Need Help for My Son's PowerPoint Presentation (Adding Music)

[Christine]

My son is doing a Titanic PowerPoint presentation for his History class. He wants to add in some instrumental Titanic movie music to the slideshow--he gets extra points for doing this.

So far, he has downloaded the music from Itunes. It downloads as an M4a file; however, some instructions he got on the net said he needed an MP3 file. He changed the file extension to MP3 but it still won't play.

Any advice on how to add this music to his presentation?

Thanks.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I would ask my 12yodd but she isn't up yet. If you don't figure it out or get help soon, I will ask her when she wakes up.

 

[agnes!]

Christine -

My resident expert in all things Powerpoint/videos/computers is at a school function today. I will ask her when she gets home, but it might not be until this evening.

In the meantime, can he find music in another - perhaps simpler - format and try that? (Wouldn't even have to be the music he wants, maybe your system is having a hard time reading the file.) Also, what system & software do you have? I would Google the issues he's having, maybe the real-life fixes are posted somewhere on the Internet.

agnes!
PS - Hahahahahaha, just saw Mystery's response, we're all waiting for our kids to tell us how to make this work!!

 

[Christine]

I have Windows XP and PowerPoint 2007.

No, he doesn't already have the music and can only download it from Itunes.

No worries, he just started the project and has plenty of time; however, he is motivated RIGHT now of course. He did google it but the information did not work. We changed the file name but it still would not play.

 

[Cindy B]

Can't you take it from Itunes and convert it? Then I take it to my desktop and add the files from the desktop to the powerpoint.

Thats what I do anyway.

So he converted it to MP3 and it still doesn't play. Did he buy that directly from the Itunes store? If he did, the Itunes stores has/had DMR encoding on the music. He has to strip the DMR to make it work.

 

[SueM in MN]

It won't work with the file he has. The program is saying it needs a file that is in the MP3 format.
Changing the file extension doesn't change the way the file is formatted. He either needs re-format the file to MP3 or he needs to find another file that is already in that format.

 

[SueM in MN]

So he converted it to MP3 and it still doesn't play. Did he buy that directly from the Itunes store? If he did, the Itunes stores has/had DMR encoding on the music. He has to strip the DMR to make it work.

Changing the extension doesn't change the way the file was saved.
So, when he changed the extension, he didn't really change anything.
Sort of like changing the extension on a Word file to the PowerPoint extension doesn't make it a file that PowerPoint can read. That just makes it a Word file that the computer doesn't know how to read.

The M4a file he has is a protected file and it won't allow you to convert it in iTunes. I would try burning that file onto a disc. It should either automatically burn it as an MP3 file or give you the option of what type of file you want to burn it as. After you have done that, you should be able to open the disc, save the song in MP3 format to your desktop and use it.

Check on your version of PowerPoint what type of file it needs. I can't remember the version I have at work, but it would not do MP3, it would only do a Windows Audio file (you should be able to find that out in the help menu). My home computer is a Mac and has a Mac version of Powerpoint, so I can't really look at anything else on Powerpoint to help you.

 

[Christine]

Thanks, we will give your suggestion of burning to a CD a try.

 

[Carl]

Actually, if you recently downloaded the tune from iTunes, it is no longer protected. (Apple stopped using DRM.) In the iTunes program there is an option to convert the file to mp3. It's under "Advanced" menu. Try that. If that option is grayed out, it is a protected file.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Export iTunes file to a CD. Then import back (sounds crazy, I know) from the CD back to ITunes as an Mp3. Go to Edit>Preferences>General>Import Settings>Import Using. Once imported back, you should be able to go to your Windows Explorer or wherever you look at your hard drive and check in the iTunes folder. I have done that for many of the music pieces I have posted here on the DIS.