Turn a slide presentation into a video recording that has narration. You record the presentation in PowerPoint and then share it with your audience, who can watch it as a PowerPoint Show or as a video. Some educators use recorded lessons as part of a flipped classroom.

When you have created a recording of your PowerPoint presentation, you upload the video recording of the presentation to a video-type assignment in eWānanga: Submit a video assignment

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The Recording tab introduced in PowerPoint 2016 gives you this ability and goes even further with more interactive elements—like quizzes—to include in a presentation.  Your interactive video can contain:

  • Audio narration

  • Video narration (only in PowerPoint 2019 or PowerPoint for Office 365)

  • Screen recordings that show actions you take on your computer

  • Forms and quizzes (only in PowerPoint for Office 365 for organizations)

  • Embedded videos

  • Real-time digital inking (only in PowerPoint 2019 or PowerPoint for Office 365)

These features are embedded into the recorded presentation. As the author, you can preview your recording by using Slide Show, which is the same way that viewers will experience the presentation.

The Recording tab gives you an easy way to insert any of these features from one place. But the tab isn't automatically turned on. Turn it on as illustrated here:

Step 1 File > Options > Customize Ribbon

Step 2 Main Tabs > select Recording > click OK

Step 3 The Recording tab looks like this:

How you can use recordings

Training videos   Many organizations that require a group to take required training often create custom solutions to host training videos, quiz viewers on the content, and track who completed the training successfully. You can record training videos like that in PowerPoint 2016.

Online Learning   Recordings play on any platform and device that can open a browser. Recipients not only see a slide presentation that they may have missed when it was presented in person, but they also hear the accompanying narration.

Non-linear viewing   Viewers can easily jump to particular segments of the presentation by using Slide Sorter view, which shows thumbnail-sized images of each segment.

Extra recording features in PowerPoint 2019 and PowerPoint for Office 365

These most recent versions of PowerPoint have a Recording window with the following features available while they record a presentation.

  • Record, Stop, and Start Preview buttons at the upper left.

  • A button for showing speaker notes. The notes are visible to you, but aren't visible in the recording.

  • Clear commands for deleting recordings.

  • Settings commands for hardware (microphones, cameras) connected to your device.

  • The current slide, with Back and Forward arrows on its left and right margins.

  • Two timers: The left timer shows the time spent on the current slide. The right timer shows the cumulative recorded time for the entire presentation.

  • Ink drawing tools located below the current slide: An eraser, a pen, and a highlighter, plus a color palette.

  • Toggle controls for the microphone, camera, and camera preview.

    (Optional) A camera preview window appears in the lower right-hand corner of the window when the camera and camera preview are both turned on. (If you don't want to record video narration, you can turn the camera off.)