Record your slideshow in PowerPoint (MacOS)

Narrations and timings can enhance a web-based or self-running slide show. If you have a sound card, microphone, and speakers, and (optionally) a webcam, you can record your PowerPoint presentation and capture narrations, slide timings, and ink gestures.

After you have made the recording, it's like any other presentation that can be played for you or your audience in Slide Show—or you can save the presentation as a video file.

*(The ability to record is available both to Office 365 subscribers and non-subscribers. Subscribers get a few extra features.)*

Record a slide show

Prepare to record

To begin, open the presentation you want and click the Slide Show tab.

Tip:   If your presentation has a lot of slides, you might find it more convenient to work in Slide Sorter view. Click View > Slide Sorter to try it out.

Here are some things to check before you begin recording:

• If you want to record only part of your slide deck, do one of the following before you begin:

• Select the slides you don't want to include, and click Hide Slide.

• OR

• Click Custom Show > Custom Slide Show > + (add).

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• Use the Rehearse button to change the timing between slides without affecting the narration or gestures you've already recorded.

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• Make sure your microphone is set up correctly. On the Mac, go to System Preferences > Sound.

Record your slideshow

If you want to add narration or commentary to the slide show, make sure your microphone is set up and working.

To start recording:

1. Click the Slide Show tab, select the slide where you want the recording to begin, and then click Record Slide Show.

2. 

3. During recording, use Ctrl+click to access the recording commands that let you navigate through the slides, change cursors, or trigger screen blackouts or whiteouts.

4. 

5. Click End Show to stop recording.

6. A Save dialog box appears. Click Yes to save your recording, or No if you want to record it again.

7. Saving overwrites anything you've previously recorded. If you want to record another slide show with the same set of slides, save your presentation file with a different name.

8. Click Play from Start to preview your recording.

Keyboard shortcuts during the recording process

You may want to print this list of keyboard shortcuts to refer to while you're recording:

Set playback options

When you've finished recording and are ready to distribute the presentation, click Set up Slide Show and choose the options that are right for your audience.

• Show type Show full screen or windowed.

• Show options Turn off narration or animations.

• Slides Choose a subset of slides, or a Custom show if you've set one up.

• Advance slides Set up this version of the slide show so someone can page through it manually.

Recording tips

• Recordings are added to the presentation on a per-slide basis, so if you want to change a recording, you only have to re-record the affected slide or slides. Also, you can rearrange the order of slides after recording without having to re-record anything. This also means it's easy to pause for a break while recording a presentation.

• PowerPoint doesn't record audio or video during transitions between slides, so don't speak while advancing the slide. Also, include a brief buffer of silence at the beginning and the end of each slide to make the transitions smooth and ensure that you don't cut off audible narration while transitioning from one slide to the next.

• You can't record narration in PowerPoint for the web. Use a desktop version of PowerPoint to record your narration.

• You can adjust and edit the size of video and ink in edit view.

• If it's possible that your audience may use PowerPoint for the web to experience the recording, use the transitions that are supported by PowerPoint for the web (Cut, Fade, Push, Wipe, Split, Random Bars, Shape, Morph).

• Presentation recording works best with touch-screen PCs that have a web camera.

• Use video preview to make sure everything is set up correctly before recording.

• For slides that you want to record gestures (such as ink) on, make multiple copies of the slide so that you can easily record multiple takes. Then delete the extraneous slides when you're done.

• Record a few seconds of silence by turning off audio and video to advance after a set time.

• For higher quality, use an external webcam and/or microphone.

• Built-in cameras and microphones are suitable for most tasks. But if you want more professional-looking video, consider using an external webcam, if you're able. If you're using PowerPoint on a tablet or laptop and you're inking with a stylus, an external camera and microphone allows you to minimize stylus noise.

• As soon as you finish your first slide recording, play it back.

• Before you get too far down the road of recording your presentation, make sure your audio and video sound and look the way you expect.