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Microsoft PowerPoint Audio Files Clipped?

I have been working on a PowerPoint (Mac OS X 2004) quiz for quite some time and have inserted sound files which work fine. However i have been working on a new slide and it seems all my sound files (not movie) only play for about a second. This is throughout the whole presentation. I must have clicked on a setting but i have no idea how and how it would effect the whole presentation.


Dave's Answer:

I have to admit up front that I'm not sure exactly how to solve this problem, but you can gain a lot of important information about your audio files, and ascertain whether it's clipped data or not, by doing this:

When you can see one of your audio file objects, right click on it. You'll then see:

PowerPoint Audio Menu

Now, from this point, choose Sound Options and you'll see:

PowerPoint Sound Options

Notice here that it shows the total playing time of the audio clip (mine is 5:09). Does yours show :00:01?

Here's some useful information from the PowerPoint help system too:

You can insert sounds in the following formats:

  • Audio Interchange File Format (AIF, AIFF, AIFC)
  • Apple QuickTime Movie Sound (MOV, MOOV)
  • Apple System Sound (SFIL)
  • Apple System Resource Sound (RSRC, rsrc)
  • CCITT A-Law (European Telephony) Audio Format (ALAW)
  • CCITT U-Law (US Telephony) Audio Format (AU, SND, ULAW)
  • Microsoft Windows Waveform (WAVE, WAV)
  • MPEG Layer 3 Audio (MP3)
  • Advanced Audio Coding (AAC): MPEG-4 Audio
  • Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI, MID, KAR)

Tips

• Some sound formats, such as MP3 and MIDI files, and files with a file size larger than the size set in Preferences, are not embedded in the presentation when you insert them. Instead, they are linked from a location on your hard disk or the Internet. If you move the presentation, make sure to move these sound files with it. To make sure all linked files are included with your presentation, save the presentation as a PowerPoint Package.

• If the sound format you want to use is not listed here, you can still play the sound from a presentation by creating a hyperlink to it. Make sure that you have a sound player installed that is compatible with the sound format you want to play.

I wonder whether the separate files on disk feature of larger audio files is what's affecting you, actually. Check to see if that's what's going on?

Hope that helps you crack this problem!


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Categorized: Mac OS X Help   (Article 4149, Written by )
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Reader Comments To Date: 1

Max Sverdlove said, on August 26, 2005 7:06 AM:

I had this problem with Microsoft Office 2003's PowerPoint about a year and a half ago, while I was a student at Penn State. I was making a presentation for Speech Comm. and the same thing happened. I could never figure out what the problem was. I had to recreate the files using a pro editing software into another WAV format before it would work.... So annoying... Good luck to all who come across what seems to me to be a bug in PPT.

Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











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