Got a set of slides you want to record some narration for? The PowerPoint narration tool is useful if you want to create an all-singing, all-dancing video version of your presentation. My colleague John has a great how-to for earlier versions of PowerPoint, but if you’re using the latest version, here’s how to record narration in PowerPoint, and do it like a pro.
The way this used to work in older versions of PowerPoint was that you’d navigate to Slide Show and click “record”. You’d get a pop-up window asking what you’d like to record (narration, timings, ink, etc), you’d make your selection, hit “OK”, and then the floor was yours straight away. Now, not so much. Let’s take a look at what’s changed.
First, we’re going to open up the Slide Show tab, and hit “Record Slide Show”. You can choose whether to start on the current slide, or go right to the beginning and start recording from there.
Pressing the “Record” button opens up Presenter Mode, which looks like this:
One might see the interface and assume that the slide show is already recording. Alas, no. You must remember to hit the “Record” icon in the top left hand side of the screen. That’ll bring up a (slightly intimidating) countdown from 3, and then you’ll be ready to rumble.
From there, it’s pretty much as it used to be: click through, do some talking – you know the drill.
If you’re unsure whether your narration is being recorded, you can look out for two things. Firstly, the icons in the top left will change to “Pause” and “Stop” buttons; and second, you’ll notice the timer ticking along nicely in the bottom left.
The same rules apply about how the narration for each slide is embedded, but now you can easily hit “Pause” and re-record narration for specific sections of your presentation, without messing up the continuity of the whole thing. Nifty, eh?
One last thing, we’ve got a last-minute, yet handy PowerPoint narration tip: it’s tempting to jump straight in talking as soon as you’ve hit “Record”, but it will actually serve you better to wait for a breath before you launch into your script. PowerPoint can sometimes take a second to begin recording, which can lead to the start of your recording getting clipped off. Not good. An easy way to avoid having to re-record clipped narrations is to pause for a heartbeat before you carry on speaking.
That’s all from us. Now you can do it all in the record interface: click “Pause” to gather your thoughts, “Stop” to halt proceedings on your current slide, and then “Record” to have another go. This saves exiting the interface every few slides, reduces the strain on your computer’s CPU, and generally makes the process move along a little quicker. Nice one Microsoft.
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Tell me more!This is awesome! You guys are great to work with and we will absolutely recommend you to others.
John Capuano Lone Beacon
Excellent articles about narration, I was wondering though about what to do about the awkward transition of sound from one slide to the next when playing. When the mic is “activated” then there is a slight sound that can be heard in the background (like a low hum or hiss) but then it mutes between slides which makes it sound choppy I think. Any suggestions on fixing this in newer versions of Office? I have 365…
Thanks for any help you can provide!
Hi Stephan,
Glad you liked the article!
I think there are a couple of things you could do. It sounds like your microphone is making the hum/hiss, so you could try a different one – maybe something with a different connection (USB/jack) to see if that cuts out the background noise. I once had a microphone that made more sound if my laptop was running off battery power, so it’s worth experimenting a little.
Alternatively, you can record the presentation narration as a separate audio track. A free program like Audacity is great and has all the tools you need. Record the narration, export it as an .mp3 file, and then insert that as an audio track to ‘play across slides’ and the audio will run even over the transitions (just make sure you leave enough of a pause). All you need to do now is record the clicks (same as recording the narration for your presentation, just without the audio).
I hope this helps!
We’ve ariervd at the end of the line and I have what I need!
Thanks for getting me started. I’m using PPT 2013 to record narration on a presentation. I can’t seem to hear the audio when I try to use the Preview feature in the Playback menu under Audio Tools. The audio icon is shown on the slide, and the correct timing is shown. But, no audio. I only narrated 5 or 6 slides before try check what I actually recorded. I’m using a USB external mic that has it’s own headphone jack. I could hear myself quite well during recording, but I don’t know if anything was actually recorded in PPT. I also halted the recording and told the slide show to play. Once again, the timing of the slides was correct, but still no audio. Any help would really be appreciated!
Thanks so much for the explanation.
How can I reach the product I recorded?
After I finished recording, I stayed on the black screen (the screen from which I started recording). After I closed the black screen, I returned to the presentation in edit mode.
How can I get to a video that shows what I recorded?
Hi Karin, thanks for your comment!
You can see your finished product by playing the presentation in slide show mode – everything you recorded will be played back to you. To then export it as a video (or mp4), go to File > Export > Create a video.
Nice 👍
Hi Hannah,
I used to follow your “Importing Audio and Setting Timings” article to add continuously flowing narrative from Audacity to my PowerPoint presentation. I don’t know how to do this with my 2020 PPT update in Microsoft 365.
I see how to record, but I must pause between each slide transition and it sounds choppy.
Do you have an updated article explaining how to seamlessly add narration on the newer PowerPoint versions?
Thanks,
John
Hi John, thanks for your comment!
I agree, sometimes the dead air in the transitions can really disrupt the flow of a presentation. My top tip here would be to record one audio track per slide in Audacity and then for each track select the ‘play across slides’ option in the audio menu in PowerPoint. This means you won’t have to wait for the track to finish before moving to the next slide, and you can cut out a few seconds of dead air in the transition.
How do I advance lines on a particular slide on click while recording narration on a powerpoint slide? I used to be able to do this, but not anymore.
Hi Jon, thanks for your question. If your animations are all programmed on clicks, you should be able to navigate to the ‘record’ view, click record, and then click on the slide itself to advance your animations as you narrate. If that’s proving tricky to juggle with your narration, you could always record your audio in a separate program (like Audacity) and then just time out your animations using the ‘record slide show’ option.