How to Include Music in Your Apple Keynote

iTunes works seamlessly with Keynote to add music to your presentation.

Keynote is the presentation software included in Apple's iWork suite of graphics and productivity applications. Keynote is much like PowerPoint with impressive themes, transitions, animations and the ability to easily add photos, video and music to a slideshow. Keynote works seamlessly with iPhoto, iMovie and iTunes, through which elements can be added to the slides by a simple drag and drop method. Every new Mac ships with a trial version of iWork; you must purchase the full version to continue to use the applications after the trial period has elapsed.

Things You'll Need

• Digital audio file in MP3 or AIFF format
• iTunes

Instructions

1. Open a new presentation by clicking on the "Keynote" icon in your dock. Alternately, click on "Go" from the Apple desktop menu, and scroll down to "Applications." Locate "Keynote" in the folder, and double-click to launch the program.

2. Note the "Theme Chooser" window that opens. Click on a theme icon, and click the "Choose" button to proceed to a title slide template for a new presentation. Alternately, click on the "Open an Existing File" button to open an existing Keynote file. Navigate to the Keynote presentation in the "Open" window.

3. Click on the "Media" icon in the Tool bar at the top of the slide. Click on the "Audio" button. Choose "iTunes" from the pop-up menu, and scroll down to "Music." Click on the preferred audio file in the list. Test the file to make sure it's the one you want to add by clicking on the forward arrow at the lower left of the audio window.

4. Open the music settings by clicking on the blue "I" or "Inspector" icon. Click on the document icon, and select the "Audio" button. Drag and drop your chosen song from the Media list to the "Soundtrack" box in the Inspector. Click on "Play once" to play the audio file, then stop, or "Loop" to play the music continuously through your presentation. Adjust the volume level with the slider button.

References

• Apple: Find Out How: Adding Audio