Although PowerPoint classifies Sound Actions as an animation type, it is not strictly an animation. Yet, since you
access them through the Custom Animation Task Pane, we have included this tutorial in our Animations section. In simple
terms, a Sound Action is something that causes an event for any inserted sound clip -- these are simple events such as Play, Pause, Resume, and Stop. By providing complete
control over these actions within the Custom Animation Task Pane, PowerPoint empowers you to make these events interact
with other animations, including
Triggers.
To access Sound Actions, you must insert
a sound clip within a slide. Typically, when you add a sound within PowerPoint, you are prompted to choose whether you
want the sound to start Automatically or When Clicked, as shown in
Figure 1. To make the most out of Sound Events, you must choose the When Clicked
option, highlighted in red in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Options to start the sound in the slide show
You may not be aware but at this point of time, PowerPoint has already added a Play Sound Action
for your sound clip. Once your sound is inserted within a slide, you can apply more Sound Actions to the clip. Follow
these steps to learn more:
- Make sure you select the sound icon on your slide, as shown in Figure 2. Note that we have used a blank
slide for this tutorial as you can see in Figure 2. Your slide may look different if you have more slide
objects or placeholders.
Figure 2: A selected sound icon on the slide
- Now, access the Animations tab of the
Ribbon, and click on the
Custom Animation button, as shown in Figure 3. Remember that this is a toggle button.
So, if your Custom Animation Task Pane is already visible, then clicking this button will make the
Task Pane disappear.
Figure 3: Custom Animation button within Animations group of the Animations tab
- You should now see the Custom Animation Task Pane, as shown in Figure 4. In this
task pane, you will see a list of the Sound Actions that exist for sound clips on the active slide. Since you chose the
When Clicked option while inserting the sound (see Figure 1, above), PowerPoint
will set to Play this sound when it encounters an On Click
animation event
(highlighted in red in Figure 4). Also note the Play
symbol placed in front of the name of the sound within the animations list (highlighted in blue
in Figure 4).
Figure 4: Custom Animation Task Pane displaying animation event and sound action of the selected sound clip
- With the sound icon on the slide still selected, click the Add Effect button within
the Custom Animation Task Pane, highlighted in red in Figure 5.
Figure 5: Add Effect button within the Custom Animation Task Pane
- This brings up the Add Effect drop-down menu that you can see in Figure 6.
Note that the typical Add Effect menu (refer to our
Adding an Animation tutorial)
has just four sub-menus. But in this case, you have an extra sub-menu called Sound Actions, as shown
in Figure 6. The Sound Actions sub-menu only shows up if you have a sound clip selected on your slide.
Figure 6:
Sound Actions sub-menu within the Add Effects drop-down menu
Options in the Sound Actions sub-menu are explained below:
• Play: This is the default sound action - it is used to play the sound.
• Pause: This action is to pause the playing sound, and if you click the object in its paused state
again, it resumes playing the sound.
• Stop: This option is to stop the playing sound.
- Since we already have a Play Sound Action in our animations list (highlighted in
blue in Figure 4 above), let us go ahead and add Pause and
Stop Sound Actions.With your sound clip still selected, click the Add Effect button
(highlighted in red in Figure 5). Then choose the Sound Actions
sub-menu, and click the Pause option. This will add a Pause Sound Action in your animations
list, as shown in Figure 7. Also note the Pause symbol placed in front of the name of the
sound in the animations list (highlighted in blue in Figure 7).
Figure 7: Custom Animation Task Pane displaying Pause sound action added to the sound clip
- With your sound clip still selected, go ahead and add a Stop Sound Action as well -- this will add a
Stop Sound Action in your animations list, as shown in Figure 8.
Also note the Stop symbol placed in front of the name of the sound in the animations list
(highlighted in blue in Figure 8).
Figure 8: Custom Animation Task Pane displaying Stop sound action added to the sound clip
- Save your presentation. In one of the subsequent tutorial of this series, we will explore how you can set
Trigger animations for Sound Actions.
See Also:
Media Actions for Audio in
PowerPoint 2013 for Windows
Media Actions for Audio in
PowerPoint 2010 for Windows
