This is a topic that comes up a lot, with my clients and on the PPT newsgroup.
Basically, only the .wav audio format can be embedded into a PowerPoint presentation. This means the audio file goes with the presentation and nothing but the presentation needs to be distributed. All other audio formats need to be sent along with the presentation for them to work – they are linked.
There is one exception, but it has a number of other issues, and this .swf files. A .swf is a legacy Flash file and it can be embedded into a presentation. As a side note, a .swf is really a .mp3 embedded in a .swf file format.
To give a visual behind this I created a simple 3 slide presentation.
– Slide 1 = embedded .wav
– Slide 2 = linked .mp3
– slide 3 = embedded .swf
You can download it here – 1MB
– Troy @ TLC