Audio Playlist

[rondhuff]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

I recently bought a Mac and installed Office 2008. I was using a laptop with Windows XP and Powerpoint 2007 to create presentations with background music. On the Windows machine, I inserted a m3u playlist into the first slide and then set which slide I wanted the background music to end. I've tried to do that in Powerpoint for Mac but can't find any way to insert a playlist. Is there any way to do this on the Mac?

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

I recently bought a Mac and installed Office 2008. I was using a laptop with Windows XP and Powerpoint 2007 to create presentations with background music. On the Windows machine, I inserted a m3u playlist into the first slide and then set which slide I wanted the background music to end. I've tried to do that in Powerpoint for Mac but can't find any way to insert a playlist. Is there any way to do this on the Mac?

Hi,

This question gets asked almost every day, so there's a nice explanation
on this web page:
Sounds stop playing when you move onto the next slide, but you want them
to play across multiple slides or even for the entire presentation.

http://pptfaq.com/FAQ00047.htm

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are independent experts who are not affiliated with Microsoft.


Visit my blog
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-i7JMeio7cqvhotIUwCzaJWq9

 

[rondhuff]

Hi,

This question gets asked almost every day, so there's a nice explanation
on this web page:
Sounds stop playing when you move onto the next slide, but you want them
to play across multiple slides or even for the entire presentation.

<http://pptfaq.com/FAQ00047.htm>

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are independent experts who are not affiliated with Microsoft.
<http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/>

Visit my blog
<http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-i7JMeio7cqvhotIUwCzaJWq9>

Thanks Jim for your help. I may be missing something but I'm not sure the article you referenced helps me. I may have not described what I'm trying to do very well. I have a presentation that I have been given using Powerpoint 2003 & 2007. The presentation has approximately 100 slides. I start playing the presentation 15 minutes before the start time of meeting. I have the first 30 slides set up to advance automatically at 30 sec intervals. Each of these slides have group announcements, etc. and are basically just filler while the group is coming in. While the slides are playing, Powerpoint is also playing background music. It usually takes 4 songs to fill up the 15 minute time frame. I was inserting a m3u playlist containing the 4 songs into the first slide and then under Custom Animations, setting the sound to stop after the 30th slide was done. This worked great in Powerpoint 2003 & 2007, but there seems to be no method to play multiple songs over a specific number of multiple slides in Powerpoint for Mac. Thanks again for your help.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Thanks Jim for your help. I may be missing something but I'm not sure the article you referenced helps me. I may have not described what I'm trying to do very well. I have a presentation that I have been given using Powerpoint 2003 & 2007. The presentation has approximately 100 slides. I start playing the presentation 15 minutes before the start time of meeting. I have the first 30 slides set up to advance automatically at 30 sec intervals. Each of these slides have group announcements, etc. and are basically just filler while the group is coming in. While the slides are playing, Powerpoint is also playing background music. It usually takes 4 songs to fill up the 15 minute time frame. I was inserting a m3u playlist containing the 4 songs into the first slide and then under Custom Animations, setting the sound to stop after the 30th slide was done. This worked great in Powerpoint 2003 & 2007, but there seems to be no method to play multiple songs over a specific number of multiple slides in Powerpoint for

Mac. Thanks again for your help.

FWIW, while PPT2003 allows me to insert m3u files on one of my PCs, it won't play them. Actually, it doesn't play media files at all ... it passese them off to the resident system software (on Windows, Windows Media Player or the older MCI media player) to do the work.

On Mac, I believe PPT would call on QuickTime to do the same job. Can you open this same m3u file in Quicktime? Does it work there?

If not, I doubt it'd work in PPT on Mac either.

================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[rondhuff]

Mac. Thanks again for your help.

FWIW, while PPT2003 allows me to insert m3u files on one of my PCs, it won't play them. Actually, it doesn't play media files at all ... it passese them off to the resident system software (on Windows, Windows Media Player or the older MCI media player) to do the work.

On Mac, I believe PPT would call on QuickTime to do the same job. Can you open this same m3u file in Quicktime? Does it work there?

If not, I doubt it'd work in PPT on Mac either.

