Not long ago, Google finally added the functionality of adding audio to Google Slides for all users. And, not long thereafter, we started asking for improvements! 😬 Hey, it’s what we do! 😃
In this post, I’m going to share with you a hack to get the most asked for improvement. It’s not an elegant hack (that’s an oxymoron, I think) but it’ll do until Google adds the actual functionality.
When you add audio, the main choice that you’ll have to make is
– “Do I want this to stop playing when I advance to the next slide…
– or do I want it to continue until the audio ends…
– or do I want it to loop until the end of the slideshow?”
Unfortunately, there’s no option to have it play on Slides 1, 2, 3 and 4 and then stop on Slide 5.
But what if that’s what we want? In this post, I’ll show you a hack to set your audio to play for a subset of slides, but not for others.
My first idea for a hack was adding a different piece of audio on Slide 5, but that just leads to both audio files playing simultaneously. Back to the drawing board.
My second idea worked. So, here it is… #EduGIF first, step-by-step instructions next.
You can see a Pausable version of this #EduGIF here.
Step-by-Step Instructions:
- Add your audio file on the first slide in the set that you want it to play on.
– In my example, it’s slide 1, but if you want the audio to play on slides 4-9, for example, you’d do this on slide 4. - With the audio icon selected, click Format Options.
- Select Stop on slide change.
- Decide if you want to select Loop audio.
– Looping means that the audio will play repeatedly until you advance to the next slide. - Download each of the subsequent slides that you want the audio to play on as images
– .jpg or .png are both fine. Click File > Download to get there. - Add the image of the 2nd slide in the set onto the first slide.
– Insert > Image > Upload from Computer. - Click Slide > Change transition.
- Select the image of the 2nd slide.
- Click Add Animation.
- Select On Click in the dropdown menu.
- Repeat steps 8-10 for each subsequent slide that you want the audio to play for.
- In the slide menu on the left, shift+click each slide that you added as an image.
- Right-click and select Skip Slides.
– This way the slides are still there so that they can be viewed or edited, but don’t play in the animation.
– Side Note: In my example, I wish that I would’ve duplicated the first slide & “skipped” the duplicate of it. That way, it’d still show that slide when not in present mode. - Now you’re ready!
What are the top (for teachers to create/embed) and easiest (for littles) to record audio?
Good question, Scott! There are lots out there. Eric Curts mentions ChromeMP3 Recorder from HablaCloud, Online Voice Recorder, Beautiful Audio Editor & Twisted Wave in this post. I used Online Voice Recorder with my 10-y-o son and it went well, though I hate that there are those tricky ads on the page. John Sowash recommends the AudioRecorder Chrome Extension & Cloud Audio Recorder. I also think that Synth is a great tool. If you use Screencastify and WeVideo, you can now export audio only from both of them. Soundation is another option that you could consider.