This is a guide on how to record a greeting message and/or informational announcement for a group or departmental phone number. Once the recording has been completed and saved to your computer, it will need to be emailed to the ITS Help Desk at helpdesk@bethel.edu.

As a courtesy to the ITS staff uploading the file(s), please try to email ITS the audio file with a minimum of 1 business day in advance of when the audio needs to to be activated, but an advance of 3-5 business days is appreciated!

When emailing, please include details such as:

• What phone number the audio needs to be uploaded to.
• What type of message(s) need to be set. There are many types of messages, which include Busy Greeting, No Answer Greeting, Entrance Message, Comfort Message, auto attendant menu option, etc.
• If after uploading and saving, whether the message can be left as the current message for the foreseeable future or if there is a date and time the message should be removed and reverted to the previous greeting message.

Step-by-Step Guide

The below steps are written under the recommendation that these steps are being followed from a computer. If you know of a method for recording an audio greeting from a mobile phone that also saves the audio file in a convertible format (preferably .wav, but .mp3 or potentially other common formats may also work), you are welcome to attempt to do so.

Depending on which type of computer you are using (Mac or PC), the below steps will differ. Please follow the steps related to your computer type.

PC

If you don’t have a microphone built into your computer (typically only applies if you are working from a desktop PC, laptops should have a built-in microphone), connect one before you open the Voice Recorder app.

To make sure the correct microphone is set as the default recording device, select the Start Menu icon (Microsoft Windows logo), then select Settings (represented as a gear-shaped icon).

In the Windows Settings search box, type Sound and press Enter. In the search results, select Sound Settings.

In the Input section, use the input device drop-down menu to choose your microphone, then close the Settings window.

Now that the correct microphone is set, click the Start Menu in the bottom-left of your screen and type "voice recorder". The Best Match should appear with an application titled Voice Recorder, which comes pre-installed with Windows and can be used to record audio directly from your computer's microphone. It also has a low-feature editor you can use to trim unwanted bits from the start and end of the recording. Open this application.

Select the Record icon on the left side of the screen to begin recording. Note: In some versions of Voice Recorder, the Record icon may shift to the middle of the window when you first open it or if you haven't previously made any voice recordings. Once you have created recordings, the Record icon appears on the left side of the screen.

While you’re recording, you can select the Pause icon to temporarily hold recording, then select Pause a second time to continue, recording to the same file.

When you’re done, select the Stop icon.

After your recording is done, you can select the recording file, then select the Play icon to hear it played back.

If you want to trim the start and end of the audio, select the Trim icon at the bottom of the window.

Drag the start and end bars until you've edited the audio. Select the Play icon to hear your revised start and end points. When you're satisfied, select the Save icon and choose if you want to save the current file or create a new copy.

To find the MP3 file on your computer’s hard drive, right-click the file and choose Open File Location.

Once the file has been saved, please follow the instructions at the top of this article to email the audio file to the ITS Help Desk with the necessary details. ITS staff can handle the conversion of the file from .mp3 type to .wav type to upload into the phone vendor's system.

Windows 10 instructions were pulled from Lifewire article, "How to Record Audio on Windows 10".

Mac

Click the Finder application icon along your menu bar to open the file window.

Once open, locate the tab in the top-left of the screen titled Go and click this. Within the Go menu drop-down list, click the Applications option.

The Finder window should change to show a full list of your installed applications. Within this list, locate the application titled QuickTime Player, which has the icon of a silver Q on a black background. Open this application.

Alternatively, press the command & space keys at the same time while on any screen and a search window will open. Within the Spotlight Search bar, type "QuickTime" and the best match should auto-fill as the QuickTime Player application.

Now that you have the QuickTime application open, click File > New Audio Recording.

Click the red circle in the middle.

Click the gray square to stop recording.

Click File > Save to choose a name for the recording and where you want to save it.

The file is now saved to your chosen folder. Please follow the instructions at the top of this article to email the audio file to the ITS Help Desk with the necessary details. ITS staff can handle the conversion of the file from .m4a type to .wav type to upload into the phone vendor's system.

macOS instructions were pulled from Lifewire article, "How to Record Audio on Mac".