Adding audio to a keynote presentation

you can't. The audio controls in Keynote are badly lacking.

Have you looked at Fotomagico for doing slide shows instead of Keynote?

Keynote was originally created for giving presentations, so they skimped on the audio. Remember it's only at version 3 (what version is ppt at now and the PC version is only JUST getting soft shadows!). PPT is great at some things, and really lousy at others.

I still recommend something like fotomagico. It does pan and zoom, has transitions, some text tools, and an audio timeline. I don't think it can do audio cross fades, but it does do fade outs if you pull a song shorter than its normal length.

It looks as if fades for audio have at least been considered for Keynote. Its help returns the following advice:

"Tip: To have more control over when sound on a slide starts and stops, select the sound file on the slide and give it a build effect using the Build Inspector."

However, the Build Inspector includes no such tools for sound files (I'm using version 3.02). Perhaps this is intended for a future release. Pity, as it's something I need, too. My solution will simply be to create a few faded sound files, using Audacity.

I think that statement in the documentation refers to when a sound file will be started, and not with editing aspects of the sound. Using a build will indeed let you specify when a sound file starts to play, it just will not let you specify where in that sound file it starts playing.

Hi. I don't know if this would work. Can you adjust the music's fade in Garage Band and then export it to Keynote?

Probably. The point is, you have to go outside Keynote in order to adjust a fadein/out. Audacity is somewhat simpler to use than GarageBand and has a good automatic fadeout feature.

The only way I could get a series of tunes in my slide show was by lining up the songs I wanted in itunes and deleteing everything else. There still were time gaps between songs. I need advice on how to make a DVD of the slide show. I can get the slide on DVD but there is not sound. Anybody been successful? thanks

Hi, everybody!
I have a keynote presentation with 35 slides, transitions, effects and a soundtrack made in garage band. I can share the presentation with more people, included people who work with PC (if I export the presentation as an interactive presentation of Qt) , but there is no audio. I've tried everything: exporting it to iDVD, to iMovie (but the quality of the presentation is really lower in comparison to the original in Keynote...), exporting it as a ppt file to Neoffice to add the sound and re-exporting it to Keynote again... (Of course I did not forget to keep in the same folder the soundtrack, the presentation, the pictures, everyting together) And it did not work. So, I have a beautiful interactive presentation to share with all my friends but muted... Keynote looks a pretty cool aplication but there is a level where many simple things are not possible to do. Too many expectations frustated. I hope in Apple they will do something in a very near future. This aplication should be a free doownload beta version. Too many people disappointed...Any suggestions for me and my presentation???
Thanks,
m.

macbook Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Ok, I have good news. I got the sound for the presentation as an interactive Qt to share it with the rest of the world. It seems you need to have quick time install in the computer, and that is all. I was trying to share the presentation with a PC through VCL and so the sound was lost (I don´t know why).
Thanks,
m.

I just gave a soud/synchronised keynote presentation in Portand to a large audience.
I built the presentation in 4 sections, each section about 7-10 minutes long.
I used Roxio's Jam and Toast to create sound tracks then matched the slides and transitions to the soundtracks. A few good programs to consider in addition to Toast are MP3 Trimmer (to cut the delays between tracks) and Audacity for more control over the audio transitions.

Keynote is awesome in so many ways with the wealth of cool effects and transitions that I kept with it even though frustrating in so many other ways.

Gradually I am putting the 4 sections together to a main score built in Toast but it takes a lot of time and patience to make even minor changes, running the whole program through to get it down right. I hear the music over and over in my head at night which does suck...

One problem that is a major high-suckage, is that various machines have different audio codecs / chips depending on sound cards. I built my entire production on my new Mac Quad Quad with 8 gigs of Ram and when I tried playing it on my G4 Mac Powerbook the show was between 3-7 slides behind the music score. Bigtime suckage. I tried a Firewire 800 external dirve and still no soap. Then I tried in on my G5 2 Ghz machine with 8 gigs of Ram and still the same 3-5 slide lag compared to the audio score.

I eneded up shipping my Quad Quad out to Portland and playing the entire presentation (over 500 images) and about 45 minutes in total with the many sections. The Quad X4 performed flawlessly, and I had the sections que'd up ready to go and had a black screen on the second monitor (the DVI Projector) and it all worked great much to my surprise, as I toggled the sound up and down via the keyboard.

I hope Keynote will eventually include Time Base corrections because the transitions and fades are among the best in the biz. Soooo frustrating at times to work with, but boy howdy, with the right high priced gear and plenty of crazy time to work on the presentation it can be awesome - just unbelievably awesome.

Try Mp3 Trimmer, Toast (or Jam) and Audacity for buildiing your scores. I didn't like GarageBand but I guess it would work. i-Movie just didn't do the same effects that keynote does, for me, and was a bigger learning curve then how quickly Keynote let me get on board.

Best wishes - if you build it they will come...

/\rt

Greetings, /rt:
Thank you, my presentations are simpler than yours...But anyway, thank you so much for the information, I will keep it on mind...(or I will print it). Yeah, I agree, the effects and transitions of Keynote are great and the price is really good... I hope many things will be better in the next version. Because after all I want to continue my work with it instead of doing it with Power Point. I have Audacity but I have never worked with it yet, I will try it...Thank you again for your response and your helpful information.
Regards,
m.

I have done this several times with IMovie, creating and then exporting an aiff sound file with multiple songs to Itunes to import into Keynote. It is about a 4-step process.

Create your slideshow with KN. If you have transition themes (i.e. 20 slides of baby/toddler pics, 20 slides of elementary school, 20 slides of H.S. etc, and you want different music for each theme, then manually (with a stop watch with split times) time the exact timing for each transition.

Assuming you have some familiarity with IMovie, create a new project (you may have to insert a few unrelated pictures in to start the project, in order to use songs you have purchased with Itunes - at least that is what worked for me) and then insert your audio files from ITunes or from the IMovie sound effects. Place them in order using the bottom two rows and adjust the clip volume levels so that the songs fade in and out and at the approximate times necessary (based on the split times you have written down). Once complete practice your timings by starting the imovie sound track and keynote slideshow simultaneously and see how things look and sound.

Make adjustments accordingly.

Once you are ready to export it from IMovie: Share Menu> Share (Compress movie for "expert Settings") > Share> Save as: "Your Slideshow title" (Export Sound to Aiff, use Default Settings) to your music folder in Itunes. Drag it into your itunes library.

Then open your Keynote slideshow, open the inspector, open document (top left icon) and drag your soundtrack into the audio window from your itunes library.

This has worked for me everytime. Hope this helps.

Is there a way to link two keynote slide presentations together so that I can get 2 separate audio files running on presentation A and a different one on presentation B....Can this be done with hyperlink?????

What you want to do can indeed be done with hyperlinks. Just put a hyperlink at the end of the first presentation pointing to the second. You can even cover the last slide in a transparent shape as a "button" for the hyperlink, so you don't even need a visible target. Do note, however, that you cannot get an automatic transition between the two presentations -- you will have to manually click to go from one to the other. Also note that the transition is much smoother if the second presentation is already opened.