This tutorial assumes that you have a microphone and a computer capable of recording audio.

Adding Narration

1. Open your PowerPoint presentation.
2. Under the SlideShow menu choose Record Narration.
3. Choose your sound input device then, when ready, click Record.
4. PowerPoint will go into presentation mode.  You will see you presentation full screen.  Begin speaking into your microphone.  Record the audio for the currently displayed slide.  When done press the arrow key on the keyboard to advance the slide.  Immediately begin recording the narration for the next slide.
5. When you are finished recording press the ESC key to stop the slideshow presentation.
6. You will be prompted to save the slide timings.  Choose Yes.
7. Next you will be prompted to view the slides in the sorter mode.  You may choose Yes or No.
8. You will now see a speaker icon in the lower corner of the slide.  You can click on it to make minor changes such as volume.
9. Single click on the speaker icon.
10. From the side formatting palette choose the "A" icon ()
11. Under the Sound area choose High under Volume.
12. Click the Hide During Show box to prevent the speaker icon from being displayed.

    

     

13. You have now successfully recorded an audio narration and set the slide timings to match the narration.

Adding Background Music

Earlier, when you created your narraration, that audio was saved/embedded in the presentation.  Other audio and video files will NOT embed.  These files must "travel" with the PowerPoint presentation and must maintain the same relationship to the presentation at all times.  To accomplish this it is recommended that you create a folder for the presentation.  Within that folder place all audio and video files along with the presentation.  When you present this on another computer be sure to take the entire folder, not just the presentation.

Note: PowerPoint does not seem to do a great job at allowing both background music and audio narration.  In my tests I could never get the music audio down low enough so that I could easily hear the narration.  My recommendation is to choose soft music for your background.

1. Begin by placing all of the background music you wish to use in your presentation folder (see above)
2. Open your presenation and navigate to the first slide in your presentation.
3. From the Insert menu choose Sound and Music > from File.
4. Select the music file from your presentation folder.
5. When prompted when you want the music to begin choose Automatically. A new speaker icon should appear in the middle of your slide.
6. Single-click on the speaker icon.
7. From the side formatting palette choose the "A" icon ()
8. Under the Sound area choose Low under Volume.
9. Click the Hide During Show box to prevent the speaker icon from being displayed.

   

10. Now click on the star icon ()

11. Select the background music then under Media Options click Stop playing > After.
12. Type in the number of slides in your presentation.  This will force the music to play throughout your entire presentation.

    

13. You have now successfully added background music to your presentation.

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