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I'm working on a presentation that
people are going to be watching on their
own as part of a training program I want
it to be as interesting as possible so I
think I'm going to add some audio to
spice it up a little start by going to
the insert tab where you'll find the
audio command on the far right of the
ribbon here you can insert audio from
the web from a file or you can record
your own for this first slide I want
some intro music but I don't really have
anything in my own collection that's
suitable so we're going to choose online
audio which gives us access to free
music and sound effects from office.com
just enter your search terms in the box
I'm looking for something kind of jazzy
when the results appear you can actually
mouse over the icons for a preview this
one sounds perfect so we're going to go
ahead and select it
and then click the insert button you can
easily move the audio if you need to
then click the play button to listen to
it again to jump to a different part of
the song just click anywhere on the
timeline
if you already have a file that you want
to use for example an mp3 that's saved
to your computer you can easily upload
it to your presentation just go back to
the audio command on the insert tab to
upload your own file go ahead and click
audio on my PC next select the file you
want then click the insert button and
that's really all it takes there's one
more way to add audio in PowerPoint and
that's by recording it yourself you just
need a microphone one that's either
built into your computer or the kind
that plugs in separately again go to the
audio command on the insert tab but this
time choose record audio from the menu
and a little dialog box will appear when
you're ready click the button with the
red dot to start recording then click
this one to stop I'm just going to
record a short intro for the slide but I
already know how to use the Internet
okay so I've recorded my audio now we
can click the play button to preview it
but I already know how to use the
Internet when you're happy with the
results
you can give the file a name then click
OK and it'll be added to your slide now
that we've added
different types of audio I thought we'd
take a look at some of the options on
the playback tab this is where you can
change the way your audio works when you
play it during your presentation you can
even do some simple editing say you only
want to use part of the clip for example
not the entire thing you can easily
create an excerpt using the trim audio
command just look for the little green
and red markers in the dialogue box you
can click and drag these to change the
start and end times I'm going to leave
the beginning the way it is in this
example but end the song about halfway
through when you're done click OK and
the clip will be trimmed you can also
set your audio to fade in and fade out
if you feel it starts or stops too
abruptly just look to the options in the
editing group I'm going to enter 0.75
seconds for the fade in and I want the
fade out to last a little longer so
we'll do two seconds here we'll take a
look at what this sounds like later if
you want to be able to jump to a
specific part of the audio during your
presentation you can add a bookmark all
you have to do is click the timeline to
mark the point you want to use next
click the add bookmark command up here
on the ribbon and a little circle will
appear now you can easily jump to the
spot anytime during your presentation
when we play this in slideshow view we
will have to click the audio controls to
make the music play I'd rather have it
start automatically though since it is
the intro music we can change this using
the settings in the audio options group
just click the drop down arrow next to
start then choose automatically from the
menu you can also hide the audio icon
during your presentation set the audio
to loop until you stop it manually and
more finally I think I'd like to make
some changes to the appearance of the
audio icon we can do that by switching
over to the format tab these are
basically all the same options you get
when you insert a picture in PowerPoint
fact you can even change the audio icon
to a picture of your own instead of
using the default speaker icon to get
started click the change picture command
you can choose an image from any of the
usual sources including files saved to
your computer and Microsoft clipart I
bet we can find something simple in the
clipart collection there we go
this one looks good you can even move or
the image anyway you need to in this
example I'm also going to change the
color so it blends in a little better
with the slide
so I think my audio is finished why
don't we take a look at the final
product in full slideshow view now you
know how to add and also edit audio in
PowerPoint including music sound effects
and even your own narration