No Sound on Interactive Keynote Widget?

Could someone can tell me if sound objects work in their Keynote widgets? That would really help me determine if I'm doing something wrong, or if I have run into a bug or inherent limitation with iBooks Author.

Apple seems to indicate that some audio should work in the Keynote widget (iBooks Author: About the Keynote widget - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5067). The mentioned support file indicates that just recorded narration does not work.

Keynote files can contain media—such as images, movies, and audio—but don’t use a Keynote file just to add media to your book. Instead, use a Media widget or drag media directly to a book page.

Has anyone used a keynote widget with audio included in the builds? I would really apreciate it if they could tell me if the sound worked for them.

Thanks for the reply! I have been hoping some one would give me any kind of idea. I feel pretty stumped, and yet the documentation seems to indicate it should work. I will try right now.

Tried it. The Media widget won't take the keynote presentation. iBooks Author just creates a new Keynote widget on top of the blank Media widget. And of course, the sound builds in the keynote widget still dont work when I preview the book.

Thanks any way! At least you helped me eliminate a possibility.

Have you ever used a keynote widget with sound yourself? If someone else has tries it with success then it may be worth struggling with this. If it doesn't work for others, then maybe it is a bug / limitation of the iBooks Author app, (or Mavericks iBook app).

Maybe sound files in keynote widgets aren't that popular. Especially considering that this thread has thus far only drawn 1 person who tried to help.

I am trying to use an interactive Keynote widget as a way to improve the efectiveness of a book to teach English as a second language, so sound is critical to the success. Thanks again!

Thanks vinnyvg for offering the suggestion! I appreciate your input, especially since I've seen you have been able to help a lot of others on here.

I'm sure that could be an option as I am succesfully using media widgets elswhere in the book. Unfortunately that doesn't allow me to do what I want to accomplish since the keynote widget is the interactive type: The user clicks on a button to go to the next slide which plays a new sound and gives new choices. It is basicly a Multi-Media quiz where the student hears the vocabulary and sees the image and then decides if it is correctly pronounced. A visible cue shows if his answer was correct, it jumps to the next slide, and he hears the next sound together with the image.

The whole thing works marvelously in the Keynote Widget, except the sound. I would be inclined to think it is an inherent limitation in the keynote widget and just move on to some other strategy, but Apple's iWork Author documentation seems to indicate sound files should play in the keynote widget, just not recorded narration

(iBooks Author: About the Keynote widget - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5067).

I wish one other person could tell me, "yes, i have sound in a keynote widget" or "no, it won't work for me either" so that I will know if the problem is with me or my system, or if it is an inherent problem with the app. Then I would know whether to just ditch the idea or not.

Thanks Kathy for your input.

A couple of questions for you that may help us see if this is an inherent flaw, or a resolvable issue:

Is the sound in your keynote widget from sound objects (like the one shown below)?

Or is the sound in your keynote widget recorded narration (made using the interface shown below)?

Also if the sound comes from sound objects, what is the format of the audio source file used in keynote (and the other audio files you are using in your iBook)? MP3, M4A, OGG, etc?

Knowing the answer to these questions may help either or both of us.

That being the case, Apple has stated that recorded narration will not work in the keynote widget (see iBooks Author: About the Keynote widget - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5067).

Self-Playing and Recorded presentations

Self-Playing presentations and Recorded presentations with voiceover narration may not work as expected. Readers will be able to view and manually advance your presentation, but recorded narration and timings won’t be available.

The same article seems to indicate that some audio files should work in the widget, evidently as sound objects.

Keynote files can contain media—such as images, movies, and audio—but don’t use a Keynote file just to add media to your book.

I haven't been able to figure out how to get it to work yet though. If we can figure out how to get sound objects to work you could still put the audio in your widget, just break it up into a seperate sound file for each slide, and advance to next slide on click. Someone would have to figure out how to get the sound objects to play like they should though...

With regard to the other audio files: That is weird that Apple told you to use .m4p format for audio. Their online documentation says to use m4a. The following is an excerpt from iBooks Author: supported file formats - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2838.

Video and audio files: M4V, M4A

Note: For the Media widget, you can add a video file or an audio file (in a format QuickTime supports) to your book. You can convert other types of files using iMovie, QuickTime Player, or Compressor. For the HTML widget, the suggested file formats are MP4 video files and M4A audio files.

Either the tech who emailed you saying to use .m4p is mixed up, or their online documentation is wrong.

Please let us know if changing to m4p works for you. That may help others out.

What are you using to convert to .m4p?