How to record narration in your Keynote presentation

Record Narration in Keynote on Mac

If you’re making a presentation that you want to add narration to, Keynote on Mac gives you tools to do it. You may have a slideshow that’s a tutorial or one that you just want to spend time explaining as you play it.

In this how-to, we’ll show you how to record narration in your Keynote presentation.

Record your narration in Keynote

Open your slideshow in Keynote on your Mac and then follow these steps to record your narration.

1) Click the Document button on the top right of the window.

2) Select the Audio tab and click Record.

Document Record Keynote Mac

3) Your presentation will open in a new, full screen window. At the bottom are the controls for recording. Hit the red Record button to start recording and again when you want to stop.

Record Narration Keynote Mac

If you want to record narration for each slide, you can open Show Navigator on the top left. Click a slide and speak to record, then click the next slide and continue speaking. You do not have to pause between slides, unless you need to.

You’ll notice that before you start recording and when you finish, a green bar will display across the top of the window. During your recording, that bar will turn red. This is a clear indicator if you’re recording or not.

Recording Indicators Keynote Mac

4) When you finish recording, hit the red Record button to stop. Then, close the window and save the recording by pressing the Escape key.

5) Back in the Keynote window, you’ll see in the sidebar in the right that you have a recording. To play it, click the Play button in the toolbar.

You’ll notice two options: Play on This Mac and Play Recorded Slideshow. Obviously, you’ll pick the second one so you can hear your narration. The first option will only play the visual slideshow (without the narration).

Play Recorded Slideshow Keynote Mac

Remember this when it’s time to play the presentation that includes the audio you record.

Rerecording or removing your narration

Once you record narration for your presentation, there’s currently no way to “edit” it other than rerecording it or removing it.

To rerecord your narration, follow the same steps as above. The new recording will automatically replace the old one.

To remove your narration, simply click the Clear button below it in the sidebar on the right and then confirm this action in the pop-up by clicking Clear.

Rerecord Clear Narration Keynote Mac

Wrapping it up

Recording your own narration might be just the addition you need to complete your presentation. And remember, you can record other types of audio and add it to individual slides too. Check out our tutorial for recording audio in Keynote, Pages, and Numbers.

What are your thoughts on this feature in Keynote? Are you going to try it out for your next slideshow? Let us know!