Thanks for bringing this time-saving feature to our attention. From a human factors standpoint, perhaps the Browse button should be renamed to something that suggests that multiple files can be selected. Or better yet, allow the same multiple file selection functionality when double-clicking on a slide in the Import Audio window. Just a thought…

It’d be nice if you could explicitly assign an audio file to a slide. E.g., if I have audio for slides 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7, I could import them all at once and skip slide 6.

I agree that this is a helpful feature. My wish is that there could be an easier way to know which audio file goes with a slide. I know there is a method to do this by clicking on the file and seeing the VB info. When I try that method, I get an error message “Compile Error – Invalid Use of Property. Plus, doing this for each slide is pretty time-consuming. I’m sure there are constraints – just my wish…

What do you need to record audio voice-over in Articulate Presenter Pro? I have Articulate and a microphone, but do I need and special software on my computer to do the recording?

I have another AP audio question. Can we overlay multiple audio files on the same slide? Example: We have some music playing on a slide and want to have the narrator talk over the music. Do we have to play the music while she talks (creating 1 track) or can we merge/dub the 2 tracks together?

Bobbie- All you need is Articulate and a mic.

Lisa- Take a look at the background music feature of AP.

This feature is a real timesaver. Any way to import the audio to say… slides 6, 7 and 8 instead of 1,2 and 3?

Hi Stewart-

Glad to hear it! And yes, you can specify the slides into which you want to import the audio by shift-clicking the slides on the Import Audio screen. The slides must be subsequent, though.

Hi, when can you make it possible that Presenter can also convert multiple audio files per slide? This is what we need in our presentation, audio files embedded in powerpoint’s custom animation that narrate word by word, as the text appears on screen. Too bad to find out Presenter failed in this requirement. I hope you can come up with an upgrade soon for this matter.

Thanks for the input, LT. Though it’s probably not what you’re looking to do, you could put each of your words in a separate text box, then synchronize imported or recorded audio using “Record Narration” or “Sync Animation Timings.” That would achieve your goal of getting the audio to play as your text appears.

You’re also welcome to suggest features here.

How would you synchronise imported audio with each of animated bullet points on a slide?

[…] Presenter is just a matter of a few mouse clicks. As Gabe has outlined in previous posts, you can import multiple audio files or even use the Timeline Audio Editor to split your audio across several […]

Regarding file identification, while somewhat arcane, there is a way. At the top of the file folder called Narration, there is a text file call ae.ini. It contains the map of each slide and its corresponding narration track. When you first start recording it seems to follow some form of logic, but quickly, the sequence of the tracks and the slides no longer relate to one another. You must have the map.

When you want to place music or other sounds behind the voice over, you can do some of it in the audio editor in Articulate, but I like to use a more robust sound editing program like Sony Sound Forge. With it and the map I can do whatever I want to any slide in the with sounds, music, and other enhancements such as reverb.

For precise editing, I play the recorded frame in the Record function of articulate and capture the precise points that the animation occurs. I then insert or remove time from the narration to hit the mark. It’s very tedious, and explains why it takes Pixar 3 years (or more) to make their movies.

After importing audio in this fashion, why doesn’t the Slide Properties window indicate that the audio files are there? There is a column called “Audio Playlist” but it is blank even though there is audio on every slide.

Hi Janet- This method allows you to import narration, whereas the “Audio Playlist” column in the Slide Properties Manager shows your background music, which you create in Library and Options -> Playlists (Presenter 5) or Presentation Options -> Playlists (Presenter ’09).

In other words, Presenter supports two audio tracks: (1) Recorded/imported narration and (2) background music/playlists.

Does that clarify things for you?

Gabe: Yes, I understand perfectly now. Thank you. I would like to add to your Future Enhancements list the following feature: a way in which Articulate acknowledges or displays that you’ve imported the audio. After you import all of the audio, you don’t get a warm fuzzy that it’s actually there. And if someone else were to open the file, they wouldn’t know if there’s audio or not, that is, until they published the file, which takes so darned long. It seems like the Slide Properties box is a logical place to show the corresponding audio file for each slide.

Hi Janet- Glad to hear it!

In Presenter ’09, there are a couple ways to easily see which slide(s) contain audio: In the Audio Editor and in the consolidated narration panel.

That said, we’re always open to other feature suggestions (please direct them here).

Gabe, how do you add 2 clips to the same slide simultaneously?
I have music and audio I want to import to the same slide…any pointers?

Hi Troy- for recorded audio, you can use Record Narration or Import Audio. For background music, set up playlists in Presentation Options. Learn more in this blog entry.

Thanks Gabe!

That is exactly what I was looking for!

How to import multiple audio narration files into the same slide? For example, I have 3 different WAV files I want to import into the same slide.

Hi Jessica- That’s actually not possible, but you could first merge the files using a 3rd-party audio editor, then import them.

Gabe, thanks for the cnofirmation. I was hoping importing would append the audio files one after another into the same slide.

Anyway, what’s a good free program I can use to combine the WAV files?

Hi Jessica- A number of our customers use Audacity, which is a free audio editor.

Gabe, thanks. I’m new to Audacity. so, it took me a while to figure out the steps for combining multiple audio files into a single track. W ish there was a quick waythan using the “Time Shifting” method. The dragging can become tedious when dealing with more than 4 files.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

Hi Jessica- I’m sorry, but I actually gave you incorrect information. You CAN import >1 audio file using the Presenter ’09 Audio Editor. Again, sorry for the confusion. I’m not sure what I was thinking. 🙂

Gabe, now I’m really confuse. Please explain how I can import > 1 audio files to the same slide?

Hi Jessica- Sorry for the confusion. Just go to Presenter -> Audio Editor -> Import -> Multiple Files, then select the slide where you want to import the audio files.

Are you using Presenter ’09?

Gabe, I tried that, but it didn’t work. Presenter would not import those multiple files to the SAME slide. Instead, it would assign those files across multiple slides. For example, importing 3 slides end up audio#1->slide#1, audio#2->slide#2, & audio#3->slide#3.

Am I doing something wrong?

Hi Jessica- what version of Presenter are you using? If you’re using an older version, that may be the issue.

Presenter 09

Gabe, below is the feedback I received from Articulate Support:

You can only add one audio track per slide, whether through Record Narration or Import Audio.

If you would like to import one audio file to use for all slides and you are using Articulate Presenter 5.0 or higher, please see:
http://www.articulate.com/blog/split-audio-across-slides/

If you would like to import multiple audio files at once and you are using Articulate Presenter 5.0 or higher, please see:
http://www.articulate.com/blog/import-multiple-audio-files/

Hi Jessica- what happens if you try Presenter -> Audio Editor -> Import -> Single File?

If you’re still having trouble, could you please submit details of the issue as a new support case so that we can take a closer look for you?

Gabe, I submitted the case #00135387 last Thursday. The above was the response from the support staff.

In Audio Editor, importing single file at a time result in the latest audio overwriting the previous import in the slide. As mentioned in previous post, when importing via multiple file method, the program would associate single audio file to each slide.

So, I’m not sure how you manage to import multiple audio file on to same single slide. Note, I’m dealing with WAV files.

Jessica,

Can you please reply to the case so that we can help you out?

Justin

Hi Jessica- sorry for all the confusion here. I’ve asked our support manager, Justin Wilcox, to look into this and follow-up with you. In the meantime, if you use the single import option and do it a second time, do you see a prompt about inserting the audio at the end of the slide?

Jessica,

Sorry for the confusion. You can’t import more than one audio file onto one slide. Articulate only supports one audio file per slide. You could use third party software such as Audacity to edit your files together and import that one file.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Guess that’s it. I’ll use Audacity as a workaround. I hope Articualte will add this feature in Presenter’s next release.

If you want to use the Audio Editor to import more than one audio file onto a slide you can do something like this:
http://files.articulate.com/justin/import_audio.swf

Can any one help on this, i have imported a multiple audio file in quiz, when i start the quiz the audio is playing, before the 1st audio end’s, simultaneously when i submit the question audio resumes and when i retry the audio resumes from the last memory, can i restart the question audio from the begin when i click on retry. please help me on this.

Hi RAGHAVA,

Would you mind submitting a support case to us so that we can take a closer look at the issue?

http://www.articulate.com/support/contact/

Hi all,
I want to merge multiple powerpoint files which have been already sync. with their corresponding audio files .
The problem is : When I cut and paste the desired slides, and import their audio files with articulate presenter , the sync. is lost and I have start the process all over again for these slides.
so anyone can help ? How could I cut and paste the slides and keep the animations sync. and kept in their places ?? help please it’s URGENT.

Hi Mahmoud,

You will not be able to copy and paste slides from one presentation to another and maintain all of the Articulate elements. However, the suggested method for merging two or more Articulate presentations into one is the following:

1) Open both PowerPoint files, and decide which file is the master.
2) In the secondary presentation(s), click in the slide view area, and press CTRL+C to copy all slides.
3) Switch to the master file, click in the slide view area, and press CTRL+V to paste the copied slides.
4) If you have recorded narration in the secondary presentation(s), export the audio from each secondary presentation using the steps in this article:

http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter09/kb/?p=929

5) Then import the audio files into the master presentation:

http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter09/?p=15

Is there a way to make an audio play upon clicking an icon instad of it playing when the page loads?

@Ashley: Yes, you can do this by leveraging the concept of duplicate slides. Please take a look at this blog entry and the sound board example.

Perfect. Thanks Gabe. This worked nicely.