How to play sounds across multiple slides in PowerPoint 2000

This article describes how to play Wave (.wav), MP3 (.mp3), and/or MIDI (.mid) files across multiple slides within a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.

NOTE: Sounds imported into a PowerPoint presentation do not play when they are moved between platforms. To play the sounds, you must reimport them into your presentation.

Also, if you open your presentation in an earlier version of PowerPoint or an earlier version of PowerPoint Viewer, the sounds do not play across multiple slides.

To play sounds or music across multiple slides within PowerPoint 2000:

1. Open your presentation.
2. On the Insert menu, point to Movies And Sounds, and then click Sound From Gallery, Sound From File, Play CD Audio Track, or Record Sound.
3. After inserting the media (sound), select the media object, and then click Custom Animation on the Slide Show menu.
4. In the Custom Animation dialog box, click the Timing tab and make sure the media object is selected.
5. Click the Multimedia Settings tab, and click to select the Play using animation order check box. After you make this selection, some additional options become available.
6. By default, the Pause Slide Show option is selected. This setting allows the presentation to stop until the sound has finished playing or until the next slide is advanced. To play across multiple slides, you need to click to select the Continue Slide Show option. After you make this selection, options for Stop Playing become available.
7. The default for the options under Stop Playing is normally After Current Slide, which corresponds with the action for Pause Slide Show under While Playing. To be able to play the media object across multiple slides, you need to check the other option, After<Slide Number>Slides. This setting determines when to stop the media object from playing when in a slide show.

You can only play sounds across multiple slides in a presentation by using the Movies And Sounds command on the Insert menu. If you try to use the media player or Movie Player on the Macintosh, you are able to insert a sound, but you do not have the ability to play it across multiple slides.

For additional information on playing sounds across multiple slides in earlier versions of PowerPoint, please click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: