Play Sound and PowerPoint Animation at the Same Time

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?

Successfully applying sound/animation in PowerPoint is one of several 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.

Instructions in this article apply to PowerPoint for Office 365, PowerPoint 2019, PowerPoint 2016, PowerPoint 2013, and PowerPoint 2010.

Play Sound at Same Time as Animation

We will show you first, which is the wrong way to set this up, followed by the correct steps to follow.

Add an animation to the object on the slide (such as a text box, picture, or Excel chart).
Insert the sound file onto the slide.
Select the Animations tab of the ribbon.
Towards the right side of the ribbon, in the Advanced Animation section, select the Animation Pane button. The Animation Pane will open on the right side of the screen.
In the Animation Pane, select the drop-down arrow at the right end of the listing for the sound file you added.

The problem arises if you then choose the option Start With Previous from the drop-down menu of selections.
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.

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.
In the Animation Pane, select the drop-down arrow beside the sound file and choose Timing. The Play Audio dialog box will open.
Select the Timing tab of the dialog box and choose Triggers.

The reason why your music or sound file did not play is that Animate as part of click sequence is not selected.
Select Animate as part of click sequence and select OK. The problem is fixed.

Save Steps to Make Sound Play at Same Time as PowerPoint Animation

You can save even more time by going directly to the Timing dialog box after adding the sound file.

In the Animation Pane, select Timing in the list of selections for the sound file.
In the Play Audio dialog box that opens, select With Previous beside the option for Start.

Animation as part of click sequence is selected automatically, which is correct.
Select OK to apply these options and close the dialog box.

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.

The sound should play with the animation as intended.