Re: Music stops playing in PowerPoint 2003 slideshow

Thank you so much for your help! I will try not to cry too much if something
does not work! I have had fun making the slideshows, but the small glitches
were about to get me down.

Deloresw

"Echo S" wrote:

Well, I'm glad I could make you laugh, anyway!

But now I might make you cry. :-(

Using the "stop playing after 999 slides" won't keep you from having to make
timing adjustments to the slide transitions. But it should ensure that the
songs play all the way through and not stop unexpectedly partway through the
song. I would not try to use a "stop after XX slides" and put the real
number of slides in there. It just doesn't seem to work right for some
strange reason.

However, you should be aware that timing is not PowerPoint's strong suit.
You're not going to get extremely accurate timing with PPT. My favorite way
to explain it is, if you're playing the Star Spangled Banner and you want
the fireworks animation to happen when the song says "and the rockets' red
glare," well, it ain't gonna happen. PPT just isn't going to be that
precise.

So, you will probably be better off just putting 3-, 4-, and 5-second
automatic transitions on each slide and trying to get within a few seconds
of the total sound length.

Or, what I might do is use a sound editor and combine all the MP3s into one
sound file, insert that on the first slide and set it to stop playing after
999 slides, and then just set the transition times (3, 4, 5 seconds or so)
for all the slides.

Audacity is a good free sound editor. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ You
must download and install the LAME MP3 encoder as well, but there are links
to it on that site. Just click "Download Audacity 1.2.6" to get to it.

As for putting the MP3 into the folder with the presentation before
inserting it, yes, it's a good habit to get into. But it's not really
necessary since you're using Package for CD. The PfCD process actually
creates a new folder and puts the presentation and the MP3s in the same
folder -- and it fixes up all the links. So you don't have to worry so much
about starting with the MP3 in the same folder as the presentation. It may
make your life easier, though, and, as I mentioned, it really is a good
habit to get into.

Go here http://www.echosvoice.com/autoruncd2.htm and scroll down a little
way, and you can see a screeenshot of the files inside a package for CD
folder. You'll have autorun.INF, gdiplus.dll, pptview.exe and a bunch of
other files. You'll also see your presentation file and your MP3s. (The
linked audio in the screenshot is a WMA file, Beethoven's Symphony....) Burn
all those files to the CD. Don't burn the *folder.* Windows looks for the
autorun.INF file, or sometimes the play.BAT file, to start the CD
automatically. If that file is inside a folder, Windows can't see it on the
CD. And those INF/BAT files look for the pptview.exe file on the CD
directly. If it's in a folder, they can't find it. And thye pptview.exe file
looks for your presentation (PPT or PPS) file on the CD. If it's in a
folder, the Viewer won't be able to find it. And so on. You get the idea.

As for the 50,000 -- that is only for WAV files. Only WAVs can be embedded,
and so that setting applies only to WAVs. You are working with MP3s, so you
can ignore it. You can leave it alone or set it back to 100 or whatever. It
doesn't matter.

Oh, file size. 170 slides at 34MB or so doesn't seem out of whack. So I
don't think the file size is the problem. (I could be wrong, though, and I'm
sure others will pop in and correct me if I am!)

--
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:5A7CCBB8-46A0-4785-A4B3-32E2524E9709@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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
.

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