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MS Office Forum / General PowerPoint Questions / June 2008Music stops playing in PowerPoint 2003 slideshow
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 the “gift” Cds. I have read comments about PowerPoint only being able to embed .wav files, but the .mp3 files work fine for me except for one song on another computer. I saved all of the slideshows as a PowerPoint slideshow before I “packaged them to a CD.” The CDs run perfectly on my computer except for not opening automatically as I had chosen. A window comes up for me to double-click on the file to open it. I think this has to be caused by VISTA. The real problem comes from trying to run the slideshows on another computer. Not only do they NOT start automatically, the music stops at the beginning and during the third sound track. This problem has happened on two different computers with XP and each person having PowerPoint 2003 installed on their computer. 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. I cannot find the Sound Option dialog box in PowerPoint 2003 so have not been able to verify that the .mp3 files are embedded or not. As far as I am concerned, they have to be embedded or they would not play on another computer. Before I started making the slideshows, I read and copied everything I could find with the instructions, read the tutorials, and followed all of the steps from the Microsoft website. I am very frustrated about WHY the music problem is happening. Each one of the slideshows is for my five grandsons from their birth to their current ages. I plan to make CD copies for five more relatives, but if at all possible, I don’t want this glitch to occur. I am wondering if this problem is a bug in PowerPoint 2003 or maybe somehow VISTA could be causing this. I would appreciate any suggestions anyone may have. Deloresw 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.  SignatureMichael Koerner MS MVP - PowerPoint >I created five slideshows in PowerPoint 2003 with the VISTA operating >system [quoted text clipped - 51 lines] > > Deloresw 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 > 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 [quoted text clipped - 58 lines] > > > > Deloresw 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 [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >> > 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. SignatureEcho 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 >I appreciate your response, but I still do not understand why the other >songs [quoted text clipped - 90 lines] >> > >> > Deloresw 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 [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >> > 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. SignatureB each. > 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 [quoted text clipped - 147 lines] > >> > > >> > Deloresw Correction to the size of the slideshows. Three of them are 27.6 MB; 32.5 MB, and 45.6 MB. Delores > Thank you so much for your comments--you are soooo funny. <smile> I need > funny after being submerged in these slideshows. [quoted text clipped - 217 lines] > > >> > > > >> > Deloresw 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!) SignatureEcho 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 > Thank you so much for your comments--you are soooo funny. <smile> I need > funny after being submerged in these slideshows. [quoted text clipped - 273 lines] >> >> > >> >> > Deloresw 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 > Well, I'm glad I could make you laugh, anyway! > [quoted text clipped - 260 lines] > >> >> > them > >> >> > to I'm back!! I really appreciate all of the time you spent helping me, but when I changed the effect options to "Stop playing after 999 slides," the songs only played one time each. I changed the timing to repeat until end of slide, but this caused the songs to overlap. I then changed the timing to first song, (none) and second song to play 3 times, etc. The songs still would only play one time each. I reverted back to my original settings for the effect options, e.g., first song, stop after 23 slides, timing; play to end of slide; second song, stop after 39 slides, etc. Now, I am back in business except for the same problem of autorun not working properly on my computer. The autorun and PP viewer, as always, are listed on the CD, but I still have to click on the PP file and select from the dropdown menu for Microsoft PowerPoint to run the slideshow. I can live with this as long as everything else works on the XP computers, but if you have anymore suggestions for me to try I would more than welcome them. Again, I thank all of you for your time and help! I hope my experience helps someone else. Deloresw > 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 [quoted text clipped - 258 lines] > > >> >> > on a