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Play CD tracks in PowerPoint
May 01, 2005

How To
By Geetesh Bajaj

Note: The following technique works with Microsoft PowerPoint versions 97 through 2004 for Macintosh and Windows. The steps shown here were tested using PowerPoint 2003 for Windows.

A corporate presentation accompanied by a CD audio track that spans across slides may not seem like a pressing PowerPoint need. But who can explain why this is one of the most-asked support questions on the PowerPoint support forums?

Here's how it's done:

1. Make sure you have an audio CD placed in your CD tray. Open your presentation file in PowerPoint and navigate to the slide on which you want the music to start.

2. From the INSERT menu choose MOVIES AND SOUND » PLAY CD TRACK. This will bring up the Insert CD Audio dialog box (see Example 1).

3. For Clip Selection choose the CD track you want to start with, then select the last track you want to be played. There are also options to start in the middle of a track by providing specific timings, and you can also loop the sound continuously, adjust the volume and hide the CD icon while in Slide Show mode. Make changes to your settings and then click OK. At this point, PowerPoint will ask if you want the sound to play automatically; accept this option to test your show.

You should be aware that most popular music CDs have strict copyright regulations. If you present with or distribute presentations with copyrighted music, you could be sued, whether you were aware of the laws or not. For business presentations, make sure the music tracks you choose are royalty-free and legal to use.

4. You will now notice that PowerPoint has placed a CD icon on the slide (see Example 2). If you did not choose to hide the CD icon in the previous dialog box, you can also drag the icon off of the slide area to prevent it from being visible during the presentation.

While this allows you to play a CD track for one slide, the music will stop if you move onto other slides. Here's how to make the CD tracks play across slides:

5. Right-click the CD icon on the slide and choose Custom Animation from the subsequent menu.

6. Within the Custom Animation task pane (on the right side of the screen) you'll find the name of the CD sound file listed. Click on the arrow to the right of this title and from the drop-down menu choose Effect Options.

7. In the Effects Option dialog box, you'll find three tabs: Effects, Timing and Sound Settings (see Example 3). Within the Effects tab, under "Start playing clip," choose the "From beginning" option. Then under "Stop playing clip," go to the "After slides" option and select the number of slides you want to play the track across. If you want the CD to play across all of the slides, type in 999 as the slide-number option, as that is the highest number of slides PowerPoint accepts.

8. Now click on the Timings tab and, under Start, choose "After Previous" from the drop-down menu. Change the Delay setting to "0" seconds. Click OK and save your presentation.

9. Go into Slide Show mode (SLIDE SHOW » VIEW SHOW) and test your CD track.

Problem spotsCD tracks are never saved with a presentation, so if your CD is not loaded in the computer's drive, there will be no music with your slideshow.

If you have a computer with more than one CD drive, PowerPoint might be looking for the CD from the other drive. Switch drives if necessary. Finally, in my opinion, the best solution to all CD track problems is to rip the tracks from the CD into WAV, MP3 or WMA files. If the presentation must be used across platforms (Mac and Windows), use MP3 files.

Originally published in the May 2005 issue of Presentations magazine.

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