How to Record a PowerPoint Presentation

The record feature in PowerPoint allows you to record narrations over slides and export the presentation as a video. This helps your audience understand the presentation better. Today, we will look at how to record a presentation for 2016 or later PowerPoint versions.

Set yourself up for recording

The main purpose of recording a presentation is to provide an audio narration explaining slide content and providing additional information. Before you being recording your presentation, here are some notes to keep in mind:

• Ensure that your computer’s internal or external microphone works.
• Test the recording quality before delivering your presentation.
• Remember that in case of a mistake, it is possible to re-record one slide.

Follow these steps to configure your recording settings:

1. First, make sure you complete preparing your PowerPoint presentation and save it.
2. Click on the Slide Show tab.

   

3. Tick the checkboxes next to Play Narrations and Use Timings if they are not already selected. The Play Narrations tool will automatically play the narration when the slide show is started, and the Use Timings tool will display how much time is spent recording a particular slide.

   

   Select clear to delete existing narrations and timings.

4. Click the Record Slide Show button.

   

5. Select Start Recording from Beginning… to start your narration from the first presentation slide. If you want to start recording from the active slide, select Start Recording from Current Slide…

   

Start recording

1. The recording will automatically begin once the slide show window opens. A settings panel will appear on the top left of your slide, indicating that you can start your narration.

   

2. Notice that the recording timer has different controls. The Next arrow allows you to move to the next slide to record. The Pause button will enable you to pause the recording. The timer on the left shows the recorded time on that particular slide and the timer on the right shows the accumulated recording time for all the slides. The Return arrow enables you to re-record the current slide.

   

3. At the bottom left, notice the other controls that may appear faded. You can use these tools during your recording, such as drawing, writing, or highlighting items on slides.

   

4. To end the recording, right-click any slide part and select End Show.

   

5. A speaker icon will appear on your recorded slides to represent the narration.

   

Re-record a particular slide

PowerPoint allows you to either re-record a single slide or the entire presentation. Follow these steps:

1. Clear the narrations of the particular slide you want to re-record. To do this, click Record Slide Show, select Clear, then click Clear Narrations on Current Slide.

   

2. Click Start Recording from Current Slide… to begin the recording.

   

3. Move the cursor over the speaker icon to be able to access the Play button. This tool will enable you to play the recording from the current slide.

   

Re-record the entire presentation

1. Before you start recording, clear the previous recordings from all slides by clicking Clear Narrations on All Slides.

   

2. Start your new recording from scratch.

How to Convert Your Recording to MP4

You can also convert a PowerPoint presentation into a video. The video will include the narrations you have made on every slide. Here is how you can do it:

1. Open the File tab.

   

2. Select Export, then click Create a Video.

   

3. Choose the video quality you prefer. For example, you can select Computer & HD Displays for a high-quality video.

   

4. Select Use Recorded Timings and Narrations.

   

5. Click Create Video.

   

6. Choose the location where you want to save the video file when prompted. A progress bar will appear in PowerPoint at the bottom of the screen, which shows that your video is processing. The processing duration depends on the presentation’s length and the selected quality type.