Importing pre-recorded narration

[Richard Miller]

Dear Colleagues,

I give public presentations and I have recently been recording these using a
MiniDisc and a lapel mike (it fits in the pocket).

I want to prepare CD's of these presentations to give to various people
which have the talk over the slides with a some minimal navigation.

I can do this using Producer and it works very well from a publishing point
of view. It does exactly what I want. Unfortunately it relies on specific
Microsoft tools being present on the playing PC, and if they are not there
the system goes wandering off looking for downloads from the Microsoft site.
This behaviour causes panic and despondency in these virus ridden days. So
no matter how easy Producer is for me I need something that users find easy.

I have PowerPoint 2003 and the combination of narration, pack to CD and the
new PowerPoint viewer looks like I can make a self-contained CD.

But how do I use a pre-recorded narration? Can't find any information
anywhere. I can break the narration into individual slides and use some of
the various recommneded techniques, but it would be much easier to import
the whole narration and set the slide synchronisation later.

CAn any of you experts help me?

Regards

Richard

 

[Bill Dilworth]

Sorry Richard, time sync & PowerPoint don't play well together.

The previous solution you had mentioned, of breaking the sound file into
smaller slide based sound files, sounds like your best bet. This will keep
the sound and slide progression synced.

--
Bill Dilworth, Microsoft PPT MVP
===============
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..
..

 

[Glen Millar]

Richard,

In addition to Bill's advice.....

Producer uses html and some other technologies. You put it on another
machine and it looks for the other technologies. So it either wants to
install it, or download from the net.

To break the sounds, I once did this. I used a pre-recorded sound on another
machine. I then piped the sound from the other machine into the machine with
the presentation, through the computers sound port, and used the "Record
narration" on the target machine, with sound coming in on the other machine.

Then again..... I suspect Bill has just woken up from a great sleep, while
min eis still pending <vbg>.

--
Regards,

Glen Millar
Microsoft PPT MVP
http://www.powerpointworkbench.com/
Please tell us your ppt version, and get back to us here
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[John Langhans [MSFT]]

[CRITICAL UPDATE - Anyone using Office 2003 should install the critical
update as soon as possible. From PowerPoint, choose "Help -> Check for
Updates".]
[TOP ISSUE - Are you having difficulty opening presentations in PPT 2003
that you just created in PPT 2003? -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=329820]

Hello,

PowerPoint doesn't try to be a multimedia authoring tool, so it doesn't
support the kind of timing/synchronization that you are looking for. For
example, with media, it can only synchronize the BEGINNING of the media to
another event. It can't control the beginning of other events based on how
many seconds of a media file has been played. The features for this degree
of timing control are simply not built into the product.

Part of this is because two completely different architectures are used.
For multimedia playback we use system API calls (PowerPoint has very little
control over what happens after the media has begun to play) while
animations and transitions are controlled using PowerPoint's built in
procedures. Then, add to that, system specific performance when it comes to
moving data between physical devices, virtual system memory and the memory
that PowerPoint is using, etc and, because tight synchronization was never
a design goal for PowerPoint, you will get variable playback even on the
same system because the state of the system resources and memory is
different than the last time the presentation was shown.

So, for example, if you want to sychronize animations and transitions with
something other than just the beginning of media playback (on same slide or
over multiple slides), you will get inconsistent results from system to
system or even on the same system (depending on what data is still cached
in virtual memory). For true synchronization you should look into tools
which output to a streaming format (such as movie), So, for example, if
synchronization is the primary factor for choosing the right tool and your
"presentation" consists primarily of photos (picture shows), a simple
application like "Microsoft Plus! Photo Story" is a much better tool than
PowerPoint. Otherwise, your current workaround of using Microsoft Producer
for PowerPoint 2003 is the best solution.

If some kind of more deterministic, system independent, multimedia
synchronization with animations and transitions is important to you (or
anyone else reading this message) for Microsoft to consider for some future
version of PowerPoint (or if it's not possible, perhaps features within
PowerPoint to help you avoid trying to sychronize something that we can't
guarantee will always be synchronized), so you don't have to attempt to
exporting to other formats (movies, shockwave flash, etc.), which would
result is some loss of formatting and/or fidelity, don't forget to send
your feedback (in YOUR OWN WORDS, please) to Microsoft at:

http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp

It's VERY important that, for EACH wish, you describe in detail, WHY it is
important TO YOU that your product suggestion be implemented. A good wish
submssion includes WHAT scenario, work-flow, or end-result is blocked by
not having a specific feature, HOW MUCH time and effort ($$$) is spent
working around a specific limitation of the current product, etc. Remember
that Microsoft receives THOUSANDS of product suggestions every day and we
read each one but, in any given product development cycle, there are ONLY
sufficient resources to address the ones that are MOST IMPORTANT to our
customers so take the extra time to state your case as CLEARLY and
COMPLETELY as possible so that we can FEEL YOUR PAIN.

IMPORTANT: Each submission should be a single suggestion (not a list of
suggestions).