new Dell Dimension E520 computer. I embedded the same three > > >> >> > different What does your Autorun.ini file say? SignatureMichael Koerner MS MVP - PowerPoint > I'm back!! I really appreciate all of the time you spent helping me, but > when [quoted text clipped - 380 lines] >> > >> >> > three >> > >> >> > different What Michael asked -- what does the autorun.ini say? (You can open it in Notepad or Wordpad.) Or, when you go to File | Package for CD and choose Options, which option are you choosing for "select how presentations will play in the viewer"? SignatureEcho 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 > I'm back!! I really appreciate all of the time you spent helping me, but > when [quoted text clipped - 380 lines] >> > >> >> > three >> > >> >> > different The autorun.ini says open=pptview.exe /L "playlist.txt" The options for package the CD are: Include these files PP Viewer Play all presentations automatically in the specified order Linked files has check mark > What Michael asked -- what does the autorun.ini say? (You can open it in > Notepad or Wordpad.) [quoted text clipped - 263 lines] > >> > >> > >> > >> For the automatic starting part, I would try this: I think that should work. Maybe Michael will spot something, though -- he's better with the autorun thing than I am! What's in your playlist.txt file? I'm wondering if it's just that autorun has been turned off on the computer in question. SignatureEcho 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 > The autorun.ini says open=pptview.exe /L "playlist.txt" > The options for package the CD are: [quoted text clipped - 332 lines] >> >> > >> >> >> > >> For the automatic starting part, I would try this: The playlist text file has the name of the PP show: AlecNew.pps I have not activated the autorun on anything but Media Player. When the popup comes up, I ignore it and open a file where ever I choose. Maybe that is the problem on my computer. I have been blaming VISTA, which is easy to do. <smile> I will test it and let you know what happens. One of my son-in-laws is a computer specialist and he told me he NEVER lets any program open automatically so that would be the solution for why it does not open automatically on his computer. I am the one who questioned it, but I have. I would almost bet my other son-in-law feels the same way and has the autorun turned off. > I think that should work. Maybe Michael will spot something, though -- he's > better with the autorun thing than I am! [quoted text clipped - 261 lines] > >> >> > > first sound to play for 10 slides or something, but go ahead and > >> >> > > put You might try changing the autorun selection, just to see if that is the culprit. You could also try running the play.bat file that is also created when you used the Copy to CD function. I don't have Vista on my computer at the present time, as I need something that is reliable <g> So, I can't tell you how to run the bat file. In XP you just click on start, run, and enter the path to wherever your created files are stored, example C:\yourCDfile\play.bat. As it looks like you have done everything correctly in the creation of the files. SignatureMichael Koerner MS MVP - PowerPoint > The playlist text file has the name of the PP show: AlecNew.pps > [quoted text clipped - 324 lines] >> >> >> > > and >> >> >> > > put Thanks I will try running the play.bat file. Also, after I sent my last post, I remembered that all of the PowerPoint shows I receive via email ALWAYS start automatically so I don't know WHY mine does not. Like I said, if that feature does not work, I can live with it. It just bugs me as to why it won't. Again, thank you for your help! Deloresw > You might try changing the autorun selection, just to see if that is the > culprit. [quoted text clipped - 252 lines] > >> >> >> > > except > >> >> >> > > I PowerPoint presentations that you receive via email and open when you click on them have a .pps (PowerPoint Show) extension. will open in the slideshow mode automatically. Regardless of what you save your presentations as .PPT or .PPS they open in the slideshow mode if your just using the PowerPoint Viewer and not the full version of PowerPoint. SignatureMichael Koerner MS MVP - PowerPoint > Thanks I will try running the play.bat file. Also, after I sent my last > post, [quoted text clipped - 300 lines] >> >> >> >> > > except >> >> >> >> > > I You have to actually do something to open them, though, right? Like double-click the attachment in the email or save it to your harddrive and then double-click it. So it's not really starting automatically. But maybe you mean "full screen," not "automatic"? If you're just double-clicking the PPT file on the CD, then it will open in PowerPoint installed on your computer (not the PPT Viewer on the CD), and it will open in editing view. If you save the file as a PPS and double-click that, it will open in