Adding "Sound Effects" to a PowerPoint 2003 presentation

[Karen]

Hello all,

The question I have is that when trying to add sound to my PPT
presentations I get the following message:

"Microsoft PowerPoint can't start "Sound Effects". This feature is not
currently installed. Would you like to install it now?"

I click YES and then I receive the following message:

"Microsoft PowerPoint cannot install the necessary files due to Windows
Installer error 1635."

Has anyone else encountered this error? I'm running Windows XP and
PowerPoint 2003.

Thanks so much!

Karen

P.S. I did run a search on this group for former posts about the same
issue, and it seems that other users had the same problem at one time
(even as far back as 2004), but I wasn't able to find any follow up
posts that indicated the resolution.

 

[Echo S]

How are you trying to insert the sound?

 

[Karen]

Hi Echo,

Thanks for replying. I went to the Slide Transition pane at the right
of the screen and under the Modify transition section, I clicked the
drop down box beside "Sound". It seems to default at no sound, but
there's also quite a few other selections in the list such as:
Applause, Arrow, Bomb, Breeze...etc.

When I choose any one of them, that's when I get the message saying
that they're not available and whether I'd like PPT to install them.

I guess I figured that because they were listed, just like the design
templates and layouts for example, that they'd already be installed in
the program on my computer.

If I do need to install these onto my computer, do you have any
suggestions as to the best place to do so? I've been browsing
Microsoft's web site and I saw one company that seemed to charge about
$3 per sound effect. Does this sound reasonable?

Thanks again...as you can see, I'm a real novice at this.

Karen

P.S. I took a quick view of the front page of your web site. I really
liked it.

 

[Echo S]

Thanks for the clarification, Karen. You haven't done anything wrong, and
typically, I believe these sounds are indeed installed, but for some reason,
they don't seem to be on your machine.

If you let PPT install them as prompted, you should be able to just put your
Office installation CD in and let PPT do its thing to install the sounds.
(Oh, wait. Ignore me. I just finished this post and went back to reread your
original question, and I see you're getting an installer error. I'm terrible
at troubleshooting those -- they're often just because of a mismatch in the
Office and Windows installers or something goofy like that, but they can be
a royal hassle, too. I'll try to dig something up on it, but for now, just
move on to the stuff below -- I think it will resolve your issue.)

If this doesn't work, then to install these, you would go to Start|Control
Panel|Add-Remove Programs. Click on Microsoft Office in the list and choose
Change.

Then click "add or remove features" and click Next. In the next screen,
click "advanced customization" and then Next. (I leave all the checkmarks
alone.)

Now, here's where you can install specific stuff. Click PowerPoint, and
underneath it, set "animation sound effects" to "run all from my computer."
I bet it's set to "installed on first use," which is why PPT is prompting
you to let it install.

If you have the space on your hard drive, you might want to just set
PowerPoint (or even all of Office) to "run all from my computer." That may
make life easier for you in the long run.

If you have problems, holler back. (Glad you liked my site!)

 

[Echo S]

Here are some links to Google Groups threads about this error message. (I
searched on newsgroup microsoft.public.* instead of searching only this
group.) I think the Microsoft KB article and the Windows installer clean-up
thing might both be helpful.

http://tinyurl.com/auxjo

http://tinyurl.com/bamv9 might have some additional options to try if the
stuff listed in the first one doesn't resolve the error message issue.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

Thanks for the clarification, Karen. You haven't done anything wrong, and
typically, I believe these sounds are indeed installed, but for some
reason, they don't seem to be on your machine.

If you let PPT install them as prompted, you should be able to just put
your Office installation CD in and let PPT do its thing to install the
sounds. (Oh, wait. Ignore me. I just finished this post and went back to
reread your original question, and I see you're getting an installer
error. I'm terrible at troubleshooting those -- they're often just because
of a mismatch in the Office and Windows installers or something goofy like
that, but they can be a royal hassle, too. I'll try to dig something up on
it, but for now, just move on to the stuff below -- I think it will
resolve your issue.)

If this doesn't work, then to install these, you would go to Start|Control
Panel|Add-Remove Programs. Click on Microsoft Office in the list and
choose Change.

Then click "add or remove features" and click Next. In the next screen,
click "advanced customization" and then Next. (I leave all the checkmarks
alone.)

Now, here's where you can install specific stuff. Click PowerPoint, and
underneath it, set "animation sound effects" to "run all from my
computer." I bet it's set to "installed on first use," which is why PPT is
prompting you to let it install.

If you have the space on your hard drive, you might want to just set
PowerPoint (or even all of Office) to "run all from my computer." That may
make life easier for you in the long run.

If you have problems, holler back. (Glad you liked my site!)

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

Hi Echo,

Thanks for replying. I went to the Slide Transition pane at the right
of the screen and under the Modify transition section, I clicked the
drop down box beside "Sound". It seems to default at no sound, but
there's also quite a few other selections in the list such as:
Applause, Arrow, Bomb, Breeze...etc.

When I choose any one of them, that's when I get the message saying
that they're not available and whether I'd like PPT to install them.

I guess I figured that because they were listed, just like the design
templates and layouts for example, that they'd already be installed in
the program on my computer.

If I do need to install these onto my computer, do you have any
suggestions as to the best place to do so? I've been browsing
Microsoft's web site and I saw one company that seemed to charge about
$3 per sound effect. Does this sound reasonable?

Thanks again...as you can see, I'm a real novice at this.

Karen

P.S. I took a quick view of the front page of your web site. I really
liked it.

 

[Karen]

Echo, you are so awesome! Thank you!

I was playing around and did manage to get sound effects on my
individual slides by clicking INSERT>Movies and Sounds> Sound From Clip
Organizer...and then in the task pane on the right-hand side, a whole
bunch of sound options suddenly became available. I still can't use
the PPT defaults in the drop-down menu, but at least this is a
workaround that will hopefully get me by for the time being.

Thank you also so VERY much for doing that research about the Windows
Installer Error 1635, because that's become quite an issue for me, not
just in PowerPoint 2003 but in Word 2003 as well. Definitely something
I have to look into and get fixed. I'm going to thoroughly peruse the
links you gave me so I can figure out why my Office 2003 programs don't
seem to be meshing seamlessly with my XP operating system and my HP
hardware.

Best regards and thanks again! You are absolute gold!

Karen

 

[Echo S]

You're welcome, Karen.

You should be able to use the options in the transitions, but if they're
being tempramental, you can choose "other sound" there and navigate to any
WAV.

Good luck with the installer things. If those links don't resolve it, you
might try posting in microsoft.public.office.misc. Mention what all you have
tried already and what happened.