Playing Music in Powerpoint

I knew that I could embed music into a Powerpoint presentation, but I wasn't sure how to get the music to keep playing for more than one slide. Turns out, it is pretty easy to do -- you just have to know where to look. :)

First, to insert a music clip on a slide:

1. Open the presentation in Powerpoint
2. Go to the slide where you want the music to start
3. From the Insert menu, select Sound from File (if you have an MP3 on your computer) or Sound from CD (if you are going to put a music CD in your computer)

After the sound is inserted, you will see a little music icon on the slide. Here's the part where it gets tricky... you need to figure out how to get to Powerpoint's Custom Animation settings for the sound clip. This depends on what version of Powerpoint you have... Powerpoint 2003 for PC, Powerpoint X for Mac, Powerpoint 2007 ... all have slightly different interfaces.

Here are the steps for Powerpoint 2003 for PC:

1. Right click the sound icon and select Custom Animation. A toolbar on the right displays the Custom Animation settings.
2. Right click the sound listed and select Effect Options.
3. You will see a set of options for when to start playing (for example, you can select to start playing music 30 seconds into the clip).
4. Beneath that, you can see a set of options for when to stop playing -- here you can select Stop Playing After x slides and set the X to 3 if you want the music to play for the first, second and third slides.

If you have never made a Powerpoint presentation before, here's an online training module from Microsoft that will get you started.

And if you are intrigued and want to see more cool things you can do in Powerpoint and other Microsoft Office products, you can go to the Microsoft Office website and find lots of other "Help and How-To" tips and online training.