PowerPoint allows users to insert audio files in their presentations. If you’re wanting to use only part of a song instead of the entire track, there’s a way. Here’s how to add a section of a song to your presentation.

Essentially what you’re doing is trimming out the audio you don’t want to play after you insert the audio track. That said, you need to insert the audio before you’re able to make any modifications.

Related: How to Add Music to Your PowerPoint Presentation

To insert the audio, open your PowerPoint presentation and then select “Audio” in the “Media” section of the “Insert” tab. Once selected, a drop-down menu will appear. Here, select the “Audio on My PC" option.

Add audio from PC

Once selected, Windows Explorer (Finder for Mac) will open. Navigate to the location of the audio file, select it, and then select the “Insert" button.

Select audio file

The audio file will now be inserted, appearing as a megaphone icon.

Megaphone

Selecting the icon will make two new tabs appear: the “Audio Format” tab and the “Playback” tab. Select the “Playback” tab.

Select playback tab

Now, in the “Editing” group, select the “Trim Audio" button.

Trim audio option

The “Trim Audio” dialogue box will appear. Here, you can select the start and end time of the audio track. To set the start time, click and drag the green bar to the desired timestamp. Do the same with the red bar to set the end time.

Alternatively, you can adjust the time in the respective boxes below the time bar. Once you’ve set the start and end times, select the “OK” button.

Trim audio GIF

The issue we face now is how abruptly the audio will start and stop. In the “Editing” group of the ribbon, you can adjust the fade in and out times by entering the respective amount of time you’d like the effect to take place.

Fade in and out

Now, when you play your audio during the presentation, it will play only the selected part of the track with a smooth entrance and exit.