Play Sound and PowerPoint Animation at the Same Time

man giving a powerpoint presentation

lovro77 / Getty Images

by Wendy Russell
Knows everything you need to know about PowerPoint presentation software.
Updated November 01, 2018

Have you tried to make the sound on a PowerPoint slide play at the same time as an animation, but it just will not work?

This is another of those little PowerPoint conundrums. Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. It all depends on which method you use to tell the music to play at the same time as the animation.

To that end, we will show you first which is the wrong way to set this up.

01
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Steps to Make Sound Play at Same Time as Animation

Start sound with previous PowerPoint animation
Start sound with previous PowerPoint animation.

Lifewire

  1. Add an animation to the object on the slide (whether it is a text box or a graphic object such as a picture or an Excel chart).
  2. Insert the sound file onto the slide.
  3. Click on the Animations tab of the ribbon.
  4. Towards the right side of the ribbon, in the Advanced Animation section, click on the Animation Pane button. The Animation Pane will open on the right side of the screen.
  5. In the Animation Pane click on the drop-down arrow at the right end of the listing for the sound file you added. (The sound file may have a generic name or a specific name, depending on what sound file is being used.)

**Stop after Step 5 shown above and read on**
Note the entry in this list of options called Start With Previous. When checking this option, it is understood that the sound file will play at the same time as the animation (the previous item). This is where the problem arises.

02
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The Reason Why Sound Will Not Play with PowerPoint Animation

This is the reason why the sound will not play with the PowerPoint animation
This is the reason why the sound will not play with the PowerPoint animation.

Lifewire

  1. Follow Steps 1 - 5 on the previous page. These steps all work fine. The problem arises if you then choose the option Start With Previous from the drop-down menu of selections.
  2. Test your slideshow by pressing the shortcut key F5 to start the slideshow, and you will notice that the sound does not play with the animation on this slide.
    (Note - To start the slideshow from the current slide -- if your slide with the sound file is not the first slide -- use the keyboard shortcut key combination of Shift + F5.)
  3. In the Animation Pane, click the drop-down arrow beside the sound file and choose Timing... The Play Audio dialog box will open.
  4. Click on the Timing tab of the dialog box selections.
  5. Refer to the image above and note that With Previous is selected beside the Start: selection.
  6. Most importantly note that the selection Animate as part of click sequence is NOT selected. This is the reason why your music or sound file did not play. This option needs to be selected and should have been selected if there was not a small glitch in this programming feature.
  7. Select Animate as part of click sequence and click the OK button. The problem is fixed.
03
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Save Steps to Make Sound Play at Same Time as PowerPoint Animation

Sequence of steps to get sound to play with PowerPoint animation
Sequence of steps to get sound to play with PowerPoint animation.

Lifewire

  1. Follow Steps 1- 5 on the first page of this tutorial.
  2. In the Animation Pane, click on the Timing... option in the list of selections for the sound file.
  3. In the Play Audio dialog box that opens, select With Previous beside the option for Start:
  4. Note that Animation as part of click sequence is selected automatically. This is correct.
  5. Click the OK button to apply these options and close the dialog box.
  6. Test the slideshow by pressing the F5 key to start the show from the beginning or instead, press the shortcut key combination Shift + F5 to start the show from the current slide, if the slide in question is not the first slide.
  7. The sound should play with the animation as intended.