Record and Narrate slides

Modified on Mon, 13 Jul 2020 at 09:17 PM

  1. With your presentation open, on the Slide Show tab, click Record Slide Show.

    • Clicking the upper half of the button starts you on the current slide.

    • Clicking the lower half of the button gives you the option to start from the beginning or from the current slide.

  2. The Record Slide Show commands on the Recording Tab in PowerPoint.

    (The Clear command deletes narrations or timings, so be careful when you use it. Clear is grayed out unless you have previously recorded some slides.)

  3. In the Record Slide Show box, check or clear the boxes for your recording, and click Start Recording.

    Shows record slideshow dialog in PowerPoint

    More about these options:

    • Slide and animation timings: PowerPoint automatically records the time you spend on each slide, including any animation steps that occur, and the use of any triggers on each slide.

    • Narrations, ink, and laser pointer: Record your voice as you run through your presentation. If you use the pen, highlighter, eraser, or laser pointer, PowerPoint records those for playback as well.

  4. Important:   Pen, highlighter, and eraser recording are available only if you have the February 16, 2015 update for PowerPoint 2013 or a later version of PowerPoint installed. In earlier versions of PowerPoint, pen and highlighter strokes are saved as ink annotation shapes.

  5. At the top left corner of the window is the Recording toolbar, which you can use to:

    Recording toolbar
    • Go to the next slide: Go to the next slide

    • Pause the recording: Pause recording

    • Re-record the current slide: Repeat

      If you re-record your narration (including audio, ink, and laser pointer), PowerPoint erases your previously recorded narration (including audio, ink, and laser pointer) when you start recording again on the same slide.

      You can also re-record by going to Slide ShowRecord Slide Show.

  6. To use ink, eraser, or the laser pointer in your recording, right-click the slide, click Pointer options, and pick your tool:

    • Laser Pointer

    • Pen

    • Highlighter

    • Eraser (This option is grayed out unless you have previously added ink to some slides.)

  7. To change the color of the ink, click Ink Color.

    Shows pointer options menu in PowerPoint
  8. To end your recording, right-click the final slide, and click End Show.

    Shows the end show option in PowerPoint

    Tip:   When you finish recording your narration, a sound icon appears in the lower-right corner of each slide that has narration.

    The recorded slide show timings are automatically saved. Timings are shown in Slide Sorter view just beneath each slide.

    Sound icon

In this process, what you record is embedded in each slide, and the recording can be played back in Slide Show. A video file is not created by this recording process. However, if you want a video file, you can save your presentation as a video with a few extra steps.

Preview the recorded slide show

On the Slide Show tab, click From Beginning or From Current Slide.

During playback, your animations, inking actions, laser pointer, audio and video play in sync.

Shows the "from beginning" button on the slide show tab in PowerPoint

Preview the recorded audio

In Normal view, click the sound icon in the lower-right corner of the slide, and then click Play.

Click Play

Set the slide timings manually

PowerPoint automatically records your slide timings when you add narrations, or you can manually set the slide timings to accompany your narrations.

  1. In Normal view, click the slide that you want to set the timing for.

  2. On the Transitions tab, in the Timing group, under Advance Slide, select the After check box, and then enter the number of seconds indicating how long the slide should appear on the screen. Repeat the process for each slide that you want to set the timing for.

Tip:   If you want the next slide to appear either when you click the mouse or automatically after the number of seconds that you enter—whichever comes first—select both the On Mouse Click and the After check boxes.

Delete timings or narration

The Clear command is for deleting timings or narration from your recording that you don't want or that you want to replace. There are four different Clear commands that allow you to:

  • Delete the timings on the currently selected slide

  • Delete the timings on all slides at once

  • Delete the narration on the currently selected slide

  • Delete the narration on all slides at once

  1. If you do not want to delete all the timings or narration in your presentation, open a specific slide that has a timing or narration that you do want to delete.

  2. On the Slide Show tab of the PowerPoint ribbon, on the Record Slide Show button, click the down arrow, point to Clear, and then choose the appropriate Clear command for your situation.

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