Playing Video Or Audio Across Keynote Slides

A new feature in Keynote is the ability to place a video or audio clip across several slides. The media will continue to play as you advance through the presentation. You can use this to make better introduction slides or present a video over a series of slides with different information at specific times.

Comments: 16 Responses to “Playing Video Or Audio Across Keynote Slides”

    Cameron
    4 years ago

    I just tried this using the Magic Move transition, and had the video smoothly glide to a different position, and then smoothly enlarge to full screen! I especially like the example you gave of using a full-screen full-resolution video as a background!

    I will say I was disappointed in the "Play Slideshow in Window" feature. There have been times when I've wanted this, but it doesn't show presenter notes or next slide preview, so not that useful for me personally.

    Jeanne Dyer
    4 years ago

    Gary, can the playing video across Keynote slides process be used like a crawl to advertise something like a starting date and time of a class?

    4 years ago

    Jeanne: Sure, but it may be overkill. If you just want some text or graphics on several slides, just put those on those slides. No need to make it a video.

    Michael Jones
    4 years ago

    What would be nice now is to have the audio to fade in or fade out. Does that feature exist?

    4 years ago

    Michael: No, not in Keynote. Depending on what you are doing, you could build your thing in iMovie instead. Or, build in Keynote, export as video, bring into iMovie to add the audio. Or, if you are developing a presentation, not a video, then you can always use GarageBand or Audacity to add the fade in and out to versions of the audio files and use those files in Keynote.

    John Stefano
    4 years ago

    Hello, Gary. This is very clear, thank you. There is a feature in PowerPoint called "Rehearse Timings" which allows you to play a slideshow in Preview and click when you want the slide to change. When you've finished the slideshow, PowerPoint allows you to save the timings, so you don't have to go through the laborious process of figuring out the timing for each slide. Does Keynote have an equivalent? Thanks!

    4 years ago

    John: Is the idea that you want the presentation to play automatically, advancing to each slide as you go? You can use Record Slideshow and Play Recorded Slideshow for that. There is a mute button in the recording interface to turn off the mic if you don't want it to pick up any sound.

    John Stefano
    4 years ago

    That solved it. Also looked at your video on "Using Keynote to Create Narrated Videos." Very helpful, thanks for the quick response!

    Kido Chang
    3 years ago

    I tried this and works fine until i go backwards. As soon as I go back a slide, then the video stops. Is there a way to keep the video playing no matter which direction you go?

    3 years ago

    Kido: Not that I know of. It just works how it works.

    tim delaney
    3 years ago

    have a Keynote (Mac) slide show with pre-recorded audio track set to automatically change. The first 7 slides work perfectly.
    All Following slides (20 total) will not advance. All are set with one second transitions, and set to "automatic". Have tried adjusting the transition lengths as well as small tweaks to the slide duration. I'm at a loss. Any ideas?

    3 years ago

    Tim: Just a matter of checking everything again. Check the Build Order for each slide and each element in the Build Order.

    tim delaney
    3 years ago

    Thx Gary. I thought that maybe the fact the the one slide that was hanging up was very short in duration( 6 seconds), that using a simple 1 second dissolve was the issue? Nope. Re: your comment on the "build" Order. It's my understanding (and pls correct me), is for moving elements in the slides, title reveals etc. These are just static slides, no reveals etc. Titles on a static background. I've checked and double checked it. The first 7 slides perform perfectly. I'll keep looking

    tim delaney
    3 years ago

    I think I'll delete that troublesome slide and re-generate it and drop it in. I have a scratch copy of the show and I just did the dissolve thing, and that one works. I'll let you know. thx again.

    tim delaney
    3 years ago

    Strange occurance. Removing that specific slide fixes it. I re-built the troublesome slide (new) and dropped it into the sequence. Same problem. Crash. I can edit my audio to fix. Thx Gary.

    Maarif Haque
    3 years ago

    Very helpful video. I discovered more than I was looking for! Thanks.

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