Creating A Monster

Recently I put together a PowerPoint with narration for a Henry Stewart Talks series on Marketing to the Older Consumer. Dick Stroud is the ringleader. There are a handful of other folks from the U.K. and around the world contributing.

It was fun – but Dick and Henry (Is there a 'Henry'?) may have created a monster. 

I’d never recorded narration with PowerPoint. That may surprise people who know me, since I can be quite the blabbermouth when prodded.  I casually clicked the start button and without thinking about it thought I'd be creating one big wav file somewhere.  I just kept prattling and clicking without stopping. "One-Take Nyren” is my nick.

But while playing it back the sound went in and out between slides. I thought my mic was malfunctioning. 

Then I did something smart – which sounds impressive, but it’s not. Most people ‘do something smart’ by doing something smart before doing something – like reading the directions. I usually wait until I’m completely lost or something royally screws up before I bother with something silly like directions. That’s how smart I am.

PowerPoint handles narration by embedding individual sound files on each slide. This was why my voice was cut off between slides. 

And it's advisable to wait a second or so between slides – stop talking, wait, click, wait, talk. That’s so the wav file can finish up on a slide, and another can kick in for the next slide.

I had to rehearse a few times to get used to it all.

What's good about it: If you mess up the narration you can go back and re-record over that slide only - without losing the sound files on the other slides.  It also makes it easy to rearrange, add, or delete slides. 

What's bad about it: There's no way you can get on a roll.  What you're really creating are separate scenarios for each slide.  I imagine that, with practice, you'll be able to simulate a seamless  song an' dance. 

The monster created: I had so much fun that I want to do more. And more.  Short ones. And publish them here.  

So sometime soon you might just find a few PPPPs (PowerPoint Presentation Podcasts) on these pages.  Dick Stroud, as usual, is way ahead of me.