================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

Steve, thanks for the help. I'm not sure why your PPT2003 wouldn't play the m3u playlist. I do our church service using Powerpoint and have been using the m3u playlist method to play background music for quite some time. I was hoping to do something similar with Powerpoint Mac but I'm starting to think that it's just not possible. You are right though, I tried having Quicktime play the m3u playlist and it won't, but even if Quicktime would have, PPT Mac won't let me insert any format of playlist, that I know of. I exported a playlist from iTunes into txt and xml format and couldn't insert either into the PPT Mac slide. I would probably have to just insert mp3's and adjust the duration of the automatic advance slides to coincide with the song length. It will probably just be easier to stick with Windows and PPT2007. So far my experience with my first Mac has been disappointing to say the least. There's been several issues with different software packages where I can't do what I used to do on my 3 year old Windows laptop or applications where my new Mac is much, much slower than my old laptop. I've got almost 25 years experience on PC's and am by no means a novice. I'm still hoping my Mac experience will improve, but so far it seems like there's more hype to Macs than substance.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

the article you referenced helps me. I may have not described what I'm trying
to do very well. I have a presentation that I have been given using
Powerpoint 2003 & 2007. The presentation has approximately 100 slides. I
start playing the presentation 15 minutes before the start time of meeting. I
have the first 30 slides set up to advance automatically at 30 sec intervals.
Each of these slides have group announcements, etc. and are basically just
filler while the group is coming in. While the slides are playing, Powerpoint
is also playing background music. It usually takes 4 songs to fill up the 15
minute time frame. I was inserting a m3u playlist containing the 4 songs into
the first slide and then under Custom Animations, setting the sound to stop
after the 30th slide was done. This worked great in Powerpoint 2003 & 2007,
but there seems to be no method to play multiple songs over a specific number
of multiple slides in Powerpoint forwon't play them. Actually, it doesn't play media files at all ... it passese
them off to the resident system software (on Windows, Windows Media Player or
the older MCI media player) to do the work.the m3u playlist.

I may not have the most updated versions of WMP and [whatever_else_it_takes].
I tend to be ... well, "luddite" is one of the nicer things my friends call
me. ;-)

I do our church service using Powerpoint and have been using the m3u

playlist method to play background music for quite some time. I was hoping to
do something similar with Powerpoint Mac but I'm starting to think that it's
just not possible. You are right though, I tried having Quicktime play the
m3u playlist and it won't, but even if Quicktime would have, PPT Mac won't
let me insert any format of playlist, that I know of. I exported a playlist
from iTunes into txt and xml format and couldn't insert either into the PPT
Mac slide. I would probably have to just insert mp3's and adjust the duration
of the automatic advance slides to coincide with the song length.

Would it help to use an audio editor and combine the mp3s into one file,
though? Audacity is quite capable and free, in case you don't have such a
critter already.
my experience with my first Mac has been disappointing to say the least.
There's been several issues with different software packages where I can't do
what I used to do on my 3 year old Windows laptop or applications where my
new Mac is much, much slower than my old laptop. I've got almost 25 years
experience on PC's and am by no means a novice. I'm still hoping my Mac
experience will improve, but so far it seems like there's more hype to Macs
than substance.

Oh, I wouldn't thump the Mac in general over what PPT will or won't do on it.

================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[Jeff Chapman]

Oh, I wouldn't thump the Mac in general over what PPT will or won't do on it.

Not here, anyway. <g>

Steve, you're right - Mac is Mac, PowerPoint for Mac is PowerPoint for Mac.

For whatever convoluted reasons, the Mac Office developers decided to remove
or suppress key functionality from PowerPoint 2008 for Mac - functionality
that would have made it very lucrative for Windows users to move over to the
Mac platform for, and features that would have brought better compatibility
between 2007/Win and 2008/Mac. The removal of macros and VBA support from
the Mac version, for instance, was a sour point. But that doesn't
necessarily mean that the Mac is a crappy platform.

I can't pretend to understand the issues involved in porting Office over to
Mac/Unix (if that is what the Mac Office development team indeed did). But
what I do know is that whatever failings PowerPoint 2008 may have, they do
not necessarily imply a major issue with the Macintosh as a software
development platform. It's a important distinction to make, I think. All
that we the users can do is to bug the developers and manufacturers to
expedite the development process and repair the issues as we understand
them. (Of course, it'd be great to have something that runs 100% flawlessly
out of the box... haaaaaa...)