full screen view with PPT installed on your computer. If you double-click the PLAY file on the CD, that opens the PPT Viewer (which can only play files full screen), which in turn opens the presentation. In that case, it doesn't matter if it's a PPT or PPS file. However...hang on, lemme check. Yeah, you mentioned your playlist has a PPS file, so this is really a moot point. It's gonn open full screen no matter what, and so I'm guessing you really did mean "start automatically," as opposed to "start full-screen." :-) So ignore my babbling! SignatureEcho 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 > Thanks I will try running the play.bat file. Also, after I sent my last > post, [quoted text clipped - 300 lines] >> >> >> >> > > except >> >> >> >> > > I I believe the issue is the autorun, then. FWIW, I don't let stuff autorun much, either. No worries. Just use the "open folder to view files" option and double-click the play.bat file on the CD. If you don't have file extensions enabled (many many users won't), then you won't see the ".bat" extension and would just double-click the "play" file. You could give those instructions to your users -- "This CD is set up to autorun when you insert it into the drive. If it does not autorun, double-click the Play file to start the presentation." Or something to that effect. SignatureEcho 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 > The playlist text file has the name of the PP show: AlecNew.pps > [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > the > autorun turned off. One more question--When I package the PowerPoint slideshow, I always type in a different name for the CD or file than the name of my PP slideshow. Is this the correct thing to do or am I supposed to use the same name as my PP slideshow? I have been curious where the CD or file name goes to. My actual PP slideshow file name always appears in the list on the CD, but I have never seen anything about the name I assigned to the packaging. I hope this makes sense. Deloresw > I think that should work. Maybe Michael will spot something, though -- he's > better with the autorun thing than I am! [quoted text clipped - 261 lines] > >> >> > > first sound to play for 10 slides or something, but go ahead and > >> >> > > put What you're doing is fine. The only thing it does is name the folder on your harddrive where all the files are saved to. If you're using the "copy to CD" option to create the CD directly (instead of copy to folder to create a folder on your harddrive), then it *might* name the CD itself so it shows up with that name if you were to, say, double-click My Computer and see the CD in the drive. Not sure, though. SignatureEcho 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 > One more question--When I package the PowerPoint slideshow, I always type > in [quoted text clipped - 320 lines] >> >> >> > > and >> >> >> > > put I have a folder on my C: drive called "tocd" without the quotes I created this when I created my first copy to CD program. Now all I have to do is copy any presentation to the folder, make the name change in the playlst file and burn to a CD. Does not matter what your folder is called, as you don't copy the folder to the CD. Everything goes into the root directory of your CD . SignatureMichael Koerner MS MVP - PowerPoint > One more question--When I package the PowerPoint slideshow, I always type > in [quoted text clipped - 320 lines] >> >> >> > > and >> >> >> > > put Thanks for the suggestion! There is not a play.bat file in the list. I did a search for it, but nothing was found. I had created a folder C:\\AlecH and when I packaged the slideshow named AlecNew.pps, it created a subfolder called Alec0707--the name I assigned to the package and selected copy to file so now the path is C:\\AlecH\Alec0707, which contains all of the information for the CD. Could the longer file name be the problem? Deloresw > I have a folder on my C: drive called "tocd" without the quotes I created > this when I created my first copy to CD program. Now all I have to do is [quoted text clipped - 252 lines] > >> >> >> > > not > >> >> >> > > overlap Not really, because your burning all the files from Alec0707, and none of the folders to the root of the CD, and file paths are not used. The only thing I see out of the ordinary is the C:\\. SignatureMichael Koerner MS MVP - PowerPoint > Thanks for the suggestion! > [quoted text clipped - 302 lines] >> >> >> >> > > not >> >> >> >> > > overlap The C:\\ is my "C" drive and the destination for my "package for CD" slideshow. The linked music files are included in the package. When I copied the music file links into the file, I got the message they were duplicates, but I chose to copy them anyway so those files now have a (2) beside them. The CD runs fine on my computer, but the real test will be when I try it on one of the XP computers tomorrow. I am sorry I have