Both tools eliminate repetitive PowerPoint narration work. The difference is where they fit into your production workflow.
Before developing Voxsmith, I was a PPTools Narrator user. Combined with a collection of PowerPoint macros, it was part of my regular production workflow. As my projects grew, I started looking for ways to automate more of the process, particularly narration generation itself. Voxsmith grew out of that experience. In many ways, it builds on the workflow that tools like Narrator helped me establish.
If you’ve ever produced a narrated PowerPoint presentation, you know that recording the audio is only part of the job. There’s recording, editing, exporting, naming files, inserting audio into the correct slides, configuring playback, and making sure everything works as expected. Multiply that by 60 or 90 slides, and you’ve got yourself a project.
Two tools approach this problem from different directions: PPTools Narrator, developed by PowerPoint MVP Steve Rindsberg, and Voxsmith, which I developed at Six Ten Software.
Both automate repetitive work. Both have a place in PowerPoint production. But they’re designed around different approaches to creating narration.
PPTools Narrator: Record your audio, then automate the rest
PPTools Narrator is a PowerPoint add-in designed to simplify the process of adding prerecorded narration to presentations. The workflow is straightforward. Record your narration using your preferred audio software, export the individual audio files, and let Narrator insert them into the appropriate slides. It also configures automatic audio playback and slide advancement.
Narrator offers some particularly useful capabilities, including linking to external audio files instead of embedding them and replacing previously inserted narration after editing or rerecording. For anyone who has manually inserted audio into dozens of slides, that’s a substantial improvement.
And there’s something I particularly appreciate about this approach: you’re free to use whatever recording software you prefer. If you have a good microphone, a comfortable recording environment, and an established audio production workflow, there’s no reason to abandon any of that.
Narrator simply removes the repetitive PowerPoint work at the end.
Voxsmith: Automating narration production itself
Voxsmith approaches the same problem from a different direction. Instead of starting with prerecorded audio, Voxsmith starts with your script.
Write your narration in PowerPoint’s speaker notes, select an ElevenLabs voice, and generate your audio. Voxsmith also attaches that narration directly to your slides while preserving existing animations. There’s no separate recording session, no manually exporting individual audio files, and no inserting narration slide by slide.
Voxsmith also supports Word documents, Markdown, and plain text files, making it useful for narration projects that don’t involve PowerPoint at all.
The idea behind Voxsmith wasn’t to replace the work of a professional voice artist. It was to solve a production problem I kept encountering in Learning and Development. I need to produce large amounts of narrated content, often with tight deadlines and frequent revisions. Recording everything myself was becoming increasingly difficult to sustain.
And while AI narration had become remarkably capable, the process of moving text into a voice-generation service, downloading audio, and inserting it back into PowerPoint introduced an entirely different collection of repetitive tasks.
I wanted to eliminate those tasks, too.
The real difference is where the automation begins
Both applications automate the process of adding narration to PowerPoint. The difference is what happens before that step. With PPTools Narrator, you create the recordings. You control the performance, delivery, pacing, and editing. Once your audio is ready, Narrator handles the repetitive PowerPoint work.
With Voxsmith, you provide the script. ElevenLabs generates the narration, and Voxsmith manages the workflow from script to finished audio and, on Windows, into your presentation, which is a significant distinction when you’re producing training content regularly.
Consider a 90-slide training presentation; With a traditional recording workflow, you’re responsible for recording, reviewing, and editing the narration before importing it. Narrator makes that final import substantially easier, but the recording process still takes time.
With Voxsmith, you can generate the narration directly from your existing speaker notes. You still need to review the results, check pronunciations, and make adjustments, but you’ve eliminated the recording sessions.
And that becomes particularly useful when someone changes the script.
Revisions: The reality of instructional design
Anyone working in corporate training knows that a course isn’t necessarily finished when the narration is recorded. A subject matter expert requests a change. Legal wants different wording. A product name changes. Someone discovers an error during the final review.
With PPTools Narrator, you can rerecord or edit the affected audio and run Narrator again to replace the narration. That’s considerably easier than manually rebuilding the presentation. With Voxsmith, you can update your script and regenerate the affected narration without scheduling another recording session.
Both approaches simplify revisions. Voxsmith also removes the need to record new audio yourself. For organizations maintaining large libraries of training material, eliminating that additional step can make a substantial difference.
When does each approach make sense?
If you prefer recording your own narration, already have an established audio production workflow, or need the delivery and expression of a particular human narrator, PPTools Narrator is worth exploring. It addresses a specific problem without asking you to change the way you produce your audio.
If you’re regularly producing narrated training presentations, working with lengthy scripts, or managing content that changes frequently, Voxsmith offers a different approach. Its advantage is reducing the amount of hands-on production work required before the audio even reaches PowerPoint.
There are cost considerations, too. PPTools Narrator is currently available as a free download, with registration information provided on its website. Voxsmith costs $89 as a one-time purchase. You’ll also need your own ElevenLabs account, and ElevenLabs usage is billed separately according to your plan.
Neither tool eliminates the need for quality assurance. Whether your narration comes from a microphone or an AI voice, someone still needs to listen to it, verify pronunciations, and review the finished presentation.
It’s about the workflow, not the competition
I appreciate tools that solve specific production problems. PPTools Narrator is an excellent example of that philosophy. It addresses one of PowerPoint’s more tedious workflows without trying to become an audio production application.
Voxsmith was born from a similar frustration, but my particular problem was different. I wasn’t just spending too much time inserting audio. I was spending too much time producing it.
If you’re recording your own presentations and need a better way to manage the audio, take a look at PPTools Narrator.
If you’re producing narrated content regularly and want to automate more of the process, take a look at Voxsmith.
Different approaches. Similar frustrations. Less time spent doing repetitive work in PowerPoint.