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[kohelet]

Greetings.  Hope you're having more fun on New Year's Eve than me.

I'm looking for a PowerPoint expert to help me out with something I've wasted a lot of time trying to figure out.  I'm betting someone out there knows how to do this . . .

For my online course, I include a few narrated PowerPoints, which I save as "shows" so they come up in presentation mode.  They're not the centerpieces of the course, but they can come in really handy when nothing but a quick lecture will do.  To narrate them, I take the option of embedding multiple sound files using the Insert > Movies and Sounds > Record Sound command (which I prefer to the various other options).  To narrate a typical slide, I'll record one small sound file for each bullet point.  Then, I go to the "Custom Animation" box, where I might arrange something like this:

Text block #1 [start with previous]
Recording #1 [start with previous]
Text block #2 [start after previous]
Recording #2 [start with previous]
Text block #3 [start after previous]
Recording #3 [start with previous]

Now, I think I'm pretty clever doing this (and maybe someone will appreciate this tip)--when I go to "record" the show, I just click once for each slide, and then the text and sounds are revealed in a nice seamless sequence.  Lovely. 

However, I'm not satisfied!  One thing I despise about recording these shows (you know, where you "rehearse" the timings and then save the timings, which get saved for your "show") is that I have to sit there and listen to myself for thirty minutes or whatever, just waiting to click at the right moment to proceed from slide to slide.  What I want to figure out is how to automate this--to get PowerPoint to proceed to the next slide at the end of the slide's last recording.  Here's what I wish I could do in the Custom Animation box:

. . .
Text block #3 [start after previous]
Recording #3 [start with previous]
[Proceed to next slide after previous]

I cannot for the life of me figure out how to do this.  I've tried (what I think are) all the obvious places to look.  I fear that a macro may be required, but I can't figure that out (after MUCH googling and experimenting).  Maybe there's some way to stick a "[go to next slide]" macro in the custom animation and tag it as "[start after previous]"--that's what I'm envisioning at least.  Then, I'd just go to "Rehearse Timings," let the presentation play, save the timings, save as a show, and be done without having to listen to myself again.  Sweet.

I would be grateful if anyone could help me out.  I'm in PowerPoint 2003, though I can get to (and have tried) 2007, too.  Any ideas?

[doublemocha]

There's an option under Slide Transition to advance slides either on mouse click or after a set amount of time. I have vague memories of using this feature several years ago, and it should do what you want it to do, as long as you know how long each slide should be displayed--and each will have to be set separately.

[kohelet]

Thanks, doublemochoa.  You're remembering correctly.  That is an option, but I'd have to go through and add up the length of each recording for every slide.  I'm hoping for something even more automated.   I'm guessing it's not possible.  Maybe someone will know if Camtasia makes this any easier.  Anyone?

Okay.  It's 9:20 on New Year's Eve.  Gotta go party (that is, gotta go watch a movie on the sofa with my wife--kids are in bed!).

There's an option under Slide Transition to advance slides either on mouse click or after a set amount of time. I have vague memories of using this feature several years ago, and it should do what you want it to do, as long as you know how long each slide should be displayed--and each will have to be set separately.

[doublemocha]

I do use Camtasia for creating "how to" tutorials for my students, complete with narration. I've never used it with the PPT feature, but it does have the option to freeze a frame as long as you want while you continue to record narration. You can also do narration in parts, as you are already doing with your PPT show. The newer demo versions of Camtasia are a bit less intuitive than previous versions, but it's still fairly easy to figure out.

[sq_books]

I have used Camtasia this way and it WONDERFUL! I tried messing with the various record features in PPT 2007 and Camtasia is simply more flexible and easier. I am not sure about the cost because our distance ed folks give us copies. I have made *.wav files with it and the transitions are easy and, best part, if you make a mistake or misspeak about some topic or simply want to update from info you can edit (with the patience and practice) by taking your slider back and edit the file without recording the whole file over again. I love this program for narrating power points!

[zuzu_]

I have used Camtasia this way and it WONDERFUL! I tried messing with the various record features in PPT 2007 and Camtasia is simply more flexible and easier. I am not sure about the cost because our distance ed folks give us copies. I have made *.wav files with it and the transitions are easy and, best part, if you make a mistake or misspeak about some topic or simply want to update from info you can edit (with the patience and practice) by taking your slider back and edit the file without recording the whole file over again. I love this program for narrating power points!

Glad to hear about your success. I just got camtasia installed and plan to delve into the world of recorded, narrative PowerPoints soon...

[kohelet]

Just saw that my thread got some action.  Yay. 

Our Teaching Resource Center people have tried and tried to sell me on Camtasia.  It sounds great, but two problems here: 1) The only licenses are on the resource center computers, so I'd have to sit in there to do all my recording, which just makes me too self-conscious or something, and 2) I did LOADS of this recording already, and I don't want to do it inside of Camtasia again.  The lab assistant tried turning one of my lectures into a .wmv using Camtasia, and it was evidently much more complicated because I had recorded lots of little sound bites instead of one long running narrative, and the quality of the sound--because it was recorded outside of Camtasia and then brought in instead of recording in Camtasia--was quite poor and some of the timing got off.

Anyway. 

For now, I'm sticking with just using the .pps option, but the lab folks tell me they're thinking about another possible solution.

[sq_books]

scottser,

Sorry to hear that you are having problems with Camtasia. I promise I do not own stock in them or anything, but I do think it is great. My IT people gave me a license key and I downloaded it to my computer in my office from the website and it worked OK. Maybe they could work something out ... I also found this website http://www.awesomebackgrounds.com/powerpoint-to-video.htm This may have been what they were trying to do. If you can run the power point file and simply capture it while it is running in Camtasia then you could save it as a video file, I think :) but have never tried it.

best of luck, I do recommend investing a little time because I have had good experiences with it --- hope it works out!

 

[kohelet]

Thanks very much, sq_books.  I'll check out the link--you're great to dig it up for me.  I've experimented with a couple of free downloads (no luck), so next I'll try free trials of the good stuff.  Fortunately, I can try out all this stuff in the teaching lab so I don't muck up my machine.

I'm convinced that Camtasia is good stuff, though--you sound like all the resource center people here--they're all quite the Camtasia cheerleaders, too!