taken so much of you and Echo's time, but I can't begin to express my appreciation for your assistance! I am hoping to have a "Happy Face" tomorrow. :-) Deloresw > Not really, because your burning all the files from Alec0707, and none of > the folders to the root of the CD, and file paths are not used. The only [quoted text clipped - 252 lines] > >> >> >> >> > it > >> >> >> >> > on all I'm saying, if you have C:\\AlecH the folder is called \AlecH because your using double slashes. If the autorun works on your computer, then it should run on the XP machine. good luck. The time is all yours. that is what we are here for regardless of how long it takes to answer your questions. SignatureMichael Koerner MS MVP - PowerPoint > The C:\\ is my "C" drive and the destination for my "package for CD" > slideshow. The linked music files are included in the package. When I [quoted text clipped - 315 lines] >> >> >> >> >> > it >> >> >> >> >> > on My only excuse about typing C:\\ must have been a "senior moment." I guess I was "thinking" I was typing an URL. I have not had the opportunity to test the slideshow CD, but hope to today or tomorrow. If the test CD runs okay, I will check the "Yes, the post answered my question." Deloresw > Not really, because your burning all the files from Alec0707, and none of > the folders to the root of the CD, and file paths are not used. The only [quoted text clipped - 252 lines] > >> >> >> >> > it > >> >> >> >> > on > I have not had the opportunity to test the slideshow CD, but hope to today > or tomorrow. Good luck with it, Delores. We'll keep our fingers crossed for you! SignatureEcho 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 I appreciate your sentiment, but I think I need your prayers for my sanity!! I did the "trial run" this morning on one of the XP computers, and had the SAME problem with the SAME song. All of the other four songs played fine, BUT there is still a problem with the one song not playing correctly. Today, it would not play at all! I think my only alternatives are to delete that song and try another one or extend the playing time of one or two of the other songs. All of the songs play fine, as usual, when I run the CD on my computer. I welcome any suggestions you may have, but I am ready to give up on that particular song. Deloresw > > I have not had the opportunity to test the slideshow CD, but hope to today > > or tomorrow. > > Good luck with it, Delores. We'll keep our fingers crossed for you! At this point, that might be your best bet. Bummer. SignatureEcho 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 >I appreciate your sentiment, but I think I need your prayers for my >sanity!! [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] >> >> Good luck with it, Delores. We'll keep our fingers crossed for you! You know, it could be a digital rights management issue -- in other words, you don't have the right permissions/licenses to play the music on different computers. PPT will respect those settings, and that could cause that audio not to play on a different machine. SignatureEcho 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 >I appreciate your sentiment, but I think I need your prayers for my >sanity!! [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] >> >> Good luck with it, Delores. We'll keep our fingers crossed for you! I forgot to say it has the autorun.INF file. > I have a folder on my C: drive called "tocd" without the quotes I created > this when I created my first copy to CD program. Now all I have to do is [quoted text clipped - 252 lines] > >> >> >> > > not > >> >> >> > > overlap If I can jump in here. All MP3s are not created equal. Currently there are three different (major) codecs for MP3s. It may well be that your songs have different codecs and they are not all available on other machines. As a suggestion, you might give PFCPro a try (fully functioning two week trial) and allow it to convert them to a more PowerPoint friendly format. Once ran through the add-in the songs should play on just about any Windows PC. (Won't cost you a thing to try it for two weeks and that should get your presentation out the door.) http://www.playsforcertain.com Austin Myers MS PowerPoint MVP Team Provider of PFCPro, PFCMedia and PFCExpress www.playsforcertain.com >I created five slideshows in PowerPoint 2003 with the VISTA operating >system [quoted text clipped - 51 lines] > > Deloresw Because this isn't clear from Austin's message, I should mention, on his behalf, that PFCPro is not needed after it is used to convert the files. That is, you won't be stuck with things that won't play again after the two-week trial is up. Anything you convert will continue to work for the forseeable future. When the trial is up, you just won't be able to convert new things. --David > If I can jump in here. > [quoted text clipped - 72 lines] >> >> Deloresw Thanks David, I should