Adding Animation, Sound, and Movies to Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2007

1/3/2007

Contents

Animating Slide Elements
Adding Transition Effects
Inserting, Playing, and Modifying Sounds
Inserting, Playing, and Modifying Movies
Key Points

Inserting, Playing, and Modifying Sounds

A PowerPoint presentation is usually created to convey a lot of information in a short time. That information can be in the form of text, graphics, charts, and tables, but it might also consist of audio content. In the previous topic, you added sound to a slide transition. You can also insert the following types of sounds:

Audio files. You can insert an audio file—for example, a speech or interview—by clicking the Sound button in the Media Clips group on the Insert tab, and then selecting the file.
Sound clips. The sound clips that ship with PowerPoint include applause and a phone ring. You insert a sound clip by clicking the Sound arrow in the Media Clips group on the Insert tab, and then clicking Sound From Clip Organizer to display the Clip Art task pane, where you can select the sound you want. If you are connected to the Internet, clicking the Clip Art On Office Online link in the task pane takes you to the Microsoft Office Online Clip Art and Media Web site, from which you can download hundreds of clip art images, photos, sounds, and movies.

Note

See Also For information about using the Clip Art task pane, see Inserting and Modifying Clip Art Images in Chapter 6.
CD audio tracks. You can insert music tracks or other audio tracks from a CD into a slide. After inserting the CD in your CD-ROM drive, you click the Sound arrow in the Media Clips group and then click Play CD Audio Track to display the Insert CD Audio dialog box. You then enter the starting and ending track numbers. You can specify that the selection be repeated, and you can set the volume. To play the tracks during a slide show, the CD must be in the CD-ROM drive.
Recorded sounds. You can record a sound or narration and attach it to a slide, all from within PowerPoint.

While inserting a sound, you can specify whether it should play automatically when the slide containing it appears or only when you click its icon. The sound object appears on the slide represented by an icon indicating the type of sound. You can change the appearance and size of the icon and move it to meet your needs.

When the sound object is selected, PowerPoint adds Format and Options contextual tabs to the Ribbon. You can format the icon representing the sound in much the same way that you would format a picture. You can adjust its size and position, as well as its volume, specify whether it is displayed on the slide, and how the sound is activated.

To play a sound, you must have a sound card and speakers installed. In Normal view, you can test the sound associated with a particular slide by double-clicking the sound icon, or by selecting the icon and clicking the Preview button in the Play group on the Options contextual tab. In Slide Show view, the sound plays either automatically or when you click its icon, depending on your specifications.

In this exercise, you will insert a sound clip and an audio file into a slide. You will adjust the position of the sound objects and make various other adjustments to their settings.

Display Slide 7 in Normal view. Then on the Insert tab, in the Media Clips group, click the Sound arrow, and then click Sound from Clip Organizer.

Note

Troubleshooting If this is the first time you’ve used the Clip Organizer, a message box appears. You can include the media available from Microsoft Office Online in your searches by clicking Yes, or restrict searches to your own computer by clicking No.
The Clip Art task pane opens.

Figure 7-7

If you included Office Online, your task pane will display many more sound clips.
In the Clip Art task pane, click Claps Cheers. Then when a message box asks how you want to start the sound in the slide show, click Automatically.

A small speaker icon representing the sound object appears in the middle of the slide, surrounded by handles. It is hard to see the icon because it is on top of the picture.
Close the Clip Art task pane.
Drag the sound object to the lower-right corner of the slide. Then drag its upper-left handle up and to the left until the object is about an inch square.

Figure 7-8
Double-click the sound object to hear the sound.

The sound plays. Suppose you don’t want the speaker icon to be visible during the presentation.
On the Options contextual tab, in the Sound Options group, select the Hide During Show check box.
On the Slides tab in the Overview pane, click Slide 6. Then on the View toolbar, click the Slide Show button.
When Slide 6 appears, click the mouse button to move to the next slide.

PowerPoint plays the Claps Cheers sound clip as it displays Slide 7.
Press to end the slide show, and then display Slide 1 in Normal view.
On the Insert tab, in the Media Clips group, click the Sound button (not its arrow).

The Insert Sound dialog box opens. This dialog box is very similar to other boxes you have already worked in.
Browse to your Documents\Microsoft Press\PowerPoint2007SBS\Media folder, and double-click the Introduction sound file. Then when a message box asks how you want to start the sound in the slide show, click When Clicked.

A sound object appears in the center of the slide.
Drag the object to the lower-left corner, and increase its size to about 1 inch square.
On the Format contextual tab, in the Picture Styles group, click the Picture Effects button. Then point to Glow, and in the gallery, under Glow Variations, click the second thumbnail in the fourth row (Accent color 2, 18 pt glow).
Click away from the object to see the effect.

The object is surrounded by a fuzzy colored halo.

Figure 7-9

With Slide 1 active, click the Slide Show button on the View toolbar.
On the first slide that appears, click the sound object to play the sound.
Press to stop the slide show and return to Normal view.

Recording a Narration

If you are creating a presentation that people will view on their own machines rather than at a speaker-led meeting, or if you are archiving a presentation and want to include the speaker’s comments, you can add narration to a presentation. You might also want to record other sounds to attach to slides.

To record a sound, your computer must have a sound card and microphone. Here are the steps for recording a narration:

Open the presentation for which you want to record a narration, and then display the first slide.
On the Insert tab, in the Media Clips group, click the Sound arrow, and then click Record Sound.
In the Record Sound dialog box, enter a name for the recording in the Name box, and then click the Play button.
Discuss the points associated with the first slide, just as if you were giving the presentation to a live audience, and then click the Stop button.

To hear the recording, you can click the Play button. If you don’t like what you hear, you can click Cancel and repeat steps 2 through 4 to re-record the speaker’s comments.
If you are satisfied with the recording, click OK.

The recording appears on the slide as a sound object.
Repeat steps 2 through 5 for all the slides.
Test the narration by running the presentation in Slide Show view.

The narration plays with the slide show.

If you are not satisfied with the narration for a particular slide, you can delete its sound icon just like any other object, and then record the narration again.

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