatever you do with one title, you should do with all titles.
   
   Directly under Modify is a segment labeled Start: the default is With Previous. This means the animation you just set will happen automatically without the presenter prompting it. For titles, this is the best option.
   
   NOTE: Select an option that does not bring the animated item over a major graphic which is part of the background.
   
   
6. Click on the Title animation and drop down the selection list and choose effect options. You will then select the down arrow next to Sound: and surf to wherever you have your sound collection saved.
   
   
   
   

Adding sound to transitions

Spice up your transitions by adding sound effects to them. Here's how:
.

1. In Slide Sorter View, click the slide with the transition you are adding sound to.
2. Click the Slide Show menu, and then click Slide Transition. The Slide Transition dialog box will appear.
3. Select a sound effect from the Sound drop-down list, then
   click Apply. The sound is added to the transition.
   
   
   

Recording your own sound files

To record sound files, you need to plug a microphone into the mic jack on your computer's sound card.

The following steps show you how to record a narration for a slide.

1. Go to Slide View and display the slide you want to add a recording to.
2. Click the Insert menu, point to Movies and Sounds, then click Record Sound.
   
3. When the Record Sound dialog box appears, type a name for your recording in the Name box.
   
   Below the name box are three buttons. The first button, with the arrow, is the Play button. The middle button, with the square, is the Stop button. The last button, with a red dot, is the Record button.
   
   
   
4. To start recording, click the Record button, then begin talking into your microphone.
5. When you finish talking, click the Stop button.
6. Click the Play button to play back your recording.
   
   If you want to add another segment to your recording, simply click the Record button and start talking again. When you're finished, click the Stop button. The new segment will be added to your previous one.

Re-recording sound files

What if you're not satisfied with the recording after you've listened to it? Maybe it's too quiet, you've spoken too quickly, or there's too much background noise. It's simple. Cancel the recording and begin again.

1. In the Record Sound dialog box, click the Cancel button. The Record Sound dialog box closes.
   
2. Click the Insert menu, point to Movies and Sound, then click Record Sound. The Record Sound dialog box opens again.
3. Start recording.
4. When you're satisfied with your recording, click OK. The Record Sound dialog box will close, and a speaker icon will appear in the middle of your slide.
   
   

Playing your sound files from the slide

You've added some snazzy sound files to your presentation, now try playing them directly from the slides.

1. . In Slide View, double-click the speaker icon. The sound file will begin to play.
   
   If you want to stop the sound file before it finishes playing, click anywhere on the slide.
   
   

Attaching your sound files to objects

PowerPoint lets you attach your recordings to objects on your slides. However, the objects must be animated before you can attach a sound file to them.

Let's say that you want to add your narration to a cartoon on your slide. Here's what you do:

1. In Slide View, display the slide you want to add the sound file to.
2. Record your narration.
3. In Slide View, click the object that you want to add the recording to. For example, the cartoon.
4. Click the Slide Show menu, then click Custom Animation. The Custom Animation dialog box will appear.
5. Click on Effects options .
6. Next, find your recording in the Sound drop-down list and click it.
   
   
   
7. Click OK. The sound file is now added to the object.
   

Adding music from CDs

If you have a CD ROM drive installed in your computer, you can add CD music tracks to your PowerPoint presentations. However, you can only add the music tracks to slides. The track will not attach to objects, animations, or transitions.

Here's how you add a CD music track to your slide.

1. In Slide View, display the slide you want to add the music track to.
2. Click the Insert menu, point to Movies and Sounds, and then click Play CD Audio Track. The Play Options dialog box will appear.
   
3. 3. Under Play CD Audio Track, enter the music track number in the Start and End Track boxes provided. For example, to add the second track of the CD, type 2 in the Start Track box and in the End Track box. If you want to play just the first 10 seconds of the track, type 10 seconds in the End Track At box.
   
