Human Diversity and Human Rights Disability Studies

Instructions for Narrated PowerPoints

Novice User Tips for PowerPoint with Audio Presentation and Conversion to Video

All students have access to PowerPoint 2016. If you do not already have this downloaded, you can get instructions on how to do so here: https://access.ewu.edu/it/services/help-desk/how-to-get-software/for-students The following instructions are based on this version. I am a new user, so these notes are created by and for a novice user. Advanced users may know additional options not listed here.

Creating PowerPoint Slides

The use of PowerPoint is straight-forward, and I found it user friendly for the slide creation. You just start with “File”, “New” and you’re off! It is easy for multiple people to create individual slides (make sure you’re using the same theme!) and then delegate one person to copy and paste slides into one slideshow. *Tip: make sure to use unique file names for each person and revision so you don’t lose anybody’s work.

Adding Audio to Slides

We elected audio for our multi-media, so our instructions will cover that. We found that adding the audio presented some challenges with different users using different methods (and possibly different PowerPoint versions). There are multiple ways you can create your audio/video to accompany PowerPoint. You can wait until all your slides are completed to add audio, or you can add audio slide by slide. Option 1: Record directly onto slideshow. This seemed to be the easiest option, with the fewest challenges.

1. With your PowerPoint slides open, from the top toolbar menu, select “Slideshow”

2. Make sure “Play Narrations” and “Use Timings” are selected. This will allow your slide advance to be directly based on your audio timing.

3. Click “Record Slide Show”. You will have the option of recording all slides at once, or individual slides, or groups of slides. If you are recording from the current slide, make sure you have the slide selected.

4. Click the appropriate selection and you will be taken to a recording page. Click record and pause buttons as needed.

5. If you want/need to change any audio and need to re-record:

1. Close the recording page and go back to the main menu.

2. Click “Clear”

3. Click “Clear Narration…either from current slide, or from beginning”

4. Restart from step 3

5.  

Option 2. Record audio through the Insert feature. (This feature also will allow you to insert a recording that has been done separately and is saved to your computer, but instructions for that are not included.)

1. Click “Insert” on the top bar, and select “Audio”

2. Choose the bottom selection “Record audio”. You will do this for every slide.

3. After recording the audio, a symbol would populate.

4. Right click on the audio symbol and select ‘Play in Background’ as the Style.

5. After recording the audio, you have the option to cut or edit my audio. I just used my computer for this since most computers now have built in microphones.

*Note – I found with this option, you might experience trouble with automatic transitions and/or the sound working, repeating and overlapping with the next slide, etc. Here are some solutions to potential problems:

-- Right Click on the audio symbol. A “Format/Playback” Menu will appear on the upper bar on the slide menu. Click “Playback” Make sure ‘Start Automatically’ is checked; ‘Play Across Slides’ is un checked, and ‘Loop until Stopped’ is un checked.

-- Click on ‘Transitions’ from the menu. You may need to edit the Duration/Advance Slide Times to match your audio length. In that case, unclick ‘Advance Slide on Mouse Click’.

Run your entire slideshow start to finish making sure all slides advance properly, with the correct audio playing. When it all works, you are ready to convert to video.

Converting Slideshow to video

1. With your final slideshow open, Click “File” from the main menu.

2. Click “Export”

3. Select “Create a Video”

4. Click “Presentation Quality” and select “Low”. We found this file size still too large to upload to Canvas, but small enough to email it to one another and Dr. Munger through Canvas.

5. Click “Create Video”

6. Name your video and Click “Save” This took about 10 minutes for ours to complete

Again, these notes are based on our experience with the program while making our presentation and learning as we went. Different versions of PowerPoint or combinations of types of slides/audio may offer different results than we experienced.

Additional Troubleshooting.

* If you do not get sound after recording, make sure you have selected/enabled your microphone in “Audio Source”.

* Our biggest source of trouble was to get the sound working having used different methods. If different people use different options, you may need to play with the ‘Transitions’ and ‘Audio’ settings some to get it working properly across all the slides. You will need to look at these settings for every slide.

* In our case, if you select Option 1 for recording, I recommend not adjusting the automatic settings that it uses.