In PowerPoint you can record narration and comments during or after a slideshow. This makes the presentation more interesting and interactive. This feature is especially useful when you convert presentation to video. With narration the video would seem complete and the process of doing this is quite simple and easy.
This feature is available in PowerPoint 365, PowerPoint 2021, PowerPoint 2019 way back to PowerPoint 2003 and PowerPoint 2002 (XP).
Depending on your requirement you can either record the narration before the slide show begins or you can record during the slideshow. You can also include comments wherever required in the slideshow.
To record and listen to a preview of the narration your computer must have a sound card, microphone and speakers. You can test the setup before beginning the recording.
Record during Slideshow
To start recording a narration open the presentation in PowerPoint 2010. Click on Slide Show | Set Up | Record Slide Show. In PowerPoint 2003 and PowerPoint 2002 go to Slide Show | Record Narration.
You can either start recording from the beginning of the slideshow or from certain specific slide in the slideshow. You need not record the narration throughout the slideshow. You can record only on required slides and then pause or stop the recording.
When you select one of the options for recording, “Record Slide Show” dialog box pops open. Here select the options to record the slide timings along with narration. If you would like to manually set the slide timings then uncheck this option and select the option to record Narrations and laser pointer”. Click on “Start Recording” button.
In the slideshow view the small “Recording” status box opens showing the slide show timings as well. If you want to pause the slideshow then click on the pause button in “Recording” box.
Here a dialog box appears with the button “Resume Recording” which you should click when you want to resume the recording process. Note here that till you click on “Resume Recording” button you cannot proceed further.
If you want to end the recording then right click on the slide. In the menu displayed select “End Show”. The recording will stop and control will be transferred to Normal view.
Click on View | Presentation Views | Slide Sorter view. Here for those slides for which you recorded the narration, slide timings and sound icon which indicates the recorded audio will appear at the bottom of each slide i.e. slides for which you recorded the narration.
Record before Slideshow
There is another method to record audio in Normal view. For this select required slide, click on Insert | Media | Audio | Record Audio. In the “Record Sound” dialog box that opens you can give a name to the file and begin recording. Once the recording is done, stop recording and click on OK button.
This is a way of recording narration or comments before the slideshow.
Preview Narration
To preview the narration go to Normal view by clicking on View | Presentation Views | Normal. Click on the sound icon. When you click on sound icon, the control bar will appear below the sound icon.
Here click on Play button to start the narration. Alternatively you can preview the narration by clicking on the sound icon and then clicking on Audio Tools | Playback | Preview | Play.
Delete Narration
To delete the narration from the slide, click on the sound icon on the slide to be deleted and press on “delete” key. The narration will be deleted.
See Also
- Avoid the black slide at the end of a slideshow
- Change default slide number in PowerPoint
- Turn your Mouse Pointer to a Laser Pointer
- Compress Video/Audio Files in PowerPoint 2010
- Manage Audio Clips in PowerPoint 2010
- PowerPoint 2007 photo albums
- Privacy and Security in Microsoft Office
