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“One of the most underrated tools for doing short educational videos is PowerPoint”
University of Wisconsin, Making videos with PowerPoint
Any PowerPoint presentation can have a voiceover added and be exported as a video. See our tips and instructions below.
Preparing your presentation for recording
Whilst the way that you structure and design your presentation is generally the same for one that is going to be presented live or recorded as a video, there are some specific considerations:
1. Add animations
Whilst we usually suggest less is more when animating presentations, a recorded presentation can look quite static when there is no presenter to look at, so a few more animations usually work well.
Just remember to only use them when they allow you to do one of three things:
Draw the viewer's eye to a particular thing at a particular time
Gradually reveal individual parts of something more complex to simplify it
Show how something progresses over time etc.
It is possible to create some really sophisticated animations in PowerPoint but here we just look at how to bring in elements one at a time.
Animating individual images or text boxes to appear on a mouse click
- Select your image/text box (if you select more than one item, they will appear together).
- Click on the Animations tab.
- Select the animation type you require. For most academic work this should be one of the following:
Appear- Fade
- Wipe
If you want the previous point to dim as you bring in a new point, take a look at this video with instructions on how to do that: Keep Your Audience Focused by Highlighting Bullet Points in PowerPoint.
Animating a list of points or SmartArt graphics
Click into your list of points or on your graphic.- Click on the Animations tab to display the Animations ribbon.
- Click on the animation type you require (usually one of the three mentioned above).
- For lists of points, consecutive numbers should appear down the left of your list to show which mouse click each point will appear on.
- For SmartArt graphics, they will default to all coming in at the same time - click on the Effect Options button and choose One by One from the bottom of the list.
Changing the order of animation
If you need to change the order that things appear, you can do this in one of two ways:
Method 1 - on the Animation Ribbon
On the slide itself, click on the number alongside the item you want to reorder.- Use the Reorder Animation buttons on the right end of the Animations ribbon to move the item up or down the animation order.
Method 2 - in the Animation Pane
Click on the Animation Pane button on the Animations ribbon to display this on the right of your window.- If there is a button with two chevrons
, you can click on this to expand a list of bullet points so that you can move things like images to appear between them. - Select the item you want to reorder in the Animation Pane and use the buttons at the top right of the pane to move them up or down the order.
Alternatively, you can drag the items up or down the pane to reorder them.
2. Add speaker notes
When you are recording your presentation, you can see speaker notes that can prompt you with what you want to say. There is no reason why you cannot write these word-for-word, like a script - but you must make sure you do not sound like you are just reading them (try to put some enthusiasm or feeling into your voice). Alternatively, you can just put some short points that remind you what to talk about and you can ad-lib around these making your voice sound more natural. The best approach would probably be to try both and see which you think works best for you.
To add speaker notes:
- At the bottom of your screen, under the slide, look for an area that says Click to add notes.
- If you can see it, just click there and type.
- If you cannot see it, click on where it says Notes alongside three lines, next to Display Settings at the bottom of the screen:
This will open up the Notes area so you can type there.
- To make the Notes area bigger, you can drag upwards on the line above it.
Some technical considerations
Let's make sure you are technically set up to record your video:
Microphone
It may seem obvious, but make sure your computer has access to a microphone - either internal or external (or a headset with a microphone). If not, then you can loan a headset from the Reading Room in the library to use with your own laptop or with one of the library laptops. Whilst the sound quality may be better with an external microphone, the quality using an internal or headset mike will be fine for most academic work.
PowerPoint version
Check what version of PowerPoint you are using - recording narrations is not possible if you are using the online version of PowerPoint, you need to be using the desktop version - either on your own machine or a university one. The current desktop version of the Office 365 suite, which includes PowerPoint, can be downloaded for free whilst you are a University of Hull student. Go to 365.hull.ac.uk and login with your university credentials. At the top right of the home screen there is an Install apps button which will enable you to download the apps onto your own machine.
Recording your voiceover
You are now ready to record your presentation. Don't worry about getting it all right first time, you can re-record individual slides as many times as you need to.
Before you start to record, move to the beginning of your presentation (or the slide where you want to start the voiceover).
Choosing your record settings
Before you actually record, you need to set a few things up:
- At the top of the screen, towards the right, click on the large Record button.
This will open the record screen:
As you can see from the image, you can see the current slide at the bottom of the screen and the speaker notes for that slide above.
Please note that until you click the record button, your animations will not run - if you are just scrolling through the slides in the record screen, it will just look like they are not working.
The toolbar at the top has two things you can set before you record:
Camera - do you want a thumbnail of yourself on each or some slides? (You can delete or move them on each slide individually after recording).- Enable autoscroll - if your speaker notes are long, you can set them to scroll automatically (like a TV teleprompter) - you can set the speed of this too. You can also change the size of the text for the notes using the A^ and A∨ buttons at the bottom of the notes text.
- Device settings - if you have multiple options for sound or camera (for example a webcam mike, a headset mike) you can choose which by clicking on the three dots ...
Also, you can set some things at the bottom of the screen - such as the pen type and colour for highlighting things (this can be a great way to draw the viewer's eye to something) or whether you want your background blurred etc. if using the camera.
You're ready to record!...
To record: Click the big red button in the middle of the top toolbar and talk away.
To move on: Either click on the image of the slide, or use the slide forward button at the bottom of the screen (also brings in next animation).
To pause: Use the standard button that appears in the top toolbar.
To stop: Click the big red central button again (it will have changed to show a instead of a circle.
To re-record: Click the button in the top toolbar and try again.
When you are happy with your recorded narration, you can either go back and continue editing the presentation (using the < Edit button to the left of the top toolbar) or you can move straight to export to a video (Using the Export > button to the right of the top toolbar).
If you choose to continue editing, you will notice a large speaker icon on each slide with a voiceover recorded. This icon can be moved, resized or recoloured just like any other graphic. If you click on the icon, a play toolbar will appear so you can remind yourself what you said! You can go back to re-record any slide at any time.
Exporting to video
Once you are as happy as you can be, it is time to export. Depending which view you are in, do one of the following:
- In Record view: click the Export > button:
- On the Record ribbon in the normal view, click the Export to Video button:
This will open a black screen where you can give it a different filename if you wish and Browse to choose where to save it. By default it will be in Full HD and an mp4 file. Any slides without a narration or timing included from your recording will default to show for 5 seconds. You should not need to change these settings but if you do, there is a Customize Export button. When you are ready, just click the orange Export Video button:
