Saving Audio/Narration

Hi Anne.  You can export your audio from your Articulate project by following these instructions.  A separate audio file will be saved for each slide and named appropriately.  You can then edit the audio file(s) in an audio recording/editing app like the freeware Audacity, and import it back into the presentation.

From a workflow standpoint, I like to record with a dedicated audio app (one audio file for each slide) and import into Articulate.  Not only do I find a dedicated audio app easier for editing, but I have more editing options, and I can simply edit a file and re-import if any changes are needed.  But that is my personal preference.

I hope this helps!

-Phil

Thanks Phil.  I appreciate the tip. So you don't use the record narration in presenter, but record separately?  And apparently it is true that once published, audio files are gone, yes?

Anne, I always record separately as 16-bit/44.1Khz/mono WAV files and import into Presenter, as I like to have the control.

And thankfully no, the audio files should never go into a black hole.    Whether you record directly with Presenter or import audio, the files become part of the PPTA file--which functions like a ZIP file--that is "connected" to your PowerPoint file. 

To retrieve these audio files, you'll need to export the audio as mentioned before (it can't hurt to save as a backup).  Of course, if you imported audio files, you'll still have those original WAV files.

Hi Anne,

The audio shouldn't disappear after you publish.  If this is something you're experiencing, please review the following article which outlines possible solutions:

http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter09/kb/?p=643

Be sure that your presentation is located on your local hard drive (your C: drive).  Working on a network drive or a USB (external) drive can cause erratic behavior, including loss of resources.

Thanks Brian.  Interesting you suggest saving to local hard drive.  The default is to that and I don't change it, but it always pops up and tells me I'm saving to a non-local drive and may lose info.....  I ignore it because it's not saving to non-local and I can find it on my c:\ afterwards.   I will read through those solutions.  Thanks again.

I am having the same troubles.

I record anarration, save it, save the power point.  THEN when I produce it, it’sgone.

So…. I’ll goin, record it again…produce and it’s there.

However, IF Ineed to go in an make another change to another slide, when I produce it, thesound from the other slides is gone.

I have recorded this narration on each slide about 12 times and every time is it gone when I produce.

AND, it's not just narrations...it's imported audio as well.

Hi Jamee,

Typically issues like that are due to one of several things:

1. Working on a network drive.
2. Project files are in a folder that is in a directory path longer than 256 characters.
3. Multiple versions of the same project in the same project folder.

To minimize that any of these are causing your problem I would do the following:

1. Create a folder on your C: drive C:\Articulate
2. Open the PowerPoint file you are having an issue with and create a Presenter package following the steps outlined here. 
3. Quit PowerPoint.
4. Copy the zip file that was created in step 2 to C:\Articulate.
5. Right click the zip file and select Extract.
6. Open the folder that was created in step 5 and open the PowerPoint file located in the new folder.
7. Try recording narration or importing audio and see if you can duplicate your issue.

If you can still duplicate your issue, then the problem may be due to a corrupt project file. If that's the case, I would submit a case by sending us the package you created in step 2 here:

http://upload.articulate.com

Thank you SOOO much for your help. Unfortunately, I tried the above steps and still have the issue.

Right now the main issue is-  I record narration on a Power Point slide and save. When i go back in...it's gone.

Record again. Save. Open...and it's gone. 

It has to do with saving. All of my past created projected are like this as well. If I ever need to make changes, the entire presentations (audio) are gone.

I have submitted a request for help to articulate and I hope we can figure this out. I have some serious deadlines upcoming and I'm stuck. :(

Thanks again for the quick response!

Jamee

I was having this problem A LOT when I first started working with Articulate.

I found that if I clicked "save as" and then the same file name, instead of just clicking "save" it would create two PPTA files and label one of them "Filename-OLD.ppta". Often the sound files were in that one, and some of my other edits were in the other, and there was no way to combine the two.

I "solved" the problem by always clicking save instead of save as.

But *IF* you lose your sound you can follow the instructions on this page under the heading "My audio is not in an -old PPTA file, because I did not have Update 4 (or later) for Presenter ’09 installed" (even if that isn't the case...and you just lost it for some other reason) but you HAVE TO BE ON THE COMPUTER WHERE THE NARRATION WAS RECORDED.

After having this problem countless times, I eventually started backing up my audio as described here.

Can you check to see if you have any disabled items and enable them if you do?

http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter09/kb/?p=1060

I have the same issue. The audio doesn't "disappear" it just doesn't play in the preview or the published version. My situation's only mildly different in that I only have one slide and then there's two tabs (one an Engage Interaction, the other a quiz). I've taken all the steps above, and don't seem to have the issue that Kayla's describing in terms of multiple versions.

Hi Holly,

Would you mind submitting a support case to us?

http://www.articulate.com/support/contact/

I did Brian, Vira's on the case.

Thanks!

Hello Brian,

Any resolve to this issue?  I have the same issue that Holly describes.  I can see and play my audio in the Audio Editor, but it will not play in preview.  I have seen the "-old" ppta file.  But renaming this file and deleting the other ppta file does not re-link so this option does not fix my issue.  I have noticed that my audio works file until I export the audio files.  In my case I wanted to use some of the same audio for another project, but I think exporting "breaks" the link between the pptx and ppta file.   

Thanks for your help.

Once you export the sound why not re-import it back in?

(obviously the problem shouldn't exist, but this might be a quick-fix?)

I have tried to re-import the audio.  That doesn't work either.

FYI, if I import the audio into a "New" file the audio will play. 

Kayla, I had tried and that did not work. I honestly don't understand how they fixed the issue, but I zipped all my files together and submitted them to the Articulate support center. Vira basically did export then re-import the audio to get it to work, but it was quite odd that it worked when someone else did it. I suspect it may be dependent upon what version of ppt. you're using or what OS you're developing in because I had submitted ppt. and got back pptx files.

Hi Donna,

Would you mind submitting a support case so that we can take a closer look at the issue?

http://www.articulate.com/support/contact/