How To Add Audio to PowerPoint Presentations

PowerPoint presentations can now be used for a variety of reasons.

You can now add audio, video, animation, cinematic motion, transitions, and interactive elements to your PowerPoint presentations to make them more engaging.

Adding such additional media boosts learners' engagement and improves knowledge retention.

In today's article, let's learn how to convert boring PowerPoint presentations into intriguing e-learning courses by adding audio and voice narration.

Here are the topics we cover:

• How to add audio to PowerPoint presentations using the built-in recorder (slide by slide)
• How to add audio narration/voiceover to an entire PowerPoint presentation (using the built-in recorder)
• How to add audio narration/voiceover to PowerPoint presentations & edit them (using user-friendly screen recording tools like Vmaker)

Without further ado, let's quickly learn how to add audio to PowerPoint presentations using both of these methods.

Follow these simple instructions below.

Step 1: Head over to the slide you'd like to add audio.

Click on the 'Insert' tab on the menu bar.

You would be presented with a list of features that can be added to your presentation (like images, video, audio, symbols, and shapes).

Step 2: Select the 'Audio' icon from the list of features presented below.

You'd be given two options to add audio to your presentation:

• Audio on my PC
• Record Audio

1. If you'd like to add an existing audio file to your presentation, choose 'Audio on my PC' and insert the audio file that needs to be added to the presentation.

2. If you'd like to record a live audio and attach it to that particular slide, choose the 'Record Audio' option.

   You will get a pop-up box with options to play, stop, and record. Click on the red dock button to ‘start recording’.

   

   As soon as you finish recording, an audio icon appears on the slide. When you click on it, the recorded audio will play.

In the previous method, you saw how to add audio to each slide of a PowerPoint presentation.

Now, let's learn how to record audio narration/voiceovers to the entire PowerPoint presentation.

Follow these simple instructions.

Step 1: Head over to the 'Home' tab and click on the 'Record' option.

Once you click on the record option, you will be able to see the recording features on your screen.

Step 2: As you can see, there are many options available to customize your recording. If you wish to turn your camera and microphone on, you can do so by selecting the icons at the top. And, if you wish to blur your background, you can select camera mode and choose the 'Blur Background' option.

Step 3: Once you've customized your options, you can start recording by selecting the 'Record' icon at the top.

Step 4: Whenever you're done, you can stop the recording and click on the 'Export' option to export the video.

Step 5: Finally, you can share your video by clicking on the 'View and share video' option.

In this method, you'll learn how to add voice overs to your PowerPoint presentations and edit them using Vmaker (a user-friendly screen + webcam recording software).

Follow these simple instructions.

Step 1: Run Vmaker on your system

Before you start this process, make sure you keep your presentations and your talking points ready.

When you're ready to start, head over to Vmaker's official page and sign up.

As soon as you've signed up, you can login and download the software to your computer. The software is currently available for download in 4 formats:

• As a Mac application
• As a Chrome Extension
• As a Windows application (beta version)
• As an iOS application (beta version)

Tip: If you're using Vmaker's chrome extension, you can pin the software to your chrome browser as it helps you access the software whenever you want with just a click.

Step 2: Customize your recording preferences

Once you've launched Vmaker successfully, you will be able to record your screen + webcam effortlessly.

Head over to your PowerPoint presentation from where you'd like to record the voice narration and start customizing your recording preferences.

1. Select the full-screen mode if you'd like to record the entire screen
2. Select the audio inputs and recording quality.
3. Turn the webcam on if you'd like to record yourself presenting it. (There's also an option to change, blur, or remove your background image.)

To access advanced features, click on the horizontal dot matrix and choose 'Preferences'.

You get a pop-up box with the following features. Make sure you enable all features that you'd like to add on.

Step 3: Start Recording

Once you're ready to record, you can click on the 'Start Recording' button in the pop-up box.

The recording starts, and you can start narrating your PowerPoint presentations.

You can also highlight important sections on the screen using the screen annotation tools.

Once you're done with your narration, you can stop the recording by clicking on the ‘red dock button’ on the left corner of your screen.

Step 4: Edit and polish the video recording

As soon as you stop the recording, the video will automatically be exported to Vmaker's dashboard.

You can now edit, share, download, or duplicate the recording.

If you wish to edit the recording, click on the 'Edit' button. You'd be directed to the Vmaker's built-in editor.

This is where you remove the unnecessary sections of your recording.

Step 5: Export & share the recording

As soon as you're done with the editing process, you can export the recording as a video and share it with others.

You can choose one of the following options:

• Download the video recording to your PC
• Share it with others via a shareable link
• Upload it to popular social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Conclusion

Audio and video narrations add more life to your presentations!

And, when you combine it with interactive elements and animation, you enhance the overall experience of your viewers.

Now that you know how to add engaging audio narration to your PowerPoint presentations, you can also learn how to add other engaging media to your presentations using Vmaker Train (authoring tool + LMS) and Vmaker Author (authoring tool).

Sign up for free now!

Recommended Readings:

How to Record Screen and Yourself on Windows

How to Screen Record and talk on Windows

How to Screen Record and Edit Video on Windows

How to Record Screen and Webcam on Windows 10

How to Screen Record on Chromebook

How to Screen Record on Chromebook with Internal Audio