Powerpoint Narration does not work

[RTK]

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

I am creating an online university course and am attempting to use the narration capability in Powerpoint. I have tried this with both 2004 and 2008 Powerpoint and on both OS X 10.4 and 10.5. I have tried this both imbeeded in the pptx file and as linked files. First, narration forces you to do the entire slide presentation all at once rather than allowing you to start and stop or do one slide at a time. But, the main problem is that the audi files are getting truncated arbitrarily, cutting off my presentation. There is no indication of this during the resording. i only find out at the end of the full presentation when i play it that the files are truncated. it does not do this on any consistent time boundary. I have slide narrations from 20 seconds to 4 minutes, and they aree all cut off at some point - i have done this multiple times, and it is only reproducable in its random behavior. The files are truely truncated because i listened to the linked files separetly and they just stop. Do you have a fix for this truncation problem? You also should allow recording on a per slide basis.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

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

I am creating an online university course and am attempting to use the narration

capability in Powerpoint. I have tried this with both 2004 and 2008 Powerpoint and on
both OS X 10.4 and 10.5. I have tried this both imbeeded in the pptx file and as
linked files. First, narration forces you to do the entire slide presentation all at
once rather than allowing you to start and stop or do one slide at a time. But, the
main problem is that the audi files are getting truncated arbitrarily, cutting off my
presentation. There is no indication of this during the resording. i only find out at
the end of the full presentation when i play it that the files are truncated. it does
not do this on any consistent time boundary. I have slide narrations from 20 seconds
to 4 minutes, and they aree all cut off at some point - i have done this multiple
times, and it is only reproducable in its random behavior. The files are truely
truncated because i listened to the linked files separetly and they just stop. Do you
have a fix for this truncation problem? You also should allow recording on a per slide
basis.

"You" isn't here. We're all volunteers and PowerPoint users like you, not MS
employees.

But here's a thought:

Record your narration using the Link option.
Note where the linked files are stored.

Re-record each linked file using better recording software. Save the result to the
same audio file name PPT originally saved it to.

You may need to adjust slide timings a bit, but that should give you better results.

 

[Macfan2u]

Actually there are two ways to record sound in a presentation. The way you did it creates editable segments but as you said has to start from the first slide and og through. Using this method I edit the sound files in Sound Studio or Audacity. The files must then be reinserted by hand. Another way to do an edit, using Powerpoint is to use the slide sorter and move the slide you want to rerecord, to the first slide. That works.

But, the easiest way is to use the second recording option. This option actually imbeds the audio on the individual slide. (There are no sound files, although you do give the files a name). To use this method go to the Insert men, select SOUND AND MUSIC and then record sound. You can figure it out from there!!!

I use this method if I am transporting the show or using it on the internet.

Ron

 

[RTK]

capability in Powerpoint. I have tried this with both 2004 and 2008 Powerpoint and on
both OS X 10.4 and 10.5. I have tried this both imbeeded in the pptx file and as
linked files. First, narration forces you to do the entire slide presentation all at
once rather than allowing you to start and stop or do one slide at a time. But, the
main problem is that the audi files are getting truncated arbitrarily, cutting off my
presentation. There is no indication of this during the resording. i only find out at
the end of the full presentation when i play it that the files are truncated. it does
not do this on any consistent time boundary. I have slide narrations from 20 seconds
to 4 minutes, and they aree all cut off at some point - i have done this multiple
times, and it is only reproducable in its random behavior. The files are truely
truncated because i listened to the linked files separetly and they just stop. Do you
have a fix for this truncation problem? You also should allow recording on a per slide
basis.

"You" isn't here. We're all volunteers and PowerPoint users like you, not MS
employees.

But here's a thought:

Record your narration using the Link option.
Note where the linked files are stored.

Re-record each linked file using better recording software. Save the result to the
same audio file name PPT originally saved it to.

You may need to adjust slide timings a bit, but that should give you better results.

What you suggest is what I ended up doing. Recording it and then editing the sound files to add the missing info. This meant doing the whole thing twice and is far more work than it should be. But, PowerPoint still cuts off at its predetermined time independent of what is in the file. I can use “rehearse presentation” and change the times, but it still does not play the full audio. The university separates the sound files anyway, so it will work, but I can’t hear the whole thing in PowerPoint. Clearly, the Narration tool is a very limited capability.

 

[RTK]

I have tried both methods. I originally thought the problem was from trying to not used the link file method. I had the same issue with truncated files with that, and the PowerPoint pptx grew to 140 MB with only the first 5 slides out of 27 narrated. Not workable. So I went to the linked file method, where I ended up using Amadeus to edit the sound files. BTW, I could not get audacity to work – it would not accept the input device parameters for some reason. The other method of adding a sound file means you have to click on the symbol to hear the audio rather than an automated slide presentation. That does not work for an online course, though maybe they could pull the audio files out. I will look into that possibility.

 

[Macfan2u]

I am not sure what is happening when you say the files are truncated. If you mean that there is not enough time to finish playing the file because your timing is too short, you can increase the time manually for each slide. Slide timing is considered a transition. Select the slide, then select the TRANSITIONS tab in the elements Gallery. On the left side select options. Increase the amount of time (in seconds) and select apply.

That should do it.

 

[joel]

I am not sure what is happening when you say the files are truncated. If you mean that there is not enough time to finish playing the file because your timing is too short, you can increase the time manually for each slide.Slide timing is considered a transition. Select the slide, then select theTRANSITIONS tab in the elements Gallery. On the left side select options. Increase the amount of time (in seconds) and select apply.

That should do it.

Inserting sound files in PowerPoint using our SpeechOver or RecordOver
tools (www.speechover.com) causes the slide show to wait for the sound
effect to complete before transitioning to the next slide. Solves your
problem automatically.

Problem is that it is only for Windows...

Joel

 

[RTK]

No, I mean the actual file contents are truncated. The audio is just cut off and lost. I can listen to the file with other programs and it just stopped recording with no indication at all. PowerPoint appears to be taking the information, and I keep talking and transition to the next slide when I am done. I don't find out the sound is missing until I am all done and play it back. I then went to other programs to see if the info was in the file, but it is not. I have recorded using Amadeus for example, and I see no similar behavior. It is a PowerPoint bug. It seems to be a random length, that is specific indication of a time. Even some short files are cut off.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

What you suggest is what I ended up doing. Recording it and then editing the sound

files to add the missing info. This meant doing the whole thing twice and is far more
work than it should be.

See below, but I wonder if it needs to be quite so much work; that is, you could
probably just do a quick rehearsal/recording with audio like "This is the narration for
slide 1", "This is ... for slide 2" and so on. Just something to get the links to
external audio files created.

Then record the real narration and save the result over the files that PPT created.
Note the length of each "real" recording as you save it.
the file. I can use “rehearse presentation” and change the times, but it still does not
play the full audio.

You can manually enter the times (which you'd derive as above) in the slide transition
dialog. You might need to "pad" it by a second or more to keep PPT from advancing too
soon and cutting it off. You can't count on PPT for precision timing. Think "Candle
with markings on the side" rather than "Swiss watch".
the whole thing in PowerPoint. Clearly, the Narration tool is a very limited
capability.

No argument there.

 

[RTK]

thanks for the hints. i will try following these steps for the next presentation i prepare this week and see how that goes.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

thanks for the hints. i will try following these steps for the next presentation i prepare this week and see how that goes.

Please let us know how it works out.