Staff Resources

1. Open your PowerPoint
2. Click Slide Show > Record slide Show
3. Leave all options ticked and click ‘Start recording’
4. In top left corner, click on ‘record’ in  the Recording toolbar
5. Click the X on the recording toolbar to STOP, or click the ARROW to move onto the next slide. Both of these options will make a sound file which can be accessed via a speaker icon in the PowerPoint slide. These recordings can be deleted individually without deleting the other recordings. 
6. Open the PowerPoint Presentation and navigate to the first slide that you want to have narration (this can be the title slide or any other slide)
7. On the top menu, click the Slide Show tab, click Record Slide Show.

   • Clicking the upper half of the button starts you on the current slide.

   • Clicking the lower half of the button gives you the option to start from the beginning or from the current slide.

   

   (The Clear command deletes narrations or timings, so be careful when you use it. Clear is grayed out unless you have previously recorded some slides.)

8. In the Record Slide Show box, check or clear the boxes for your recording, and click Start Recording.

   

   More about these options:

   • Slide and animation timings: If you tick this, PowerPoint automatically records the time you spend on each slide, including any animation (Links to an external site.) steps that occur, and the use of any triggers on each slide.  This is useful if you will narrate while you do actions such as animated bullet points on the slide.

   • Narrations, ink, and laser pointer: Record your voice as you run through your presentation. If you use the pen, highlighter, eraser, or laser pointer, PowerPoint records those for playback as well.Tick this if you want to record  everything you do just as you do it, like recording a live lecture.

   Important:   Pen, highlighter, and eraser recording are available only if you have the February 16, 2015 update for PowerPoint 2013 (Links to an external site.) or a later version of PowerPoint installed. In earlier versions of PowerPoint, pen and highlighter strokes are saved as ink annotation shapes.

9. At the top left corner of the window is the Recording toolbar, which you can use to:

   

   • Go to the next slide: 

   • Pause the recording: 

   • Re-record the current slide: 

     If you re-record your narration (including audio, ink, and laser pointer), PowerPoint erases your previously recorded narration (including audio, ink, and laser pointer) when you start recording again on the same slide.

     You can also re-record by going to Slide Show > Record Slide Show.

10. To use ink, eraser, or the laser pointer in your recording, right-click the slide, click Pointer options, and pick your tool:

    • Laser Pointer

    • Pen

    • Highlighter

    • Eraser (This option is grayed out unless you have previously added ink to some slides.)

    To change the color of the ink, click Ink Color.

    

11. To end your recording, right-click the final slide, and click End Show.

    

    Tip:   When you finish recording your narration for the slide, a sound icon appears in the lower-right corner. This will be separate for each slide that has narration.

    The recorded slide show timings are automatically saved. Timings are shown in Slide Sorter view just beneath each slide.

    

In this process, what you record is embedded in each slide, and the recording can be played back in Slide Show. A video file is not created by this recording process. However, if you want a video file, you can save your presentation as a video with a few extra steps.

Preview the recorded slide show

On the Slide Show tab, click From Beginning or From Current Slide.

During playback, your animations, inking actions, laser pointer, audio and video play in sync.

Preview the recorded audio

In Normal view, click the sound icon in the lower-right corner of the slide, and then click Play.

Set the slide timings manually

PowerPoint automatically records your slide timings when you add narrations, or you can manually set the slide timings to accompany your narrations.

1. In Normal view, click the slide that you want to set the timing for.

2. On the Transitions tab, in the Timing group, under Advance Slide, select the After check box, and then enter the number of seconds indicating how long the slide should appear on the screen. Repeat the process for each slide that you want to set the timing for.

Tip:   If you want the next slide to appear either when you click the mouse or automatically after the number of seconds that you enter—whichever comes first—select both the On Mouse Click and the After check boxes.

Delete timings or narration

The Clear command is for deleting timings or narration from your recording that you don’t want or that you want to replace. There are four different Clear commands that allow you to:

• Delete the timings on the currently selected slide

• Delete the timings on all slides at once

• Delete the narration on the currently selected slide

• Delete the narration on all slides at once

1. If you do not want to delete all the timings or narration in your presentation, open a specific slide that has a timing or narration that you do want to delete.

2. On the Slide Show tab of the PowerPoint ribbon, on the Record Slide Show button, click the down arrow, point to Clear, and then choose the appropriate Clear command for your situation.

Turn off timings or turn off narrations, ink, and laser pointer

After you’ve recorded your PowerPoint presentation, any timings, gestures, and audio you performed are saved on the individual slides. But you can turn them all off if you want to view the slide show without them:

• To turn off recorded slide timings:   On the Slide Show tab, clear the Use Timings box.

• To turn off recorded narrations, ink, and the laser pointer:   On the Slide Show tab, clear the Play Narrations box.

See also

Turn your mouse into a laser pointer (Links to an external site.)

Animate text or objects (Links to an external site.)

Turn your presentation into a video (Links to an external site.)

Create a self-running presentation (Links to an external site.)