A Quick Guide to Adding a Background Sound Track to PowerPoint Presentations

1. Open PowerPoint
2. Go to the Insert menu
3. Choose Movies & Sounds
4. Then choose Play CD Audio Track*
5. Once the dialog box opens choose Play Options. A window will open, see figure 1 below.

   
   figure 1

6. This will place a "CD" shaped icon in your presentation
7. Select the CD icon and go to the Slide Show menu and choose Custom Animation; or you may right-click (cntrl-click on a Macintosh with OS 8.5 or later) on the CD icon and choose Custom Animation. A window will open, see figure 2 below.
8. Make sure that the Animate option is selected for the CD media
9. Make sure that under the Animate options that Automatically is set to 0
10. Check to see that the CD media is listed first in the animation order

    
    figure 2

11. Now choose the Play Settings option, see figure 3 below.

    
    figure 3

12. Make sure the option Play using animation order is selected
13. Make sure the option Continue slide show is selected
14. Make sure the option Stop Playing is set to After, and the number of slides listed is how long you want the sound track to continue playing for. [If it is a background sound track the value for the field should be the number of slides you have in your presentation.]

For more information on PowerPoint contact the IT Helpdesk at 915-5222 or via e-mail at helpdesk@olemiss.edu.

*This same process can be adapted for a specific single track to be played throughout the course of a PowerPoint presentation.