Sound Across Specific Slides in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

After adding an audio/sound track to your PowerPoint presentation, you can let the inserted audio span across all your slides in your presentation by selecting the Play across slides option. This is done when you need the same music playing through all your slides. But what if you want the music to play only across some successive slides? What if you want the music to play from slide 1 to 12, and let all slides thereafter play without any music? Or you may want to add another audio clip for the next set of slides? Either way, it is possible to limit the number of slides that your music will play across.

Follow these steps to stop your music after specific number of slides in PowerPoint 2011:

1. We assume you have already added a music clip and set it to play across slides. In that case, proceed straightaway to Step 4 of this tutorial. If not, first insert the audio clip on the slide from which you want the music to start playing.
2. Now, select the music icon so that you can see the contextual Format Audio tab (highlighted in red within Figure 1) in the Ribbon -- click this tab to activate it, as shown in Figure 1. Within the Format Audio tab, click the Start button (highlighted in blue within Figure 1).
3. 
   Figure 1: Format Audio tab selected within the Ribbon
3. This opens the Start drop-down menu, as shown in Figure 2 -- select the Play Across Slides option as shown in Figure 2.
4. 
   Figure 2: Play Across Slides option selected
4. Now click the Playback Options button (highlighted in red within Figure 2, above) to bring up a drop-down menu. Within this drop-down menu, select both the Hide Icon During Show and Loop Until Stopped options (highlighted in red within Figure 3).
5. 
   Figure 3: Hide Icon During Show and Loop Until Stopped options selected
5. Now click the Toolbox button (highlighted in red within Figure 4) within the Standard Toolbar. This bring up the Toolbox, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 4 -- select the Custom Animation tab, as shown highlighted in green, within Figure 4.
6. 
   Figure 4: Custom Animation tab selected
Tip: Want to learn more about the options within the Custom Animation tab of the Toolbox? Refer to our Toolbox - Custom Animation Tab in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac tutorial.
6. Within the Custom Animation tab of the Toolbox, you will see an animation associated with your audio clip (highlighted in red within Figure 5). Select this animation to enable the additional Toolbox sections and options, as shown highlighted in blue, within Figure 5.
7. 
   Figure 5: Animation associated with the audio clip selected
7. Click on Media Options (highlighted in red within Figure 6) to access the options within, as shown in Figure 6. Locate the After radio button that may show a value of 999 slides, (highlighted in blue, within Figure 6).
8. 
   Figure 6: Do you want the music to span 999 slides?
Tip: Why does the After option shows 999 slides? That's because 999 is the largest number that PowerPoint can accept for spanning audio clips across slides, and Play Across Slides option that we chose earlier (see Figure 2, shown earlier on this page) caused the After option to populate with the number, 999.
8. Now, change the value from 999 to the number of slides after which you want the music to stop. For example, you may want the audio clip to only play for 12 consecutive slides -- in that case, replace 999 with 12.
Tip: If you want your first music clip to play for slides 1 to 12, and then start another music clip on slide 13 that plays for several more consecutive slides, go ahead and add a new audio clip on slide 13. Thereafter bring up the Media Options section for this audio clip, as shown in Figure 6, above -- type in the number of slides you want this new audio clip to span in the After box.
9. Make sure you save your presentation often.