Office of Academic Programs
Presentations
PowerPoint for the Web
Overview | Narrate PowerPoint | Save in Web-viewable Format | Embed Video
Overview
Using PowerPoint to create lectures for viewing on the web can be an efficient solution because
- instructors and students are usually familiar with the PowerPoint program.
- instructors often have PowerPoints that support their lectures already.
- instructors may have PowerPoint presentations that come with the course text.
This tutorial explains how to
- narrate a PowerPoint
- save in a format viewable on the web (read this section below!)
- embed video if desired
Narrate PowerPoint for Mac
Narrate PowerPoint for PC
There are several settings to be defined and choices to be made before recording can begin.
Set Up Show
On the Slide Show menu, click Set Up Show.
- Under Advance slides, select
- Manually - if you want students to be able to advance from one slide to the next at their own pace by clicking the slide.
- Using timings, if present - if you want the slides to advance automatically when your narration for a slide is complete.
- Under Performance (bottom of the Set Up Show dialog box)
- Check Use hardware graphics acceleration. This may improve performance.
- Click OK.
Record Voice Narration
To record a narration, proceed through each slide, recording as you go. (If there is an On-Off switch on the microphone, check to be sure it is set to On.)
- On the Slide Show menu, click Record Narration.
- Click Set Microphone Level, follow the directions to set your microphone level, and then click OK.
- The first slide will display in slide show view.
- Pause to allow the learner to see the slide.
- Begin speaking on the first slide.
- To pause and resume narration, right click the current slide, and select Pause or Resume Narration.
- To move to the next slide, click the current slide. To move to the next or previous slide, right click the current slide and choose Next or Previous.
- When you have completed the narration for the first slide, click the second slide and proceed with its narration.
- If you wish to edit the narration of a specific slide, click the slide (in normal view), select and delete the audio icon, and follow the steps above to record again.
Save Presentation
When you have narrated all slides, right click and select End Show. The following message will display:
“The narration has been saved with each slide. Do you want to save timings as well?”
- Choose Save if you chose to have your slides advance automatically. Your slides appear in slide sorter view, with the slide timings shown below each one.
- Choose Don’t Save if you chose to have students advance the slides manually.
To check the narration, choose Slide Show from the PowerPoint menu and then View Show.
Save in Web Viewable Format
Unfortunately, narrated PowerPoints created on PCs are not necessarily viewable on Macs and vice-versa. For this reason, we have developed the following solutions.
PC - There is a very effective PowerPoint to Flash converter called iSpring Presenter. (Currently, Flash is the optimal video format for the web.) Your HHS ITC has a copy and can convert your file in a very short time. (Note: iSpring free will do the same thing, but the license for it expressly says that it may not be used for educational purposes.)
Mac - PowerPoint for Mac includes an export as Quick Time (mov) feature. The mov will be viewable by Mac viewers, of course, and also by PC users who have the free Quick Time player.
Note:
If the Quick Time file is very large, either use one of the media converters below or send to your ITC for further compression.
Embed Video
PowerPoint 2007 supports a limited number of video file formats: .asf, .avi, .mpg or .mpeg, and .wmv.
See Compatible multimedia formats.
For instructions on embedding a video file, see Add and play a movie in a presentation.
It is also possible to embed a flash [.swf] file. Flash is currently the prefered video format for the web. YouTube and Google Video files are in Flash format.
See this instructive video: Embed youtube movie in PowerPoint (4:45)
If you wish to embed your own Flash video, your file will need to be in .swf (not .flv) format.
Videos in formats other than the above will have to be converted in order to run inside PowerPoint.
There are multiple free video converters on the Web:
- Zamzar (Converts up to 1 GB files in many media - see conversion types)
- Media Convert (Choose speed of approximately 256kbit/sec, about the speed of a slow DSL connection)
Super, a free media converter downloadable software, can also be used. Note: Super is not approved for use on UNCG computers.
Lastly, see also your instructional technology consultants, who are able to convert video using Sorenson Squeeze.