Record a Voice Narration
Voice narration can be very useful in certain circumstances:
- Presentations published on the web.
- Archiving a meeting, so that it can be reviewed at a later date and any comments considered.
- For people who cannot attend a presentation in person.
- For self-running presentations where no presenter will be present.
In order to be able to record voice narration the computer must have a sound card and a microphone. Either you can pre-record a narration before delivering the presentation or you can record your presentation narration when you actually run the slide show. Depending on the quality of the microphone and size of the room, you may be able to capture any comments that are made by your audience as well.
To play back a narration, the computer will require a sound card and speakers.
Narration does not have to run throughout the entire slide show, you can record voice narration for selected slides or objects.
| TIP: Voice narration is not always the best way of getting your information across, especially if the presentation is being run in a noisy environment or if the audience are hard of hearing. You may prefer to provide handouts or notes pages instead. |
To set narration properties
A microphone connected to a sound card is required in order to record a voice narration.
- Open the presentation
- From the Slide Show menu, select Record Narration...
The Record Narration dialogue box is displayed.
Record Narration dialogue box
The dialogue box displays the amount of free disk space and the number of minutes that you can record.
- If this is the first time you have recorded a voice narration you will need to set the microphone level, click the Set Microphone level... button
The Microphone Check dialogue box is displayed.
Microphone Check dialogue box
- Follow the instructions in the dialogue box to set up the microphone
- Click OK to return to the Record Narration dialogue box
The dialogue box displays how much disk space is available to store the sound narration file and so how many minutes you can record. You might want to adjust the quality at which the narration is recorded. Lower quality produces smaller files that will play more quickly on slower computers, but the narration will not sound so good.
- Click the Change Quality... button
Sound Selection dialogue box
- From the Name: box, select from the default quality settings
OR
- Select a quality level from the Attributes: box (optionally, click Save As... to name the setting)
- Click OK
- Check that you still have enough space on disk to record the narration
The final choice to make before recording the narration is whether to store the narration within the presentation file as an object or in a sound file linked to the presentation. Linked sound files offer better performance and are probably the best choice if you are recording a long narration.
If the presentation is being delivered on another computer, you must remember to copy the sound file with the presentation.
- To link to a sound file, check the Link narrations in: box
- Optionally, select a disk drive and folder in which to store the sound file(s) (one file will be created for each slide and the file(s) will have the same name as the presentation plus an ID number and a .WAV file extension)
- Click Cancel if you do not want to record the narration now (your settings will be saved for next time)
| TIP: Experiment with different settings to find the optimum balance between quality and the capabilities of your computer. Make sure you test the narration on the computer on which the slide show will be run. |
To record a voice narration
A microphone connected to a sound card is required in order to record a voice narration.
- Open the presentation
- Optionally, select the slide from which you want to start the narration
You can start the recording from any slide.
- From the Slide Show menu, select Record Narration...
- If the microphone and quality settings have been set up, click OK to begin recording
If you are not on the first slide, a message box is displayed prompting you to select the starting point for the narration.
- Click Current Slide or First Slide as appropriate
The slide show will begin.
- Advance through the slide show as you record your narration - you do not have to narrate on all slides (press Esc to end the slide show early)
| TIP: If you need to stop recording for any reason, right-click the slide then from the shortcut menu, select Pause Narration. When you are ready to resume recording, right-click on the slide and from the shortcut menu, select Resume Narration. |
When you finish the presentation, a message box is displayed.
- To save slide timings and the voice narration, click Save
OR
- To save only the voice narration, click Don't Save
The presentation is re-opened in Slide Sorter view. A sound icon is displayed in the bottom right-hand corner of each slide that has narration on it.
Sound Icon
By default, the narration will stop when it is finished.
If you want to loop the narration, right-click the sound icon and select Edit Sound Object then check the Loop until stopped box
| TIP: The next time you run the slide show, the voice narration will play automatically. If you do not want to play the narration, from the Slide Show menu, select Set up Show then select the Show without narration check box. |
| TIP: Voice narration takes precedence over all other sounds. If you run a slide show that includes both narration and sounds, only the narration will be played. |
To remove a narration
- Select the sound icon and press Delete
- Repeat for each slide that you want to remove narration from
To re-record a voice narration
You can re-record the narration on one or more slides.
- Display the slide you want to start re-recording from
- From the Slide Show menu, select Record Narration... then click OK, Current Slide, or First Slide as appropriate
- Record a new narration for the slide
- Either move to the next slide to continue re-recording or press Esc
- Choose whether to save the new timings or not