do a better job of explaining that. Also note, other PCs do not need the add-in, it is only installed on the presentation creation PC. Austin Myers MS PowerPoint MVP Team Provider of PFCPro, PFCMedia and PFCExpress www.playsforcertain.com > Because this isn't clear from Austin's message, I should mention, on his > behalf, that PFCPro is not needed after it is used to convert the files. [quoted text clipped - 80 lines] >>> >>> Deloresw And I'll just jump in and say I wish I'd thought to suggest PFC stuff earlier! SignatureEcho 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 > Thanks David, I should do a better job of explaining that. Also note, > other PCs do not need the add-in, it is only installed on the presentation [quoted text clipped - 90 lines] >>>> >>>> Deloresw Thanks for all of your input. I will give your suggestions a try. My sons-in-law have the XP computers that I have been using for my "test," and knowing them as I do, I would think their computers would have more than enough to handle just about anything, but I could be wrong. I thought of the music rights, but I own all of the CDs that contain the tracks I am using so thought it would not be an issue. Also, previously, the song would play after clicking back to the previous slide and then back to the slide with the linked song. The song in question is "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing," by the New Seekers, and I am almost to the point of hating the song. :-) I still question if creating the slideshow on a VISTA operating system could have anything to do with all of this. Thanks again, and I will let you know whether or not it works. Deloresw > If I can jump in here. > [quoted text clipped - 71 lines] > > > > Deloresw Well, I just received a report from my other son-in-law about the slideshow. He tested the copy I left for him last night, and NONE of the songs would play. He plans to try some different things with it tonight to see if he can get it to work. I sent a copy to him of all of your suggestions today. This problem has become a nightmare for me. Something I forgot to mention in my last post. The CD would not open automatically, and my daughter, said that may be because they might have that feature turned off. My 11-year-old grandson, suggested for her to open it in PowerPoint. In the slideshow view, none of the music would play. My grandson had her double-click on the sound icon on the first slide and then click on “play sound” in the bottom, left corner. The music played until it got to “I’d Like to Teach” and it stopped. He then had her try the same procedure as she did on the first slide, but it did not work. He had her go to the next song and do the same thing and the other songs played fine. My grandson learned how to make PowerPoint slideshows at school in the fifth grade on the VISTA operating system. Maybe I should take a fifth-grade PowerPoint class! I am wondering if the latest problems could be attributed to my using the Windows CD burner to produce this test CD. I had problems with the Roxio CD burner so I switched to the one in Windows. Hey, I am grasping at straws. I do plan to download the PFCPro, but probably not until tomorrow. My brain is in overload tonight. :-) Deloresw > Thanks for all of your input. I will give your suggestions a try. My > sons-in-law have the XP computers that I have been using for my "test," and [quoted text clipped - 90 lines] > > > > > > Deloresw > I thought of the music rights, but I own all of the CDs that contain the > tracks I am using so thought it would not be an issue. No, afraid not. Owning the CD means that you have the right to play it and possibly to make backup copies to CD/cassette etc, though I'm not sure of that. It doesn't give you the right to distribute the music to others and unfortunately, putting the music into a PPT presentatation does exactly that. > Also, previously, the > song would play after clicking back to the previous slide and then back to > the slide with the linked song. That might be a valuable clue. Previous to what? What changed between the time it'd play and now? > The song in question is "I'd Like to Teach > the World to Sing," by the New Seekers, and I am almost to the point of > hating the song. :-) Bouncing back and forth between hating it and running out to buy another six-pack 'o Coke, eh? ;-) > I still question if creating the slideshow on a VISTA operating system could > have anything to do with all of this. Austin has more welts on his hide from Vista and media; I'll defer to him. > > If I can jump in here. > > [quoted text clipped - 71 lines] > > > > > > Deloresw ----------------------------------------- Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com PPTools: www.pptools.com ================================================ I started out packaging the slideshow to CD and burned it from Powerpoint with three songs. The third