Working with Sound in PowerPoint 2010

Transcription

1 Working with Sound in PowerPoint 2010 Adding sound to a PowerPoint presentation can be very useful. Most people know that music can be inserted into a slide, but not everyone is aware that it is possible to record directly into a presentation using a microphone. In this handout we will explore many of the program s sound options. When you start PowerPoint your screen will resemble the illustration below. Make sure the Home tab on the ribbon is selected, then click the Layout button in the Slides zone. Layout button 1

2 Select the Blank layout from the panel. This layout will be easiest to work with right now. You will now have a blank slide. Click the Insert tab on the ribbon. The ribbon will change to show you insert options as shown below. In the Media section of the ribbon you will find two options. You can insert either video or audio here. The Audio button has an upper part and a lower part. If you click the upper part, as shown on the right, a panel will open and you will be able to navigate to a sound file on your computer and then insert it. 2

3 If you click the lower part of the Audio button, as shown on the right, you will be given three choices: Select audio from an existing file Select audio from the Clip Art Audio Record your own audio We will explore all three options. Click Audio from File. The Insert Audio panel will open. It will resemble the illustration on the right. Navigate to the file that you want to use, then click Import. NOTE: PowerPoint 2010 will import files that are in the most popular audio formats. Included are WAV, WMA, MP3, MIDI, MP4, AIF, and many others. To see what formats are acceptable, click the formats dropdown in the lower right corner of the Insert Audio panel. A symbol representing the audio file and a controller appear in your slide. 3

4 You can now click the play button to test your sound. You can also fast forward, rewind, and control the volume with the button on the controller. If the sound is not the one you want, you can delete it. You can also insert clip art audio. Click the lower part of the Audio button, then click Clip Art Audio. A new panel will open on the right side of the screen. This panel is the same one that is used for finding graphical clip art. But in this instance the audio options have been selected. Audio clips are shown in thumbnail form. 4

5 To insert one of the files you can simply click once inside the thumbnail icon. However, you can also click the bar to the right of the icon that has the little down-pointing triangle in it. A drop down list will appear. You can make several choices from this list, the one most appropriate at this time is the Insert option. When you click Insert the audio clip will appear as discussed above. You can also record sound using a microphone. You must have a microphone connected to your computer. Click the lower part of the Audio button. Select Record Audio from the list. The Record Sound panel, as shown on the right, will be displayed. You may name the sound clip if you wish. Click the red record button to start recording. Click the blue stop button when you are finished recording. The length of the recording will be displayed. Click the play button to test the recording. 5

6 Click OK to insert the recording into the slide. A symbol representing the audio file and a controller appear in your slide as before. You will be able to play and test the sound. When you click on the sound icon for the sound that you have inserted a new option on the ribbon will appear. Audio Tools gives you features that you can apply to your sound clip so that you can customize it. The Playback tab now shows on the ribbon. The Playback tab is divided into sections. They are: Preview Bookmarks Editing Audio Options The Preview section of the ribbon has a button that allows you to play the sound clip. The Bookmarks section allows you to add or remove a bookmark to your audio clip. A bookmark places a marker at a point you specify in the file. This marker can then be used if you want to play the sound from that point. A bookmark can have other uses, too. It is possible to use the mark as a trigger for animations. 6

7 The Editing area of the ribbon allows you to make basic changes to your sound. Clicking the Trim Audio button will bring up the Trim Audio panel. By moving the green pointer on the left side you can set the start position. Moving the red pointer on the right side allows you to set the end. You can also set the start and end by specifying the timing. Simply controls allow you to play, rewind, or fast forward the sound for testing. Click OK when you are finished. Fade in and fade out timing can also be set in the Editing section. The Audio Options section of the ribbon provides several important choices that allow you to further customize Click the Volume button to set the volume level of the sound to Low, Medium, High, or to Mute it. 7

8 The Start option allows you to select when the sound will begin playing. It can be automatically when the slide appears, when the presenter click a button, or you can have the sound play across several slides instead of within just one slide. If you check the Hide During Show checkbox the sound icon will be hidden while the presentation is running. The icon will remain visible while you are editing the slide so that you know that you have sound on that slide. If you do not check the box the icon will be visible during the presentation. It is important to note that if the icon is visible you will be able to use the playback controls that fade in when a mouse pointer passes over the icon. If the Hide During Show box is checked and the icon is not visible during the presentation the playback controls are not available. By checking the Loop until Stopped checkbox you will cause the sound to repeat nonstop. To cause the sound to reset after playing, check the Rewind after Playing checkbox. Using Action Buttons to Control Audio Action buttons are specialized shapes that allow you to insert graphical controls into your presentation. While graphical controls can make the appearance of a presentation more interesting, they are especially important when the presentation may be used by persons who are not experienced with PowerPoint. For instance, the presentation may be used in a kiosk configuration where it is playing on a display computer at a trade show or lobby. By using action buttons you can make is obvious what a user should do to play a sound. 8

9 Action buttons are available from the bottom of the shapes selection panel. Click the Insert tab on the ribbon. Click Shapes in the Illustrations section of the ribbon. Click any action button at the bottom of the panel. The action button row is circled in he illustration on the right. For this handout we will select the action button that has the illustration of a speaker. You mouse pointer will now turn to a cross. Left click and drag the action button into shape on your slide. It could resemble the illustration below. Of course, the actual size and shape will depend on how you draw it! 9

10 As soon as you release the mouse button an Action Settings panel will appear. It will resemble the illustration on the right. You have two general choices for the action. Click the Mouse Click tab or the Mouse Over tab to select whether the action occurs when the action button is click or if the action occures when a mouse pointer passes over it. Click the None radio button if you do not want any action to be associated with the action button. If you select None the button is totally inactive. Click the Hyperlink to radio button if you want to create a hyperlink. The action button can link to any slide in your presentation, to another PowerPoint presentation, to a Web site, another sort of document, an address, or several other things. It is worth exploring and experimenting to discover what you can do. Click the Run program radio button to cause another program to run. This action is beyond the scope of this handout because certain security issues need to be addressed. However, this feature can be used if, for instance, you made a presentation where you were demonstrating how to use a Web site and wanted a browser to start. Clicking the button would cause a browser to start and go to a Web page. The Run macro radio button will cause a macro to run. Macros are advanced features available in Microsoft Office that are not discussed here. The Object action is the ability to cause certain advanced things to occur in the presentatation, such as to have a Word document be displayed in the presentation. This is called Object Linking and Embedding and is intended to allow the sharing of information between programs. The Play sound checkbox allows you to specify if a sound should be played when the action button is activated by clicking on it or passing over it. If the checkbox is selected you can choose from a large number of sound effects that are avaiable on the drop down list. You can also elect to play a sound file other that the sound effects if you wish. 10

11 To play a sound file make sure the Play sound checkbox is selected, then click the drop down list. At the bottom of the list is the Other Sound option. Select that option, then navigate to the sound file you want to use, select the file, then click OK. The sound will be attached to the action button and inserted into the PowerPoint slide. Unfortunately, the Audio Tools on the ribbon are not available for sounds attached to an action button. The sound will play as is and you cannot modify it in PowerPoint. 11