How to Put Music on a PowerPoint Slideshow

Add music to your PowerPoint presentations to make them more interesting.

Adding music to PowerPoint presentations creates a more powerful and memorable show. When you can add music to a PowerPoint presentation for school, it makes the students pay more attention to the presentation. They get bored listening to facts without something to keep their interest, and music helps to hold their interest. The movie industry uses music all the time to create memorable events in movies. Think about movies like "Gone With The Wind," "Grease" or "Jaws." The music intensifies the emotions of the characters, and makes you remember moments in the movie every time you hear the music.

Instructions

Adding Preinstalled Music

1. Open the PowerPoint file to add your music. Click on a slide where you want to add music.

2. Click "Insert," and scroll down to "Movies and Sound." A window will appear. Click on "Sound Clip Organizer." This will open a window on the right side with sound clips, sound effects and various styles of music. Choose the sound that you want, and click on it. A window will pop up asking, "'How do you want the sound to start in the slide show?

3. Click "Automatically" to start the music when the slide opens, or click "When Clicked" to start the music when you click on the speaker icon on the slide. Your selected music will play on that file when your PowerPoint is in show mode.

Adding Music From a File

1. Open the PowerPoint file to add your music. Click on a slide where you want to add music.

2. Click "Insert," and scroll down to "Movies and Sound." A window will appear. Click on "Sound From File." A window will open for you to find a music file you saved on the computer. Choose your music and click "OK." A window will pop up asking, "'How do you want the sound to start in the slide show?

3. Click "Automatically" to start the music when the slide opens, or click "When Clicked" to start the music when you click on the speaker icon on the slide. Your selected music will play on that file when your PowerPoint is in show mode.

Adding Music to Play From a CD

1. Put a music CD in the computer. If the CD player opens and starts playing the CD, exit out of the player.

2. Open the PowerPoint file to add your music. Click on a slide where you want to add music.

3. Click "Insert," and scroll down to "Movies and Sound." In the window that appears, click on "Play CD Audio Track." This will open a window box labeled "Insert CD Audio." In the "Start at track" up/down box, select the track you want to play in the presentation. In the "time" up/down box, select the time you want the music to start playing. In the "End of track "up/down box, select when the music should stop playing. In the "Time" up/down box, select how long you want the music to play.

4. In the "Play options" area, you can allow the selected music to play over and over until you stop the show. Check this option if desired. Click on the speaker icon to make adjustments to volume. Click "Hide Sound Icon During the Slide Show" if you don't want to see it on the screen. After making your selections, click "OK."

5. Click "Automatically" to start the music when the slide opens, or click "When Clicked" to start the music when you click on the speaker icon on the slide. Your selected music will play on that file when your PowerPoint is in show mode.

References

• Presentation Magazine: How to Add Music to Your Power Point Presentation