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 Slide Show menu choose Record Narration.
3. Choose your sound input device then, click Set Microphone Level to make sure your mic volume is up. When ready, click Ok.
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 Save.
7. You will view the slides in the sorter mode.  Notice the slide timings are automatically there.
8. When in slide view 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. Right-click on the speaker icon and choose Custom Animation.
10. From the side palette choose the dropdown menu next to the audio narration file and choose Effect Options.
11. Under the Sound Settings tab click on the speaker icon next to Sound Volume.  Choose your volume setting.
12. Click the Hide sound icon during slide 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 Movies and Sounds > Sound from File.
4. Select the music file from your presentation folder then click OK.
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. Right-click on the speaker icon and choose Custom Animation.
8. From the side palette choose the dropdown menu next to the music file and choose Effect Options.
9. Under the Sound Settings tab click on the speaker icon next to Sound Volume.  Choose your volume setting.
10. Click the Hide sound icon during slide show box to prevent the speaker icon from being displayed.
11. Now from the same area click on the Effect tab
12. Under Stop Playing choose the button next to After and 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.