John Langhans
Microsoft Corporation
Supportability Program Manager
Microsoft Office PowerPoint for Windows
Microsoft Office Picture Manager for Windows

For FAQ's, highlights and top issues, visit the Microsoft PowerPoint
support center at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=ppt
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base at:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbhowto

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Use of any included script samples are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm

 

[Guest]

John,
I think you just answered my question, although not what I wanted to hear. I have recorded 105 minutes of an audio presentation I'm trying to marry up with a PPT presentation using the "Record Narration" feature so that I can time the animation and slide transitions to fit the audio. (I inserted two-second gaps in the audio to account for the slide transitions.) The instructions in "help" make it seem like this should work, and it does on at least some of the slides. Most, however, transition before all the sound has played, even though I waited until the sound was finished before manually advancing the slide as I recorded the narration audio. Changing the slide transition timing doesn't help. Is there a better way I can do what I'm trying to do or am I trying to go beyond the limitations of the PPT 2000 software I'm using?

Dix

[CRITICAL UPDATE - Anyone using Office 2003 should install the critical
update as soon as possible. From PowerPoint, choose "Help -> Check for
Updates".]
[TOP ISSUE - Are you having difficulty opening presentations in PPT 2003
that you just created in PPT 2003? -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=329820]

Hello,

PowerPoint doesn't try to be a multimedia authoring tool, so it doesn't
support the kind of timing/synchronization that you are looking for. For
example, with media, it can only synchronize the BEGINNING of the media to
another event. It can't control the beginning of other events based on how
many seconds of a media file has been played. The features for this degree
of timing control are simply not built into the product.

Part of this is because two completely different architectures are used.
For multimedia playback we use system API calls (PowerPoint has very little
control over what happens after the media has begun to play) while
animations and transitions are controlled using PowerPoint's built in
procedures. Then, add to that, system specific performance when it comes to
moving data between physical devices, virtual system memory and the memory
that PowerPoint is using, etc and, because tight synchronization was never
a design goal for PowerPoint, you will get variable playback even on the
same system because the state of the system resources and memory is
different than the last time the presentation was shown.

So, for example, if you want to sychronize animations and transitions with
something other than just the beginning of media playback (on same slide or
over multiple slides), you will get inconsistent results from system to
system or even on the same system (depending on what data is still cached
in virtual memory). For true synchronization you should look into tools
which output to a streaming format (such as movie), So, for example, if
synchronization is the primary factor for choosing the right tool and your
"presentation" consists primarily of photos (picture shows), a simple
application like "Microsoft Plus! Photo Story" is a much better tool than
PowerPoint. Otherwise, your current workaround of using Microsoft Producer
for PowerPoint 2003 is the best solution.

If some kind of more deterministic, system independent, multimedia
synchronization with animations and transitions is important to you (or
anyone else reading this message) for Microsoft to consider for some future
version of PowerPoint (or if it's not possible, perhaps features within
PowerPoint to help you avoid trying to sychronize something that we can't
guarantee will always be synchronized), so you don't have to attempt to
exporting to other formats (movies, shockwave flash, etc.), which would
result is some loss of formatting and/or fidelity, don't forget to send
your feedback (in YOUR OWN WORDS, please) to Microsoft at:

http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp

It's VERY important that, for EACH wish, you describe in detail, WHY it is
important TO YOU that your product suggestion be implemented. A good wish
submssion includes WHAT scenario, work-flow, or end-result is blocked by
not having a specific feature, HOW MUCH time and effort ($$$) is spent
working around a specific limitation of the current product, etc. Remember
that Microsoft receives THOUSANDS of product suggestions every day and we
read each one but, in any given product development cycle, there are ONLY
sufficient resources to address the ones that are MOST IMPORTANT to our
customers so take the extra time to state your case as CLEARLY and
COMPLETELY as possible so that we can FEEL YOUR PAIN.

IMPORTANT: Each submission should be a single suggestion (not a list of
suggestions).

John Langhans
Microsoft Corporation
Supportability Program Manager
Microsoft Office PowerPoint for Windows
Microsoft Office Picture Manager for Windows

For FAQ's, highlights and top issues, visit the Microsoft PowerPoint
support center at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=ppt
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base at:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbhowto

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Use of any included script samples are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm

 

[John Langhans [MSFT]]

[CRITICAL UPDATE - Anyone using Office 2003 should install the critical
update as soon as possible. From PowerPoint, choose "Help -> Check for
Updates".]
[TOP ISSUE - Are you having difficulty opening presentations in PowerPoint
that you just created (you can save, but not open)? -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=329820]

Hello,

If you turn off the "Continue slide show" setting for the inserted sound
objects, that should prevent the slide from advancing until the sound is
done playing. This is hard to find in PowerPoint 2002 or 2003, but since
you're using PowerPoint 2000, it should be relatively easy to do.

For each slide in your presentation:

1) Slide Show -> Custom Animation
2) Select the sound object from the list of animated objects in the dialog
3) Click on the Multimedia Settings tab
4) Select the "Pause slide show" option from the While playing group and
5) Click OK.

John Langhans
Microsoft Corporation
Supportability Program Manager
Microsoft Office PowerPoint for Windows
Microsoft Office Picture Manager for Windows

For FAQ's, highlights and top issues, visit the Microsoft PowerPoint
support center at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=ppt
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base at:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbhowto

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Use of any included script samples are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm