SUMMARY
PowerPoint allows you to insert, embed, or link several different kinds of
objects from other applications into your presentations. Not only can you
embed pictures, spreadsheets, and charts, but you can also embed sounds and
other playable items.
Microsoft Windows operating system version 3.1 comes with Sound Recorder, a
utility for placing sound into other files for playback. Sound Recorder
uses the OLE specification. An embedded or linked Sound Recorder object is
represented on the slide or page by a Sound Recorder icon.
Inserting a Sound Object
To insert a sound object into your PowerPoint presentation, use the
following steps. Note that Sound Recorder must be closed for this to
procedure to work.
- Start Sound Recorder. The icon for this program is usually located in
the Accessories group of Program Manager.
- From the Sound Recorder File menu, choose Open. Select a file with a
.WAV filename extension. A small selection of .WAV files are provided
with Windows 3.1.
- From the Edit menu, choose Copy. This places the sound object on the
Clipboard.
- Close Sound Recorder. If the sound object is pasted into PowerPoint and
Sound Recorder is still open, the sound will not play during the slide
show.
- Switch to PowerPoint. Go to the slide where you want to place the sound
object.
- Use one of the following methods to insert the sound object into your
presentation:
- From the Edit menu in PowerPoint, choose Paste. This embeds the
sound object into the slide.
-or-
- From the Edit menu in PowerPoint, choose Paste Special, and then
select the Paste Link option. This links the sound object
into the slide so that it will update automatically if the sound
itself is modified later.
During the slide show, the sound object will play when you move to the
slide into which it was inserted. The sound driver you are using and the
sound driver settings will determine whether the sound plays before or
during the transition to the slide. For best playback, your computer should
conform to the multimedia PC (MPC) specification.
Why Won't the Sound Object Play?
For the sound object to be played back during a slide show, it must be
placed on a slide in Slide view. It will not play if it was placed on
a slide in any other available view or on the Notes page.
Also, Sound Recorder must be closed for the Sound object to play. If the
sound is pasted into PowerPoint and Sound Recorder is still open, the sound
will not play during the slide show.
In addition, the sound object will not play during a slide show if the
system sounds are not enabled. To enable system sounds:
- From the Control Panel, choose the Sound icon.
- In the Sound dialog box there will either be a check box for Enable
System Sounds or a scroll list for Sound Schemes if additional sound
software has been installed. The check box must be selected or the
scroll list for Sound Schemes must be set to anything other than
"<none>".
For more information about using Control Panel, refer to your
"Microsoft Windows User's Guide."
For more information about using Sound Recorder objects in PowerPoint
slide shows, query on the following words in the Microsoft Knowledge
Base:
powerpoint and sound and play and speaker and driver