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Hardware and Software Requirements
Adding sounds to PowerPoint presentations requires additional hardware and software, especially for the developer:
Hardware for the developer:
- A sound card for your PC
- Speakers for your PC -- these should easily attach to the sound card
- A microphone -- these are very inexpensive and should attach easily to your sound card. A headset gives the best quality but is not necessary
Hardware for the user:
- A sound card for their PC
- Speakers for their PC which plug into the sound card
Software for the developer: there are two main routes for developing sound-accompanied presentations: the WindowsMedia approach and the RealAudio approach. The WindowsMedia approach is substantially more difficult to use, but it is supported in PowerPoint 2000, whereas the RealAudio approach is much easier to use, the results are better, but at the present time is not supported in PP 2000. However, I will mainly describe the RealAudio approach in that it works well with current PowerPoint software and there is hope that PP 2000 will support it when it has entered production. A more brief description of the WindowsMedia approach is available as a link in the next section.
Software for the developer using RealAudio:
- Internet Explorer 4+ or Netscape 4+
- RealPresenter for Windows (purchase for $39.99 plus tax, shipping)
- RealPlayer G2 (free download)
- PowerPoint
Software for the developer using WindowsMedia:
- Internet Explorer 4+ or Netscape 4+
- Windows Toolkit free download
- Windows Media Player (free download)
- On-Demand Producer (free download)
- PowerPoint (see above)
For the user, the software needs are much less: just Internet Explorer 4+ or Netscape 4+
Note that, for the developer, some of the files that you download show up as additional menu elements in PowerPoint itself.
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