Sound Across Slides in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows

Do you want to add a soundtrack to your PowerPoint presentation so that it plays across slides? Also, don't you want the music to continue playing without any interruption? A soothing background music score playing across your presentation slides can be a good move, as long as it's not distracting your audience.

Of course, if a live speaker is spearheading the presentation, then, it goes without saying that you avoid adding a sound that spans across slides. Not only will the sound spanning across slides distract the audience, but the speaker will be at a distinct disadvantage. However, if you are showing a sequence of slides that include pictures, and no live presenter is required to speak to the audience, then adding a sound across slides may be a great idea.

Here's, how you go about doing this task in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows:

1. Navigate to the slide where you want the sound to begin playing, which is usually the first slide of the presentation. Now, insert the sound clip in this slide. By default, PowerPoint 2010 will embed the sound clip within the presentation. However, you can opt to link it rather than embed it. Learn how to insert sound (and embed or link your inserted sound) in our Insert Audio (Sound) in PowerPoint 2010 tutorial.
2. Select the audio icon, as shown in Figure 1, below.
3. 
   Figure 1: Audio icon selected
3. You will notice that selecting the audio icon makes the Audio Tool Format and Audio Tool Playback contextual tabs visible on the Ribbon. Click the Audio Tools Playback tab of the Ribbon to activate it as shown in Figure 2, below.
4. 
   Figure 2: Audio Tools Playback tab of the Ribbon

Contextual Tabs

The Audio Tool Format and Audio Tool Playback tabs are contextual tabs. Contextual tab is special tab in the Ribbon that will not visible all the time. They only make an appearance when you are working with a particular slide object which can be edited using special options.

4. This tab offers you different options to control the playback of the audio you have selected. Within the Audio Options group, locate the Start drop-down list, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3, below, and select the Play across slides option. Select the Loop until Stopped check-box, highlighted in green within Figure 3.
5. 
   Figure 3: Play across slides option and Loop until Stopped checkbox selected
5. You might see an audio icon on the slide where you inserted the sound. If you don't like the icon on the slide, just drag it to anywhere off the slide, as shown in Figure 4, below. Your sound shall still play fine.
6. 
   Figure 4: Sound icon moved off the slide
6. Save your presentation often.