PowerPoint: Playing Audio Sequentially... and Automatically

by AJ George

 

Last week I covered how to play multiple audio tracks at the same time. That wasn't so hard, but what can get a bit complicated is playing multiple audio tracks sequentially. There are two ways to do this.

If you know that the first audio file ends after 1:35 and you'll be on your third slide then, then you would put the second audio file on the third slide and set it to play after 1:35. 

1. Insert the audio file on the slide on which you would like the audio to begin (Insert > Audio).
2. Select the Audio Tools Playback tab. 
3. In the Audio Options group, choose Play across slides from the drop-down menu.
4. Insert the second audio file on the slide where you will be when the first audio file ends. 
5. Select Audio Tools Playback > Play across slides.
   
    
6. Choose Animations > Animation Pane to view the Animation Pane.  
7. On the Animation Pane, click the down arrow next to the sound file and choose Timing (remember, we are working on the slide with the second sound file) 
8. From the Timing tab, change the Delay to whatever the length of the first audio clip was, minus however long you will spend on the slides you have run through so far. 

 

For example: If the first audio clip is 1:35 long and will end 20 seconds after you bring up your third slide, at which point you would like the second audio file to start, then you would put the second audio file on the third slide and set it to a 20 second Delay. 

Keep in mind that the time is in seconds (it can be confusing because the audio clip is measured in minutes), so if you wanted a minute long delay, you would enter 60 instead of 1. 

While the process is not particularly hard, it can get a bit confusing. The second option for playing audio tracks one right after the other would be to import the files into another program like Windows Movie Maker. If you are using a PC with PowerPoint, there is a good chance your system came pre-loaded with the WMM software. All you would need to do in this case is drop the audio files onto the timeline, one right after the other, and save it as one audio file. Then just insert the audio into the PowerPoint presentation as one file. 

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About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

Comments

[larry]

I dropped two audio files onto the timeline in Windows Movie Maker as you suggested but there is not option to save the file as an audio file -- how is that done

When I insert an audio file into my presentation it will only play the first time I run the presentation -- it will not play on subsequent runs -- any suggestions

[AJ]

Hi Larry,

To save the audio as an audio file, you drag and drop the audio clips the the Audio/Music section of the Windows Movie Maker timeline. Then choose File > Save Movie File. Save the movie file to you computer. It should automatically save as a .wma file.

I am unsure as to the second part of your comment. Are you saying that it works the first time every time you open PowerPoint and run the presentation? Or that it worked once and then never again? Or that it plays at first and then stops during the presentation?