How to Add Audio to a PowerPoint Presentation?
A professional presentation may require a blend of text, visuals, graphs, and media. PowerPoint allows inserting videos and audio files to the presentation. An audio file for presentation can be narration, a simple voice note or background music.
Users can record their own voices to explain the topic or use sound effects to make the content delivery more immersive. With the built-in tools, audio files can be customized and edited to fit more accurately.
How to Add Audio to PowerPoint?
Do you have the audio file ready for the presentation? Do you want to add a recorded narration or your own voice? Make sure to check the supported audio formats for the installed version of PowerPoint. Usually, most audio files use .MP3 format and you won’t face any issue adding audio clip to slides.
Now, the next step is to add the audio file to your presentation in PowerPoint. The process is simple and we are going to explain every step in detail with supporting visuals, step by step guide with images. In the audio tab, there are three different options. Let’s see how to use them.
Option 1: Add Audio from File
When you already have the audio file downloaded in your computer or device, you will choose this option. This is the most commonly used option to add audio to PowerPoint. Background music, narration, sound effects and other external audio files are added to presentation via this option. Follow these steps to add audio to a PowerPoint from your computer.
Step 1: Go to Insert Tab
Open your PowerPoint presentation, go to Insert tab and then move to media section and then click on the audio icon to open the dropdown menu.
Step 2: Choose “Audio from File”
In the menu, there are three different options, choose the first one and a new window will pop up. You will browse your computer to find the desired audio file.
Step 3: Insert the Audio File
Select the audio file, background music, narration, or any other sound effects from your computer and click on the insert button. You will see a music icon on your slide.
Step 4: Place the Music Icon anywhere
This playback icon can be placed anywhere on the slide. Your music file has now been successfully uploaded to the presentation, and you can play it to listen to the contents of the music file.
Option 2: Record Audio
This option is best for recording your own voice. Some topics or slides may require audio explanation. With this option, the presenter can add their own voice without using any external tool. Here is how to record voice for a PowerPoint presentation.
Step 1: Select Insert >> Record Audio
With your PowerPoint presentation opened, select the slide and go to Insert tab and then choose “Record Audio” option from the audio feature.
Step 2: Record Sound
New window will show you audio recorder controls to record your voice. There are controls to start, stop and play the recorded audio. Name your voice recording file and start recording.
Step 3: Confirm and Add Audio
After recording the voice, play to hear the recording and if everything is on point, click Ok button to add the recorded voice to your file.
Option 3: Add Clip Art Audio
A user is less likely to use or encounter this feature to add audio to a PowerPoint as only limited files are available. These are universal sound clips that might be useful for common slides only. You can add clapping sounds or telephone ring sounds to your slide.
- Go to Insert and then Media tab and Audio.
- Click on the “Clip Art Audio” option and select one of the readily available files
- Choose the sound effect that you like and add it to the slide
- Play it as any other audio file
How do you edit an audio file in PowerPoint?
These methods simply add music or audio files to the presentation in default settings. You may want to make further changes to adjust the audio file as per your requirements.
Users can make certain changes in the Playback tab. Here are a few major changes that you can make in the playback tab for the uploaded audio file. To access these settings, click on the music icon in your slide, and a new playback tab will appear in the primary menu.
Audio Trim: Use the trim button to cut and edit the audio file to your desired length. Unnecessary parts can be cut via trim tool.
Fade Duration: change numbers in the given fields to change the fade-in and fade setting for any given duration.
Volume: select the volume level that you want to keep for the audio file added to the PowerPoint slide
Start: This button has three different sub-items that allow different settings to play the audio, including automatically, on the click and play across slides option.
Loop until Stopped: keep playing the audio file on loop until the user manually stops the audio
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Conclusion- Add Audio to a PowerPoint
Insert tab allows different attachments to your PowerPoint presentations. Adding audio to a PowerPoint is just like adding images. You just have to make right changes and your professional slides are ready. Simply go to insert tab, media and then click on the audio button to upload music or record your own voice. This is how to add audio to a PowerPoint presentation.