[rmccafferty]

I have a powerpoint presentation with music running in the background. In custom animation there is a setting to tell PowerPoint not to show the little megaphone when sound is not playing. I cannot make this icon disappear on all of the pages. (Many of the music files play for a number of slides, using the setting that tells how many slides to run the music file.)

I cannot figure out any consistent pattern for when this icon appears in the middle of a slide. Sometimes in is on the slides where the music file begins, sometimes it is not. Sometimes it is oon the continuation slides, sometimes it is not. I should add that, to eliminate abrupt endings to the music files, we continue a music animation one extra slide so that it overlaps the new music file beginning on that slide. That is, if we have a music animation to be played on slides 1 - 10, then another music animation to play on slides 11 - 20, the first music animation is set to run for 11 slides, not 10, even though the new music animation begins on slide 11. This makes for a pretty good segue of the music. My issue with the megaphone icon does NOT seem to be related to this overlap of music files, but I thought I should mention it.

You just cannot have that stupid megaphone sitting there on a high-end presentation. Anyone know how to make it completely go away and never, ever show up in the slide show?

[JBeaucaire]

When you insert a sound object, and you're sure it's going to stay, a little trick I would recommend is manually moving the icon off the edge of the page so it no longer sits ON slide, but is off to the left.

[rmccafferty]

Well, your great answer sure makes me feel stupid for not thinking of it myself. Thank you very much.

[JBeaucaire]

It's only good if it doesn't create other problems in the future.

Make a note in the slide notes about the sound icon being off to the side.

Also, your mileage may vary on sound clips you start manually, but I believe automatic ones will work just fine.