song, I'd Lke to Teach" would not play without clicking the previous slide, etc. Echo and Austin gave the instructions to me on how to package the show for CD and save it in a file. I then added two more songs to the show, so I copied them from my Music folder into the file created by PowerPoint. So now I have the linked music files from PowerPoint plus the linked files from my hard drive all in one file. This seemed to create yet another problem although Echo and Austin both said everything looked okay after having me check various files in the folder. I checked the PCFPro website, but I did not find anything that said it was compatible with VISTA. I already have too many software programs that are not compatible with VISTA so I don't need anymore. If I had an easy access to a XP computer, I would be tempted to try saving the slideshow on XP and redo the music, etc. Last night, I deleted the I'd Like to Teach" song and replaced it with another song by the same artist who sings two of the other songs on the slideshow. I have not tested the revised CD on the XP computers yet, and probably won't get to until Sunday or sometime next week. In other words, I really don't know what I more I can do at this point. I think I need to set it aside for awhile, but it is difficult for me to do. Another grasping at the straw question I have is if I converted it to play on a DVD, do you think I would have the same problems? Steve, thanks for responding! Deloresw > > I thought of the music rights, but I own all of the CDs that contain the > > tracks I am using so thought it would not be an issue. [quoted text clipped - 105 lines] > PPTools: www.pptools.com > ================================================ I'm betting that PFC's Vista-compatible, but Austin can tell you whether it Plays For Certain, so to speak <g>. But failing that, you might indeed want to look into converting the PPT to a series of pictures and using Windows Movie Maker (is that still included in your edition of Vista?) to make a movie with synchronized sound, then make a DVD from it. You won't get the high resolution you would by playing the PPT back on a computer, but nearly everybody's got a DVD player these days. It'll be more universally accessible. > I started out packaging the slideshow to CD and burned it from Powerpoint > with three songs. The third song, I'd Lke to Teach" would not play without [quoted text clipped - 135 lines] > > PPTools: www.pptools.com > > ================================================ ----------------------------------------- Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com PPTools: www.pptools.com ================================================ First, to answer your question, Steve, Windows Movie Maker is installed on my computer, but I have not checked it out yet. I wish I had good news about the PP slideshow, but I don't. My son-in-law tested the latest revision of the PP slideshow today. He said he executed the show by clicking on play.bat. I did not see a play.bat file in the list. The show played the first song only after he clicked on the screen. The slides advanced for seven slides and stopped. The song played for approximately another minute and stopped. NOTHING happened after that. Both of the XP computers are having more issues with trying to play the slideshow after I changed from "packaging to a CD and burning it in PP" to "packaging to a CD, sending it to a file," and copying the songs from my hard disk to the file. A reminder, when I copied the files from my hard disk to the file, this created duplicate copies of the songs in the file. Wouldn't this cause a conflict? At least, when I packaged the file to CD and burned it from PP, I only had trouble with the one song, which I have now deleted from the slideshow. So, should I now revert back to packaging the CD and and burning it from PP? Another thing, all of these songs have the Itunes symbol beside them on my hard disk. I am contemplating unistalling Itunes and quicktime, because I do not use them at all. I don't like the idea of Itunes taking ownership of my music files. As usual, I welcome any suggestions or comments. I can't believe I am the ONLY one who is having these problems with PP. Also, I would like to have the answer as to whether or not PFC is compatible with VISTA. Deloresw > I'm betting that PFC's Vista-compatible, but Austin can tell you whether it Plays For > Certain, so to speak <g>. [quoted text clipped - 151 lines] > PPTools: www.pptools.com > ================================================ If you're using Package for CD, whether to folder or to CD directly, you don't have to copy the music files into the folder separately. It shouldn't cause a conflict, because the duplicates will have "copy 1" or whatever appended to their file name automatically when you paste the duplicate, but you don't need to do it. But I don't know what the problem with the sound files on the CD is. And yes, PFCPro works on Vista. SignatureEcho 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 > First, to answer your question, Steve, Windows Movie Maker is installed on > my [quoted text clipped - 259 lines] >> PPTools: www.pptools.com >> ================================================ I am doing the Happy Dance! All of the songs play correctly now!! YEAH! I did some more experimenting so don't know which experiment solved the problem. 