PowerPoint 2016: Rehearse and Record Your Presentation

There are a lot of things to consider when preparing a presentation: How long will it be? What will you say? Fortunately, PowerPoint 2016 offers a number of tools that can help you rehearse your presentation. You can even record a transcript with a narration, allowing your audience to review the presentation themselves later.

 

Rehearse presentation time

The Rehearse Timings feature can be useful if you want to set your presentation to play at a certain speed, so you don't have to click through the slides yourself. Using this feature, you can record the timing for each slide and effect. PowerPoint will then play the presentation automatically using these timings.

Rehearsing is often one of the final steps in delivering a presentation. If you've never given a presentation before, review our lesson on how to present a slideshow in PowerPoint 2016 to familiarize yourself with the basics.

How to rehearse your presentation

1. Go to the Slide Show tab, and then click the Rehearse Timings command.

 

2. You will be taken to a full-screen view of your presentation. Practice your presentation along with the slideshow. When you are ready to move on to the next slide, click the Next button on the Recording toolbar in the upper left corner. You can also use the right arrow key on your keyboard.

3. When you reach the end of your presentation, a dialog box will appear stating the total presentation time. If you are happy with the timings for each slide, click Yes.

4. The timings are saved. The next time you present, PowerPoint will use these timings to automatically advance slides.

If you need to try again to adjust the timing to a better fit, the Recording toolbar can pause or restart a slide. To pause the timer, click the Pause button. When the timer is paused, no actions will count against the saved time. To record the timing on the current slide again, click the Repeat button.

Record your presentation

The Record Slide Show feature is similar to the Rehearse Timings feature, but a little more comprehensive. If you have a microphone on your computer, you can record a voiceover for your entire presentation. This is useful if you plan to use your slideshow as a presentation or a self-running video.

 

How to record slideshow

1. From the Slide Show tab, select the Record Slide Show drop-down arrow , and then select Start Recording from Beginning or Start Recording from Current Slide .

2. A dialog box will appear. Select the desired options, then click Start Recording. Remember, you can only record a voiceover if you have a microphone attached to your computer.

3. The presentation will appear in full screen view. Go ahead and perform the slideshow. Be sure to speak clearly into your microphone if you are recording a narration.

4. When you're ready to move on to the next slide, click the Next button on the Recording toolbar or use the right arrow key.

5. When you reach the end of the slideshow, PowerPoint closes full-screen view.

6. The timings set for the slides and narration are now part of the presentation. Slides with narration will be marked with a speaker icon in the lower right corner.

In the recorded slideshow, the mouse cursor will not appear in the finished product. So if you want to point something out, you will need to use the laser pointer feature. Just hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard while clicking and holding your mouse. The cursor will appear as a small red dot.

 

How to remove timings set for slides and voiceovers

If you change your mind about including preset timings for each slide or narration, you can easily remove either or both of these settings. You can remove them from your entire presentation or just the current slide.

To do this, simply go to the Slide Show tab, click the Record Slide Show drop-down arrow , hover over Clear, and then select the desired option from the menu.

Good luck!