If knowing how to record a PowerPoint presentation wasn’t necessary a decade ago, this isn’t how things stand today. The pandemic taught us a valuable lesson – if we don’t catch up with technology, we will fall short.
Fortunately, Microsoft’s app is the global leader in presentation software and provides you with all the required tools to create an excellent presentation you can show in front of your audience. But how to record a presentation on PowerPoint, and is it easy to do so?
Article overview:
1. What are the benefits of recording PowerPoint presentations?
2. How to record a PowerPoint presentation?
3. How to live stream a PowerPoint presentation?
4. Frequently asked questions
1. What are the benefits of recording PowerPoint presentations?
I am are pretty sure that if recording presentations weren’t helpful, PowerPoint wouldn’t offer it to its users. Well, we all know that’s not the case. Recording your PowerPoint slides can bring a ton of benefits. Let’s see which they are:
- Save time – regardless if you’re a lecturer or present in front of colleagues, having a video of your recording will save you many hours. Imagine speaking in front of your marketing team, but 2 members are on summer holidays. It’s fine. They’ll catch up later when they watch your PowerPoint recording.
- Focus on the presentation – usually, if you’re presenting in front of an audience, it’s typical to get asked many questions that you need to answer promptly. But that is a good reason to get distracted from your core information. Thus, it makes sense to record your presentation beforehand.
- Practice before presenting – the best way to carry out a great presentation is to spend some time at home, focusing on key details. When you record your PowerPoint slides, you can find areas of improvement and work on them.
2. How to record a PowerPoint presentation?
There are many tools that you can use to record a PowerPoint presentation. From Loom and Panopto, and even Apple’s basic Quicktime and Windows’ own recording tool. But here we will discuss none of the other options. Why? The answer is simple: PowerPoint has its own in-built, robust recording tool.
Unlike other options, PowerPoint’s recording feature enables you to record slide by slide. This effectively means you can create as many recordings as you like, until you like the playback version, and move on to the next slide.
Pro tip: PowerPoint doesn’t record slide transitions. You need to start recording each slide when it is opened and finish the recording before you move on to the next one.
Let’s see how to record a PowerPoint presentation with video and audio in just a few steps.
Step #1: Open your PowerPoint presentation
The first step is to open the PowerPoint presentation you wish to record. Ensure you have all the necessary slides and information on them. While this seems logical, there aren’t one or two cases when presenters have recorded wrong or unfinished slides, which leads to a disappointing outcome.
Step #2: Prepare your video and audio devices
Before you start the recording, you should check your camera and microphone. Try to make a sound check and see if your camera works properly.
Step #3: Select the slides you wish to record
PowerPoint gives you the option to record a presentation right from the beginning, or from a specifically selected slide.
- Pick “From Beginning” (1) from the Record tab of the Ribbon if you wish to start from the first slide.
- Pick “From Current Slide” (2) from the same tab in case you would like to start from a selected slide (which isn’t the first one).
- Click the Record button (3) which is positioned in the top right corner, between the Comments and Share buttons. It starts the recording from the slide you have currently selected.
Step #4: Start the recording
Once you click on one of the options, you are ready to start narrating your PowerPoint presentation. You will see a countdown timer, after which you can start narrating slides.
Step #5: Manage your PowerPoint recording
You have probably seen a couple of other options aside from the recording one. Let’s see which they are:
- Timer with a grey/red light – if you are recording your narration, you will see a timer and a small circle with a red light that indicates you are recording. If you pause, the small circle indicator will become grey again and the timer will stop counting.
- Refresh icon – right next to the timer there is a refresh-like icon but it serves a different purpose – to re-take the recording. You have the option to record again the current slide or all slides.
- Start/Stop button – the big red button serves as a start/stop button for your recordings. Only stop the recording when you want to move on to the next slide.
- Pause button – if you would like to stop the slide recording, in order to drink some water or read your speaker notes, you can use the Pause button, and then resume the recording. Bear in mind you cannot pause and move to the next slide. You have to stop the recording, to indicate you have finished with the current slide.
- Camera button – clicking the camera button will work as a toggle on/off.
- Microphone Button – clicking the microphone button will work as a toggle on/off.
- Ellipsis – this is the place where you can select camera and microphone settings, as well as erase recordings from the current slide or all slides.
Step #6: Export your PowerPoint video recording
The last button from the menu is the Export setting. You can export your narration as an mp4 file in Full HD size by default. However, you can customize your export and get your narration in 4 sizes – 480p, 720p (HD), 1080p (Full HD – standard), and 4K. We don’t recommend Ultra HD exports.
Pro Tip: Exporting 4K PowerPoint presentation recordings doesn’t necessarily mean you will get better quality (unless you have 4K resources within your presentation) but it does guarantee a significantly larger file size – up to 4 times more than on standard Full HD recordings.
3. How to live stream a PowerPoint presentation?
If you have already honed your skills and would like to stream your PowerPoint slides directly to your audience, there are many ways to do so. We are going to cover two of them.
3.1. How to stream a PowerPoint presentation from OneDrive?
Microsoft has invested a lot of resources to make OneDrive a powerful cloud service, and so far they have been quite successful. Let’s see how to record a PowerPoint presentation in front of live audiences.
Step 1 – save your PowerPoint presentation in OneDrive.
Step 2 – open your PowerPoint slides from PowerPoint online.
Step 3 – go to Present Live from the Slideshow Ribbon tab.
Step 4 – share a live link with your audience.
3.2. Stream your PowerPoint presentation in Zoom
Zoom is one of the most popular conference call apps which has plenty of tools, including live streaming presentations. Since PowerPoint is the leading presentation program in the world, Zoom developers have created some amazing things, like PowerPoint presentation recording with a web camera on a transparent background. If you’re interested, you can check our guide on how to record a Zoom presentation.
4. FAQ
Does PowerPoint have a screen recording?
PowerPoint has a screen recording window and you can select the area you would like to be recorded. Go to Record (from the Ribbon), then select Screen Recording, choose the area and start recording.
Can I view speaker notes while recording narration?
You are able to access your speaker notes if you have created them beforehand. To insert speaker notes, you have to go to View -> Notes Page and you will have a text box that you can utilize for speaker notes.
What format does PowerPoint use for video?
PowerPoint records videos in mp4 format. The default resolution is 1080p (Full HD).
Conclusion
Recording your PowerPoint presentations can make the difference between a successful and smooth speech and a bad narration. Being able to record each slide means you can get the best narration possible for your whole presentation.
And if you would like to stream your presentation live, there are more than enough options to do so – both via the online version of PowerPoint or via third-party apps like Zoom.
If you found this article helpful, you can also check some of our other PowerPoint tutorials:
