Re: Music stops playing in PowerPoint 2003 slideshow

Thank you so much for your comments--you are soooo funny. <smile> I need
funny after being submerged in these slideshows.

I have been doing everything you said about adding the music, except I have
spent a lot of time calculating the time for each song and testing and
retesting when I add or delete a slide to make sure the songs do not overlap
or not play long enough. So if I set each song to stop playing after 999
slides, will this alleviate me having to make adjustments to the music when I
need to make changes?

The song that will not play correctly on the XP computers is 2:23 minutes;
4.35 MB, the other songs are 8.18 MB; 4.67 MB; 7.63 MB; and 2.11 MB. As you
can see, I have added two more songs. <smile> Each slideshow is approximately
170 slides of pictures and satelitte maps. The largest slideshow is about 34
MB and the others are about 24 MB.

You said "all the files should be "loose" on the CD. If they're inside a
folder, the CD won't autorun."

If I am understanding you correctly, should I move the music files and
slideshow file to the same folder BEFORE I begin inserting the music files
into the slideshow? I now have the music files in a folder under "Music."
This morning, I made a new folder to prepare to move the music files and
slideshow into this new folder.

Also, should I adjust the maximum size for sound files back down to 128 kb
from the 50,000 kbs?

Delores

For the sound part, here's the process I'd use to insert the sounds.

1. On slide 1, Insert | Movies and Sounds | Sound from File. Navigate to
your MP3 and insert it.
2. When prompted, select "play automatically."
3. Right-click the sound icon on the slide, choose custom animation
4. In the custom animation pane, double-click the sound file in the
animation list to open the Play Sound dialog.
5. On the Effect tab, make sure Start Playing is set to "from beginning" and
"stop playing" is set to "after 999 slides." I know you may only want the
first sound to play for 10 slides or something, but go ahead and put 999 in
there.
6. Click OK to close.

Now go to the slide you want the 2nd sound file to begin playing on and
repeat the process. Put 999 in the "stop playing after" setting again. Do
the same for the 3rd sound file.

You may have this set up just fine, and it could be just that the computer
is running out of resources as you play the presentation. After all, it's
running from a CD, which is slower than running from the harddrive. This...

The music plays fine with the first two sound tracks. The only way we
can
start the music of the third sound track is to go back and click on the
prior
slide to advance to the slide with the third sound track. The third
sound
track plays for awhile and then stops a couple more times so we have to
go
through the same procedure to start the music again.

....is the odd part, and the part that's making me think it may be a
resources issue. How big is the third MP3 file? (I know they're not usually
large, but it never hurts to ask.) Also, how big is your PPT file -- like,
how many slides and also how big is the file size (in kb or MB)? If you have
lots of high-resolution pictures, that often makes the file size very large
and could be bogging down the playback. It can be resolved, but I hate to
send you down that road if it's not really the issue.

--
B each.





"Echo S" wrote:

If you use Package for CD, the MP3 files should be in the same folder with
the presentation and Viewer files. They will be properly linked (the package
for CD process resolves all the links for you) and should play on other
computers.

If the first two play, I'd imagine that the packaging and linking went okay,
and the third one should as well. Since it does play at least sometimes on
the other computers, it sounds to me (no pun intended) as if the MP3s are
all linked properly.

For the automatic starting part, I would try this:
1. File | Package for CD
2. Choose copy to folder and run the PforCD process
3. Burn the contents of the folder to the CD. Don't burn the folder
itself -- all the files should be "loose" on the CD. If they're inside a
folder, the CD won't autorun.

For the sound part, here's the process I'd use to insert the sounds.

1. On slide 1, Insert | Movies and Sounds | Sound from File. Navigate to
your MP3 and insert it.
2. When prompted, select "play automatically."
3. Right-click the sound icon on the slide, choose custom animation
4. In the custom animation pane, double-click the sound file in the
animation list to open the Play Sound dialog.
5. On the Effect tab, make sure Start Playing is set to "from beginning" and
"stop playing" is set to "after 999 slides." I know you may only want the
first sound to play for 10 slides or something, but go ahead and put 999 in
there.
6. Click OK to close.

Now go to the slide you want the 2nd sound file to begin playing on and
repeat the process. Put 999 in the "stop playing after" setting again. Do
the same for the 3rd sound file.

You may have this set up just fine, and it could be just that the computer
is running out of resources as you play the presentation. After all, it's
running from a CD, which is slower than running from the harddrive. This...

The music plays fine with the first two sound tracks. The only way we
can
start the music of the third sound track is to go back and click on the
prior
slide to advance to the slide with the third sound track. The third
sound
track plays for awhile and then stops a couple more times so we have to
go
through the same procedure to start the music again.

...is the odd part, and the part that's making me think it may be a
resources issue. How big is the third MP3 file? (I know they're not usually
large, but it never hurts to ask.) Also, how big is your PPT file -- like,
how many slides and also how big is the file size (in kb or MB)? If you have
lots of high-resolution pictures, that often makes the file size very large
and could be bogging down the playback. It can be resolved, but I hate to
send you down that road if it's not really the issue.

--
Echo S [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PowerPoint 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/index.html
PPTLive! Oct 28-31, New Orleans http://www.pptlive.com

"Deloresw" <Deloresw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:AD53580A-6BB7-44DE-A86E-2026CE546118@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I appreciate your response, but I still do not understand why the other
songs
play correctly if they are not embedded. Also, can you give me some simple
instructions on how to go about linking the files to the slideshow, e.g.,
do
I perform the same tasks I have been doing by inserting the sound files in
the "add effects" column and using the "effect options" to start and stop?
The instructions I read and downloaded make it sound complicated to me. If
I
remember correctly, the instructions say if you link the sound files, you
have to lower the kbs from 50,000 back to the 128 kbs before choosing to
link
the files. Thanks again!
Deloresw

"Michael Koerner" wrote:

First MP3 files cannot be embedded, they have to linked, and must
accompany
the presentation. Best way is to put them all into the same folder as you
presentation before you insert them in PowerPoint. When using the package
for CD option, Make sure to select the viewer, and use the copy to file
option. Then use your CD burning software to copy all of the files to the
CD. This will give you an Autorun CD.

--
Michael Koerner
MS MVP - PowerPoint


"Deloresw" <Deloresw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:FDF184FB-F7EE-42B1-B597-CA3085070FB2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I created five slideshows in PowerPoint 2003 with the VISTA operating
system
on a new Dell Dimension E520 computer. I embedded the same three
different
sound tracks with the .mp3 format into each slideshow. I copied each to
a
CD
and made numerous "trial runs" of each on my computer before I copied
them
to
the "gift" Cds. I have read comments about PowerPoint only being able
to
embed .wav files, but the .mp3 files work fine for me except for one
song
on
another computer.

I saved all of the slideshows as a PowerPoint slideshow before I
"packaged
them to a CD." The CDs run perfectly on my computer except for not
opening
automatically as I had chosen. A window comes up for me to double-click
on
the file to open it. I think this has to be caused by VISTA.

The real problem comes from trying to run the slideshows on another
computer. Not only do they NOT start automatically, the music stops at
the
beginning and during the third sound track. This problem has happened
on
two
different computers with XP and each person having PowerPoint 2003
installed
on their computer.

The music plays fine with the first two sound tracks. The only way we
can
start the music of the third sound track is to go back and click on the
prior
slide to advance to the slide with the third sound track. The third
sound
track plays for awhile and then stops a couple more times so we have to
go
through the same procedure to start the music again.

I cannot find the Sound Option dialog box in PowerPoint 2003 so have
not
been able to verify that the .mp3 files are embedded or not. As far as
I
am
concerned, they have to be embedded or they would not play on another
computer.

Before I started making the slideshows, I read and copied everything I
could
find with the instructions, read the tutorials, and followed all of the
steps
from the Microsoft website. I am very frustrated about WHY the music
problem
is happening. Each one of the slideshows is for my five grandsons from
their
birth to their current ages. I plan to make CD copies for five more
relatives, but if at all possible, I don't want this glitch to occur. I
am
wondering if this problem is a bug in PowerPoint 2003 or maybe somehow
VISTA
could be causing this.

I would appreciate any suggestions anyone may have.

Deloresw






.

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