It’s easy to record a practice run of your Powerpoint presentation, complete with audio, and watch it on your computer. It’s a great way to prepare for a speaking engagement. I used Powerpoint for years before I discovered this easy utility; nothing in Powerpoint makes it obvious.
The only thing you’ll need is your prepared Powerpoint presentation and a headset. I am using a PC and Office 2016.
Microsoft Lifechat headphones plug into a USB port on your computer
Step 1 Create a copy of your presentation
This process will add an audio file to each of your slides. That will greatly increase the size of the file, by 500-600%. So start by making an extra “practice recording” copy of your presentation, and working with that. You can discard it later. That way you don’t increase the size of your final document.
Step 2 Fix your settings
Open the new copy of your finished presentation. Go to the Slide Show tab. “Play Narrations” and “Use Timings” should be checkmarked. Put on your headphones and plug them into the computer.
Step 3 Start recording
Use “Record Slide Show” — sub-choice: “Record from beginning.” This brings up the recording screen. There is a large RED BUTTON in the upper corner – clicking that starts the recording session. Then, speaking into your headset microphone, make your presentation while clicking through the slides. Both the sound and the timing will all be recorded. My presentation takes about an hour; the timing showed during recording so I could pace myself.
TIP: Sound is only recorded slide-by slide. So don’t speak during the slide transitions.
I noticed while doing it that I wasn’t allowed to click backwards at all, only progress forward through the slides. During the taping, the red button turned into a button that could be used to stop or pause.
When you click past the final slide, a message will appear saying to click to end the presentation. Clicking anything at that point ends it. The screen goes back to normal.
Step 4 Review your presentation
Now, back in the normal editing view of your powerpoint slides, you will notice that each slide has a gray audio icon in the lower corner.
At this point, seeing the audio icons reassures you that the sound was recorded.
If for any reason you ever want to remove the audio from that slide, just click the icon, delete it, and the sound is deleted. Or, your voice (“narrations”) could be deleted under the Slide Show tab, using “Record Slide Show” — “Clear” — “Clear narrations …”
If you stopped completely mid-way through, it’s also possible to re-launch your recording by going to the slide where you want to keep going, and selecting Record Slide Show and “Record from Current Slide.” In my experience, the most recent taping of the slideshow is saved.
Step 5 Play your recorded presentation
To play your recorded presentation, go to the Slide Show tab again. Click “From Beginning.”
This brings up the presentation and begins to play it. You can either listen on your headphones, or unplug them and the sound should come directly from the computer.
Step 6 If you want to save or share your video
If all you want to do is review your own presentation, you’re done. If you want to share your recorded video, and don’t want to share it as a Powerpoint file, then you can save it as an WMV or MP4 file. I’m still testing that out.
Good luck with recording your video!
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https://onerhodeislandfamily.com/2016/11/06/watch-a-practice-run-of-your-powerpoint-presentation
