OK, so we want to now allow ourselves to record in full quality and then export to a compressed file format that is easy to upload to the Portfolio Tool.

.WAV which is the default (uncompressed) type that Windows and FirstClass will record as (and then export to) is just way to bulky to handle and we need to now use Audacity as an MP3 export tool.
The software doesn't come with the plug-in, so you'll need to download a small zip file from a site. Audacity give instructions for this here, or if you want less lassle and you're on a PC running Windows, I have it zipped here. (Just right mouse click and save as).
The small file inside the zip is called "lame_enc.dll" - this just needs to be put into a location that Audacity can reference (and remember) I'd suggest you pop it into the plugins folder within the main app folder - in my case this is it's location. Basically a drag and drop procedure.

C:\Program Files\Audacity\Plug-Ins

Once you have done this, you're ready to start

Examples of how effective it is

Just to see how much compression really matters and can be done, particularly on dialogue, I've included this short (1min 40seconds) section of speech which in its .wav format takes a whopping 4.2MB. And it's only 1min 40seconds !!!

If your on dial-up and not broadband, I'd suggest you don't click the link or you may be there all night - here it is. You might recognise where it came from :o)

Now the same audio section compressed using an mp3 compression setting of 32kbps - here it is - notice any difference? Not much, except that the file size is now shrunk very neatly to 398k - less than 1/10th of the size ! Pretty neat considering you don't really hear much loss in quality - well there is a small amount, but our ears don't really notice it - this is how mp3 compression works, by cleverly throwing away all the bits we wouldn't actually hear and it is particularly good on complex sounds like voice.

So - how's it done ?

The 'prefs' of Audacity are important to get right. Make sure you set the .mp3 export to a setting similar to this. 32 should still allow enough detail to hear the dialogue or narrative. Music is more complex and needs a higher setting, but for now we can use 32 for vocals

Open up a file to convert - you should see something like this.
This is a stereo file (note the two channels and twin tracks) your dialogue will be a mono track.

Go to -> file -> export as .mp3

..and then just choose a file name and save it in the folder with your ppt and any other sound files attributed to the powerpoint