Assigning Overall Audio Files to the Slideshow
You can assign one or more audio files to a slideshow as overall audio files. This allows
you to have audio files that are not specific to a single slide. When you assign overall
audio to the slideshow, you can choose whether the slide or audio durations determine
the slideshow’s duration.
To assign overall audio files to a slideshow
1
Select the audio file or files in the Assets tab, the Palette, or a Finder window.
2
Do one of the following:
• Drag the file or files to the audio well in the Slideshow Editor.
Drag one or more audio
files to this location.
The audio well shows how many overall audio files are assigned to the slideshow.
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• Drag the file or files to the Audio section in the Slideshow Inspector’s General tab.
3
Do one of the following to choose one of the two Slideshow Duration options:
• Choose Fit To Audio, Fit To Slides, or Fit To Slides and Loop Audio from the Slideshow
Editor’s Settings pop-up menu.
Choose a Slideshow
Duration setting.
• Select either Fit To Slides or Fit To Audio in the Slideshow Inspector’s General tab. If
you select Fit To Slides, you can also select the Loop Audio checkbox.
Use Fit To Audio to calculate a slide duration value that is applied to all slides, based
on the length of the audio file. The duration ensures the slides and the audio finish at
the same time and that all slides appear for the same amount of time.
There are several things to be aware of when using Fit To Audio:
• Each slide’s duration automatically updates if you add or remove slides or overall
audio files in the slideshow.
• Using a short audio file with Fit To Audio can cause the audio to finish before the
slides, because the slides cannot be set to durations shorter than their minimum
duration (15 frames for NTSC or 12 frames for PAL projects). The minimum duration
for the slides increases when one or more of them uses transitions.
• All slide duration controls are disabled when Fit To Audio is selected.
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Use Fit To Slides to leave each slide’s duration as is. When the slideshow is played, most
likely the audio will not finish at the same time that the slides finish appearing.
• If the slides finish first: The audio is clipped off. (The Loop Audio setting has no effect.)
• If the audio finishes first: The slides continue playing in silence. With Loop Audio
selected, the audio loops back to its beginning and continues playing if it reaches
its end before the slides.
4
Select the first slide and press the Space bar to play the slideshow with its audio.
Important:
Adding an overall audio file automatically removes any audio files assigned
to individual slides. As long as there is an overall audio file assigned to the slideshow,
you cannot add audio files directly to slides.
To change the assigned audio files using the Slideshow Inspector
Do one of the following:
µ
Select one or more existing files and press Delete to remove them from the slideshow.
µ
Drag an existing audio file to a new location in the list to change its order.
µ
Drag one or more new audio files to the list to add them to the slideshow.
You can also drag additional audio files to the audio well in the Slideshow Editor to add
them to the end of the list.