Talking Books

Background - Talking Books combine text and speech to help develop reading skills. They have application with young learners, remedial reading and LOTE. The basic idea is to create some text on a PowerPoint slide and them 'attach' recorded sounds to the text. As the user clicks on the text (or moves the cursor over it) the words are read aloud. Two methods of doing this are outlined below ...

METHOD 1 - Using Transparent Buttons and Pre-recorded Sounds
(Make sure you read METHOD 2 below before starting on METHOD 1. METHOD 2 is much simpler!)

STEP 1 - Set up a PowerPoint slide and add some text.

STEP 2 - Add a custom "Action Button" from the Slide Show menu.

STEP 3 - Use the cursor to mark out a button over some text. The "Actions Settings" dialogue box will pop-up. For the time being close the dialogue box. The first thing we will do is make the button transparent...

STEP 4 - Double-click the button. The Format AutoShape window will appear. Drop the Fill Color: box and select "No Fill".

STEP 5 - Drop the Line Color: box and select "No Line"

STEP 6 - Click OK to return to the slide view. The Button should now be transparent.

STEP 7 - It is now time to set the "action" associated with the button. In this example we are going to set some sound to be played when the word is clicked. If you wished you could set the action to occur when the mouse moves over the text, rather than when clicked.

Right-click the button. The Action Settings window will appear. Tick the "Play Sound:" box at the bottom of the Action Settings window and nominate the sound to be played.

STEP 8 - Run the slide show and click on the text to play the sound.

Adding Your Own Sounds

Sounds are added via the Action Settings, Play sound: list. To add your own sound you must first create and save it using software such as Sound Recorder. The sound is then loaded via the Other Sound ... option in the Action Settings window as outlined in STEP 7 above.

This process is repeated for the rest of the text until your "Talking Book" is complete.

METHOD 2 - Based on Mike Leishman's Suggestions
(This approach is much simpler than my version described above. I was tempted to erase my version  completely, but left it there in the hope the technique will be useful to somebody.)

STEP 1 - Create your text on a slide as usual and then 'select' the words you want to associate with the sound and go to Slide Show/Action Settings ... to choose the sound to be played when the text is 'clicked'.

Recording your own sounds ...

There are three approaches:
1. Record a sound and create a sound file as outlined in STEP 7 above.
2. Use Insert/Movies and Sounds/Record Sound to add a sound to the Action Settings list
to be later associated with some text.
3. Use Slide Show/Record Narration to record  a narration to be loaded when the slide is displayed.

Recording Sound within PowerPoint ...

Recording a Narration for a slide.

When OK is pressed the slide is displayed. Start speaking into the microphone. When you have finished the narration for the slide press a key, or click the mouse button.

This approach is the simplest way to record sound for a slide. It doesn't provide as much flexibility as the other methods, but it is easier for beginners.