how can I get sound when reading pps file with keynote

Can you see the sound file on the slide, if you can't, they have not been included.

There are many reasons Keynote will not play media files, therefore there are many ways to solve the problem, a few examples are:

PowerPoint for Windows uses files that only play in windows, they require additional software to make them play on a Mac

incompatible sound files are often striped out of the presentation when converting into Keynote to prevent Keynote from freezing

the sound files have been prevented by the author, not to play

While it is true that Windows media files (*.wma or *.wmv) won't play natively in MacOS X, there is Telestream's Flip4Mac 3.3.5, a free QuickTime component that enables QuickTime to play these Windows media files. Keynote, of course, uses QuickTime. It just doesn't bother to check to see if this component is installed.

In other words, Keynote could play Windows media files where the Flip4Mac QuickTime component is installed but doesn't. So, I can play these files in QuickTime X Player but not in Keynote.

If the PowerPoint file is a *.pptx file (not *.ppt), it may be possible to use an app such as The Unarchiver to unzip the file to a folder that contains the media which you should then be able to play in QuickTime if you have the free Flip4Mac QuickTime component. If you wish to convert that file to a QuickTime compatible format, you'll need to upgrade Flip4Mac for a fee. You may be able to find a free converter. Handbrake comes to mind for *.wmv.

First you need to find out what the filetype is.

If the file is on a slide, click the file on the slide then go to: Inspector > Format > Audio

In the file info box, what is the file name suffix? e.g. ".aif"

If the file is not found on any of the slides, it will not have been included.

This thread piqued my curiosity so I decided to do a little experiment as follows:

1) downloaded this *.pps file which has a sound track: http://download.powershow.com/Jets-and-Im-Alive-P1242959678CukAZ.pps

2) change the suffix from *.pps to *ppt and open in PowerPoint for OS X

3) Save as a *.pptx file

4) Un-zip the *.pptx file (I used The Unarchiver but there are many other tools that do the same thing.)

5) Open the resulting folder and look for audio files.

What I found in ppt/media/ is a file named audio1.bin No other audio files were found.

So my supposition that Keynote simply didn't bother to use the Flip4Mac QuickTime component to render a *.wma audio file was incorrect, at least with respect to soundtracks. AFAIK, this binary file cannot be played by anything other than PowerPoint on OS X and Windows. It seems to be a proprietary format.

Finally, I open the *.pps file in Keynote, save it as a *.key file and unzip that to look for audio files. No audio files were found. Thus, Keynote simply deletes these binary audio files when it converts PowerPoint files. Apple probably would convert the audio file if it could but it can't so it doesn't.

So hearing this audio in Keynote probably isn't going to happen. If you have PowerPoint for OS X, playing it there is the path of least resistance. I did not investigate audio clips so that may be a different story altogether.

OTOH, if you really want that soundtrack in your Keynote copy, do a screen recording that includes the Mac audio and then separate the audio from the video in iMovie. Finally, add the audio soundtrack to your Keynote presentation. Here's a good discussion on how to use QuickTime Player X to capture the audio:

Here's yet another interesting case study. I found a *.ppt file containing a single audio clip which was a *wav file. When I imported it with Keynote, I saw this notification:

Message: The incompatible movie "4.00 Musette.wav" will be converted to ProRez or H.264 so it can play in Keynote for Mac. In Keynote, this file is in a *.mov container encoded as AAC.

I suppose that what I really need to find is a PPT containing a *.wmv or *.wma clip.