4. Then click OK.
   
   A CD icon appears in the middle of your slide. You can resize this icon or move it to other parts of the slide.
   
   
5. To play the CD track, double-click the CD icon. But make sure the CD is in the drive. Otherwise, the music won't play.
   
   
   
   You can use the Windows CD Player to determine the start and end times of a portion of music on a CD. To open the Windows CD Player in Windows 95, go to your Windows desktop and click the Start button. Point to Programs, point to Accessories, then Multimedia, and click CD Player.
   
   

Making music play automatically

You can make the music play automatically if you give the CD icon an animation order.

The following steps show you how to add an animation effect and an animation order to your CD icon.

Note: It's not necessary to add an animation effect to make the CD music play automatically, but it certainly adds visual interest. Especially when the CD icon "makes an entrance" before it starts playing.

1. In Slide View, click the CD icon to select it.
2. Click the Slide Show menu, then click Custom Animation. The Custom Animation dialog box will appear.
3. Click the Play Settings tab, and then click the check box beside Play using animation order. The CD file appears in the Animation order box.
   
4. Next, click the Effects tab, and then select an animation effect from the Effect drop-down list. For example, Crawl From Right
5. Click OK to close the Custom Animation dialog box.
   
   During the Slide Show, the audio track will start to play when the CD icon comes in from the right of the screen.
   

Adding sound files from other sources

You can add sound files to your presentations from a variety of sources. For example, you can add sound files you find on the Internet or special sound effects CDs. However, PowerPoint does not recognize all sound file types. WAV and MIDI are two of the types it does recognize.

Let's say you've downloaded some WAV sound files from the Internet to your hard drive. Here's how you would add one of the sound files to your slide.

1. Click the Insert menu, point to Movies and Sounds, then click Sound from File.
   
   
   
   
2. In the Look in box, specify the drive and folder where the sound file is located.
3. In the file list, click the sound file you want, then click OK.
   
   
   
   PowerPoint will add a speaker icon to your slide.
   

Adding a video clip

If you want to add a video clip to your presentation, you can search for one in PowerPoint's Microsoft Clip Gallery. You can choose from 21 video clips. However, to access the clips you must place the Office 97 CD in your CD ROM drive.

To add one of these video clips to your presentation, follow these steps:

1. Click the Insert menu, point to Movies and Sounds, and then click Movie from Gallery.
   
   
   
   
2. In the Microsoft Clip Gallery dialog box, click the Videos tab, then click the video clip you want.
   
   
   
   
3. Click the Insert button. The video clip icon, a blacked-out video screen, will appear on your slide
   

Adding a video clip from other sources

You can also add video clips from other sources such as CDs or the Internet. Let's say you've found a cool video clip on the Internet that you want to add to your presentation. Here's what you do:

1. Click the Insert menu, point to Movies and Sounds, and then click Movie from File. The Insert Movie dialog box will appear.
   
   
   
   
2. In the Look in box, locate the drive and folder where you have saved the video clip.
3. Select the video clip file from the file list, then click OK. A video screen icon is added to the slide. You can resize the icon or move it to other areas of the slide.
   

Playing video clips

The default way to play a video clip during a slide show is to click the video screen icon. However, the video clip will play automatically if you give it an animation order.

The following steps show you how to add an animation effect and an animation order to the video screen icon.

Note: Although it's not necessary to give the icon an animation effect to make it play automatically, the Slide Show looks better when the video screen makes a grand entrance.

To set up the video clip so that it plays automatically, follow these steps:

1. In Slide View, click the video screen icon to select it
2. Click the Slide Show menu, then click Custom Animation.
3. Select the video clip in the Animation order list.
4. Click the Play Settings tab, then click the check box beside Play using animation order.
   
   
   
   
5. Click the Effects tab
6. In the Effects drop-down list, choose an effect. For example, Crawl from Top.
7. Click OK to close the Custom Animation dialog box
   
   Try running your slide show. The video clip will start once the animation stops.