Insert an audio button in your slide

You can add depth to your presentations when you

insert audio clips into your slides. You can make the

effects look even more professional when you create

buttons that link to audio clips.

Placing a button on a slide with an audio symbol

makes it more obvious to presenters or viewers that

supplemental audio is available for a slide. For

example, when you place an audio clip onto a slide,

a very small audio symbol is normally inserted. It is

small enough that it could be missed by the presenter

and the viewer. When you create an audio button, it

draws attention to the fact that there is an audio clip

available for the slide.

Audio buttons are added to the slide by creating an

action button, which is a professional-looking image

that you can draw onto your slide in whatever size

you want. They are called action buttons because you

can assign actions that make them interactive, such

as linking to an audio file when the button is clicked.

1 Display the slide into which you

want to insert the action button.

2 Click the Insert tab.

3 Click Shapes.

4 Click the sound action button.

5 Click and drag where you want

to position the button.

PowerPoint creates

the button and

displays the Action

Settings dialog box.

6 Click here and select

Other Sound.

The Add Sound dialog box appears.

7 Navigate to the folder that contains the

sound file.

8 Click the sound file.

9 Click OK.

PowerPoint previews the sound file.

10 Click OK.

PowerPoint assigns the sound file to the

action button.

Change It!

You do not always have to use the

same sound with the action button. If

you want to use a different sound, click

the action button, click Insert, and then

click Action to open the Action Settings

dialog box. Follow Steps 6 to 10 in this

task to select a new sound file.

Did You Know?

The color of the action button is

determined by the design theme you

are using on the slide. If you change the

theme, PowerPoint changes the action

button color to match. To change the

button format by hand, click it, click the

Format tab, and then use the controls

in the Shape Styles group.