Microsoft PowerPoint Training: Recording Narration in a Presentation

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Setting Up the Slide Show

You can use the buttons available in the “Set Up” and “Monitors” button groups on the “Slide Show” tab in the Ribbon to set any additional parameters for the delivery of your presentation. To set the delivery options for your presentations, click the “Set Up Slide Show” button in the “Set Up” button group to open the “Set Up Show” dialog box.

Under the “Show type” section, you can tell PowerPoint what type of presentation you are going to make. In the “Show options” section, you can set additional presentation options. You can control how many slides will be in this presentation in the “Show Slides” section. However, the most important thing to remember is that if you wish to use automatic timing settings to advance your presentation, you must select that option here in the “Advance Slides” section.

In PowerPoint 2013, you can ensure that there is a checkmark in the “Use Presenter View” checkbox to enable presenter view when delivering a presentation. In Presenter View, you will see the notes for each slide while the audience sees only the Slide Show view. This is often used with two monitors, but that is no longer a requirement for using Presenter View in PowerPoint 2013. You can rehearse a presentation on a single monitor in Presenter View in PowerPoint 2013. To do this, simply start the Slide Show view of your presentation, right click, and select “Presenter View”. Then click the small “Options” button that looks like an ellipsis mark (…) in the lower left corner of the Slide Show view. You can then see and rehearse the presentation in the Presenter View. If you have multiple monitors enabled, you can flip the display of the Slide Show and the Presenter View if PowerPoint gets them reversed by clicking the “Display Settings” command at the top of the Presenter View and then selecting the “Swap Presenter View and Slide Show” command to reverse the display.

If using PowerPoint 2010:2007 and you want to set up the presentation to use the “Presenter View,” then you must set up an external monitor to your computer and extend your desktop to the second monitor. You can then select the “Presenter” view to display the presenter view on the main monitor while the audience sees the slide show view in the second monitor. If using PowerPoint 2007, you can also use the “Slide show resolution:” drop-down to select the size of the presentation that you want to display. Once you have the presentation set up as you like, click the “OK” button to save your changes.

Recording Narration in 2013 and 2010 versions

You can record narration to accompany a presentation if you have an internal or external computer microphone. When recording narration, you view the slides in Slide Show view and record your narration as you advance through the presentation. At the end of the presentation, the narration is saved with the slides so you only have to advance through the presentation in Slide Show view to see the slides and hear the narration when viewing the presentation in the future. This can be useful way to deliver a presentation to others when you are not able to actually deliver a presentation in person.

To record narration, click the “Record Slide Show” drop-down button in the “Set Up” button group on the “Slide Show” tab in the Ribbon and then select either “Start Recording from Beginning…” to begin recording from the first slide in the presentation or “Start Recording from Current Slide…” to start recording from the currently active slide.

In the “Record Slide Show” dialog box that appears, decide what elements you wish to record. You can select “Slide and animation timings” and/or “Narrations and laser pointing” by checking the desired checkboxes. To record narration, you must ensure that the “Narrations and laser pointing” option is checked. When you are ready to begin recording, click the “Start Recording” button to deliver the presentation in Slide Show view and record your presentation narration.

Recording Narration- 2007 version Only

You can also record a narration to accompany your presentation if you have an external microphone attached to your computer. When recording the narration, you view the slides as you would in slide show view and record your narration over the slides as you advance through your presentation. At the end of the presentation, the narration is saved with the slides so that you only have to advance to the next slide to see the slide and hear the prerecorded narration when viewing the slide show in the future. This can be a nice touch, and it certainly would be a time saver if you wanted to show the same presentation to multiple people in various locations.

To begin recording narration, click the “Record Narration” button in the “Set Up” button group on the “Slide Show” tab in the Ribbon. In this dialog box, you can check the checkbox to link the narration to the presentation slides. Narration can be linked to the presentation, and that in fact, is recommended. The amount of time that you can record is based on the free space on your computer. You can click the “Change Quality…” button to modify the sound settings or change the type of sound file used. When you are ready to begin recording, click the “OK” button to deliver the presentation and record your narration. You can also save the timings that you used along with the narration. This can be helpful if the presentation is intended for browsing by other individuals in a kiosk mode, for example.