animatedgirlreading.gif (5336 bytes)Making Talking Books with Microsoft Publisher

Presented by Jan Ross, Library Media Specialist

Dixie Elementary Magnet School

Open Microsoft Publisher.  Choose Blank Publications. Create your first page with all the items you want on each page, like your arrows to turn the pages, etc. To add a link to the next page in your book, copy and paste an arrow. Highlight the arrow and click Insert/Hyperlink/Place in this Document/Next Page/OK. You can make a Back link the same way. If you do this on the first page before you insert the other pages, it will appear on each page.

 

Then, click on Insert, Page, and insert as many pages as you need. You can always add or delete some later. When you insert the pages, choose "duplicate all objects" on page 1 and you won't have to cut and paste.

 

There are two ways to put pictures in your book: To put in clipart, click on the cartoon face in the toolbar, draw a box and the clipart gallery should open.  Choose clipart from the gallery or choose clips online if you have access to the Internet.  If you want to use a picture you have in a file, click on the landscape, draw a box, then click on insert up on the toolbar and insert your picture.

 

To add text, click on the A button the toolbar, draw a box and type.  You can change the color and size the same way you would in Word.

 

Now, go back and create your cover. Insert a page before all the others. To add a title for the page click on the WA (word art) button and draw a box for your title. Type your title then change the shape, etc. To make the background interesting, click on the paint can, choose fill effects and choose an interesting effect.

 

Check that the link works and your GIF animates. Click on File/Web Page Preview.

 

To add background sounds:

When you add a background sound in Publisher, it plays when you view your Web page in a browser. The background sound will not play within Publisher.

  1. Go to the page where you want to add a background sound.
  2. On the Tools menu, click Options.
  3. Click the General tab.
  4. Click Web Options.
  5. Do one of the following:
    • Under Background sound, in the File name box, enter the path of a sound file.
    • To browse for a background sound, click Browse, and then click the sound file you want.
  6. Under Background sound, click the option you want:
    • To have the sound play continuously, click Loop forever.
    • To have your background sound play a specific number of times, click Loop,  and then type a number in the box.

To add voice: Use your computer microphone.  Just click on start/find and type sound.  A shortcut for your sound recorder should appear; drag this to your desktop.  This works just like a tape recorder.  Record your voice and save the file, then add to the page.

 

Make sure you make a hyperlink from the last page back to the first.  To save, make sure you save as a Publisher file first, then choose Save as a Web Page.  If you do not save as a Publisher file, you can not make any changes because your file is a web page.

 

To make a link to your web page document, make a link to Page 1. The other links will automatically be linked. To put your web page into Front Page, just import the whole folder that was created when you saved it as a web page. Then, link to Page 1 to create your hyperlink to the book.

 

Thanks to: Debbie Illingworth (http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/ict/talkingbook.htm) for this idea.

Making Talking Books Using Microsoft Publisher