# Powerpoint 2002: How can I play a song throughout a presentation? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 22, 2005, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerpoint-2002-how-can-i-play-a-song-throughout-a-presentation/318082 "2005-08-22T06:04:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2005, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerpoint-2002-how-can-i-play-a-song-throughout-a-presentation/318082/1 "2005-08-22T06:04:45Z")
How do I get Powerpoint 2002 to play a single song throughout a presentation, and have automated slide transitions that take place while the song is still playing? When I try to do this, Powerpoint seems to postpone the slide transition until the song is completely finished. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2005, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerpoint-2002-how-can-i-play-a-song-throughout-a-presentation/318082/2 "2005-08-22T07:08:10Z")
I don’t know if there’s a better way, but here’s how I did it in Powerpoint 2003 (hopefully 2002 is the same): [ol] [li]Add a sound to one of the slides as you normally would.[/li][li]Right-click on the speaker icon for the sound and choose **Custom Animation** [/li][li]The Custom Animation task pane should open on the right side of your screen. Within it, you should see an entry for your particular sound effect – it’ll have either a clock icon (if you have the sound set to start automatically) or a mouse icon (if you have the sound set to start on click).[/li] Anyway, click the dropdown arrow for that entry and choose **Effect Options**. [li]Change the **Stop Playing** setting to **After (999) slides**.[/li][/ol] That should work unless you have a presentation longer than 999 slides. And if you do, there’s probably not going to be anyone left awake to notice the missing background music … ---
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2005, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerpoint-2002-how-can-i-play-a-song-throughout-a-presentation/318082/3 "2005-08-22T18:45:33Z")
yeah, I got that to work in Powerpoint 2003, which is the one on my work computer, but I can’t get that to work in Powerpoint 2002 on my home computer. I wonder if there’s a bug??