Jeff Chapman

the article you referenced helps me. I may have not described what I'm trying
to do very well. I have a presentation that I have been given using
Powerpoint 2003 & 2007. The presentation has approximately 100 slides. I
start playing the presentation 15 minutes before the start time of meeting. I
have the first 30 slides set up to advance automatically at 30 sec intervals.
Each of these slides have group announcements, etc. and are basically just
filler while the group is coming in. While the slides are playing, Powerpoint
is also playing background music. It usually takes 4 songs to fill up the 15
minute time frame. I was inserting a m3u playlist containing the 4 songs into
the first slide and then under Custom Animations, setting the sound to stop
after the 30th slide was done. This worked great in Powerpoint 2003 & 2007,
but there seems to be no method to play multiple songs over a specific number
of multiple slides in Powerpoint forwon't play them. Actually, it doesn't play media files at all ... it passese
them off to the resident system software (on Windows, Windows Media Player or
the older MCI media player) to do the work.the m3u playlist.

I may not have the most updated versions of WMP and [whatever_else_it_takes].
I tend to be ... well, "luddite" is one of the nicer things my friends call
me. ;-)

I do our church service using Powerpoint and have been using the m3u

playlist method to play background music for quite some time. I was hoping to
do something similar with Powerpoint Mac but I'm starting to think that it's
just not possible. You are right though, I tried having Quicktime play the
m3u playlist and it won't, but even if Quicktime would have, PPT Mac won't
let me insert any format of playlist, that I know of. I exported a playlist
from iTunes into txt and xml format and couldn't insert either into the PPT
Mac slide. I would probably have to just insert mp3's and adjust the duration
of the automatic advance slides to coincide with the song length.

Would it help to use an audio editor and combine the mp3s into one file,
though? Audacity is quite capable and free, in case you don't have such a
critter already.
my experience with my first Mac has been disappointing to say the least.
There's been several issues with different software packages where I can't do
what I used to do on my 3 year old Windows laptop or applications where my
new Mac is much, much slower than my old laptop. I've got almost 25 years
experience on PC's and am by no means a novice. I'm still hoping my Mac
experience will improve, but so far it seems like there's more hype to Macs
than substance.

Oh, I wouldn't thump the Mac in general over what PPT will or won't do on it.

================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[rondhuff]

I apologize for thumping Macs. It was late and I was pretty frustrated and guess just needed to vent a little. It's just that the 2 programs that I bought the Mac to use, Keynote and iDVD, won't do what i used to do on my Windows box and what iDVD does do is much, much slower than my old Windows machine. Then I bought Mac Office and it won't do it either, even though Windows Office did. It's been a frustrating experience, but computers, in general, are like that.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I apologize for thumping Macs. It was late and I was pretty frustrated and guess

just needed to vent a little.

It's just that the 2 programs that I bought the Mac to use, Keynote and iDVD,

won't do what i used to do on my Windows box and what iDVD does do is much, much
slower than my old Windows machine. Then I bought Mac Office and it won't do it
either, even though Windows Office did. It's been a frustrating experience, but
computers, in general, are like that.
================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Steve, you're right - Mac is Mac, PowerPoint for Mac is PowerPoint for Mac.

For whatever convoluted reasons, the Mac Office developers decided to remove
or suppress key functionality from PowerPoint 2008 for Mac - functionality
that would have made it very lucrative for Windows users to move over to the
Mac platform for, and features that would have brought better compatibility
between 2007/Win and 2008/Mac. The removal of macros and VBA support from
the Mac version, for instance, was a sour point.

Indeed. But from what I've read, the reason for that wasn't especially convoluted;
costly feature to implement vs. limited $ and time budget. The more visible features
won, VBA lost. To a lesser degree, the same thing happened in PPT 2007/Windows.

But to all the rest below ... yes. Exactly.

But that doesn't
necessarily mean that the Mac is a crappy platform.

