Recording video lectures

How to record lectures with PowerPoint's presentation recorder

The Office365 version of PowerPoint can record a presentation as a video file. The recording can include any or all of: audio narration, video capture of the presenter from a WebCam, a virtual laser pointer, and hand-drawn annotations.

Preparing to record

Open your PowerPoint slides. Switch to the “Slide Show” ribbon in the main interface. Press the button (near the centre) labelled “Record Slide Show”.

The presentation tools interface will open, starting at the slide selected in the thumbnail view. On the bottom-right there are three buttons, from left to right:

• enable audio recording,
• enable video recording, and
• enable video preview (does not affect video recording).

If you need to change the active audio or video device, click the “Settings” button on the top-right of the screen. Note that the video preview cannot be resized or moved.

Recording

Press the red circle “Record” button at the top-left to start recording with a three-second count-down. During the recording you can

• press CONTROL + left mouse button to show the virtual laser pointer,
• press CONTORL + P to enable the virtual pen,
• press E to erase anything you have drawn using the virtual pen,
• select a different drawing tool or colour at the bottom of the page, and
• use the arrow keys to navigate to the next step in an animation or to the next slide.

The audio, video, and timing of animation steps are recorded independently for each slide. Recording stops when you press ESCAPE or if you reach the end of your slides. Beware of a brief audio drop-out if you use arrow keys to move to the next slide which will be noticeable if you don't pause narration during the transition.

Adjusting the recorded material

Press ESCAPE again to go back to normal slide view. In normal slide view the recording will appear as a widget on each slide. For a video you can move it around, resize it, and rotate it independently on each slide according to where there is space for it. To crop the video, right-click on it and select “Format video…” then “Crop”. Deleting the video (or audio) object will delete the recording associated with that slide.

Exporting the presentation as a video file

To save a video presentation, select “File” and then “Export”. Select “Create a Video” and then click “Create Video”. The default export parameters (1080 or 720 lines, mp4 format, and normal quality) are perfectly acceptable.