1. I deleted the "problem song," I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" and replaced it with "Sound of Silence," by Simon & Garfunkel. 2. I uninstalled Itunes and went through all of my music files and checked to make sure they would be Media Player files. Jukebox came with this computer, but I changed the ones with the Jukebox symbol to play on Media Player. 3. I then went back and removed and reinserted the music files in all of the slideshows. 4. I packaged and burned the CD from PowerPoint. I did a test run today on one of the XP computers, and FINALLY, the music works as it should! I really appreciate everyone's patience and suggestions! Now, back to my "Happy Dance." :-) Deloresw > If you're using Package for CD, whether to folder or to CD directly, you > don't have to copy the music files into the folder separately. It shouldn't [quoted text clipped - 265 lines] > >> > >> ----------------------------------------- > I am doing the Happy Dance! PowerPoint with video of that to appear soon? ;-) I am afraid it would not be a pretty picture to see a 70-year-old woman doing the happy dance! :-) > > I am doing the Happy Dance! > > PowerPoint with video of that to appear soon? ;-) LOL! Well done, woman! I'm very happy to hear that you got things working again. SignatureEcho 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 >I am afraid it would not be a pretty picture to see a 70-year-old woman >doing [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >> >> PowerPoint with video of that to appear soon? ;-) > I am afraid it would not be a pretty picture to see a 70-year-old woman doing > the happy dance! :-) <g> I've seen scarier things. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=cincinnati+chicken+dance&btnG=Google+Search ----------------------------------------- Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com PPTools: www.pptools.com ================================================ > First, to answer your question, Steve, Windows Movie Maker is installed on my > computer, but I have not checked it out yet. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > He said he executed the show by clicking on play.bat. I did not see a > play.bat file in the list. Do you see something called just Play? Your copy of windows may be set to the default settings, which include "Hide the file extensions that I need to see in order to solve problems" <g> Make Windows show file extensions and hidden files http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00781.htm Unfortunately probably can't help with sound tracks. (Will try in a minute) But with the automatic start problem, you probably need to be sure that all of the files in your CD package are at the ROOTof that CD. That is, if PPT (or you) have put the "Package for CD" packaged files in any sort of folder, you need to remove that folder. Copy ALL of its CONTENTS (the Viewer, your presentation, sounds, etc.) - - - with no containing folder - - - directly to the CD. Otherwise the Viewer does not immediately see an actionable file when your CD hits it - - - it (the Viewer) sees that intervening folder, which is not an actionable item. So it just sits there. (I know. It shouldn't be that way. But, as many of us seem to be painfully aware - - - there are a lot of things about PPT that shouldn't be that way). About the sound problem: it seems that sounds have a way of hanging up other slide advancement, sound files, etc. (regardeless of what start and stop times you put on them) because they hang up the program for the full duration of the ORIGINAL sound file. You might try editing those sounds in an external editor (Sound Forge, whatever)where the edit can be "destructive", i.e. you actually render a new file where the stuff you don't want is actually taken out - - - and not just "non-distructively" hidden. The "edit" you perform in PPT, with Start and Stop times, seems to be a non-destructive edit that does not really remove the rest of what you don't want to hear. So, it seems, the unwanted stuff throws all of your PPT timings/setting off by the amount of the original sound file's length. I have not tried this yet, but I am certainly going to. Maybe you'll get a better suggestion but, if not, give it a whirl. Hope it helps. > 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 [quoted text clipped - 38 lines] > > Deloresw |
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