I can't pretend to understand the issues involved in porting Office over to
Mac/Unix (if that is what the Mac Office development team indeed did). But
what I do know is that whatever failings PowerPoint 2008 may have, they do
not necessarily imply a major issue with the Macintosh as a software
development platform. It's a important distinction to make, I think. All
that we the users can do is to bug the developers and manufacturers to
expedite the development process and repair the issues as we understand
them. (Of course, it'd be great to have something that runs 100% flawlessly
out of the box... haaaaaa...)

Jeff Chapman

Thanks Jim for your help. I may be missing something but I'm not sure

the article you referenced helps me. I may have not described what I'm trying
to do very well. I have a presentation that I have been given using
Powerpoint 2003 & 2007. The presentation has approximately 100 slides. I
start playing the presentation 15 minutes before the start time of meeting. I
have the first 30 slides set up to advance automatically at 30 sec intervals.
Each of these slides have group announcements, etc. and are basically just
filler while the group is coming in. While the slides are playing, Powerpoint
is also playing background music. It usually takes 4 songs to fill up the 15
minute time frame. I was inserting a m3u playlist containing the 4 songs into
the first slide and then under Custom Animations, setting the sound to stop
after the 30th slide was done. This worked great in Powerpoint 2003 & 2007,
but there seems to be no method to play multiple songs over a specific number
of multiple slides in Powerpoint for

Mac. Thanks again for your help.

FWIW, while PPT2003 allows me to insert m3u files on one of my PCs, it

won't play them. Actually, it doesn't play media files at all ... it passese
them off to the resident system software (on Windows, Windows Media Player or
the older MCI media player) to do the work.

On Mac, I believe PPT would call on QuickTime to do the same job. Can you

open this same m3u file in Quicktime? Does it work there?

If not, I doubt it'd work in PPT on Mac either.

================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

Steve, thanks for the help. I'm not sure why your PPT2003 wouldn't play

the m3u playlist.

I may not have the most updated versions of WMP and [whatever_else_it_takes].
I tend to be ... well, "luddite" is one of the nicer things my friends call
me. ;-)

I do our church service using Powerpoint and have been using the m3u

playlist method to play background music for quite some time. I was hoping to
do something similar with Powerpoint Mac but I'm starting to think that it's
just not possible. You are right though, I tried having Quicktime play the
m3u playlist and it won't, but even if Quicktime would have, PPT Mac won't
let me insert any format of playlist, that I know of. I exported a playlist
from iTunes into txt and xml format and couldn't insert either into the PPT
Mac slide. I would probably have to just insert mp3's and adjust the duration
of the automatic advance slides to coincide with the song length.

Would it help to use an audio editor and combine the mp3s into one file,
though? Audacity is quite capable and free, in case you don't have such a
critter already.

It will probably just be easier to stick with Windows and PPT2007. So far

my experience with my first Mac has been disappointing to say the least.
There's been several issues with different software packages where I can't do
what I used to do on my 3 year old Windows laptop or applications where my
new Mac is much, much slower than my old laptop. I've got almost 25 years
experience on PC's and am by no means a novice. I'm still hoping my Mac
experience will improve, but so far it seems like there's more hype to Macs
than substance.

Oh, I wouldn't thump the Mac in general over what PPT will or won't do on it.

================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[Jeff Chapman]

It's totally understandable. I recently switched to using primarily Mac at
home, and I also found that there are some things I could do easily on my
Windows machine that just don't seem possible on the Mac. Missing
functionality or something like that. I had few expectations regarding
Office on Mac, and luckily I wasn't too badly disappointed. ;-)

But Office is not really the real reason why I switched to Mac. The whole
Windows user experience, from 95 through Vista, really made me feel more
like I was taking care of my computer, babysitting it and tending to its
needs, than it was really contributing to my own life. I won't rant here
about it - it's a bit of a subjective thing too. Suffice to say that after
purchasing a new Vista box, and trying to upgrade some machines that were
only two to three-years old to Vista with generally disappointing results in
terms of system performance, I knew it was time to pull the plug. I still
use Windows at work, and I have WinXP and Vista installed on Parallels
Desktop for Mac at home, but I find I get more done on the Mac now, less
time tweaking and babysitting.

Sorry, this is off the topic... another thread, another newsgroup...

Jeff