Media Browser - Movies Tab in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

The Media Browser is a floating palette-like window in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac that contains several tabs for all types of media. Some of these tabs such as Photos and Audio have already been covered in separate tutorials. In this third part of the Media Browser series, we explore the Movies tab, as shown in Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Movies tab within Media Browser

The Movies tab of the Media Browser provides quick access to movie clips (videos) that are already in your iMovie or Mac OS X Movies folders. In addition, it also shows any videos you create or store in your PhotoBooth and iTunes applications.

Let us now explore the various options available within the Movies tab of the Media Browser, as marked in Figure 1, above:

A. Folder/Browser

In this section, you can browse the folders that contain movie clips.

B. View Splitter

Drag the dot to adjust the size of the upper Folder/Browser and the lower Preview panes. Drag further up to change the Folder/Browser Pane to a drop-down list.

C. Preview Pane

Displays all the movie clips within the chosen folder.

D. Play

Select any movie clip within the Preview Pane and click the Play button to run the movie. You can even double-click the movie within the Preview Pane to play.

E. Search

Just type in part of a filename, or some keywords in the search field to view search-narrowed, relevant movie clips instantly.

F. Number

Lists the number of movie clips in your preview pane. This value changes depending upon the folder you are browsing, and also dynamically changes when you enter a search term in the Search box.

G. Slider

Drag the slider to adjust the size of the movie clip thumbnails in the Preview pane.

Within the Preview pane, you can select a movie file and right-click (or Ctrl + click) to bring up the contextual menu, as shown in Figure 2, below.

Figure 2: Display options for Preview pane in the Movies tab

There are three options in the contextual menu, and these are explained below:

i. Reveal in Finder

This option will open the folder where the selected movie clip is located.

ii. Display as List

Choose this option to show the content in the Preview Pane as a list rather than icons. Compare Figure 3, below, which shows a list with Figure 2, above, that shows icons. The right-click menu has a check mark in front of the current display view (refer to the Display as Icons option checked in Figure 2, above).

When the Display as List option is selected, you see another option in the same right-click menu called Show Columns, as shown in Figure 3, below. Clicking this option brings up a submenu that lets you decide which columns you want to be visible (refer to Figure 3 again).

Figure 3: Show Columns submenu

iii. Display as Icons

This option displays the movie clips as icons (refer to Figure 1 or 2).

You can double-click any movie-clip thumbnail in the Preview Pane to enlarge its preview, as shown in Figure 4, below. Click the movie-clip again to restore its original preview size.

Figure 4: Enlarged movie clip within the Preview pane

Inserting a Movie from the Media Browser

To insert a movie from the Media Browser's Movies tab, just drag it from the Preview pane into your slide, as shown in Figure 5, below.

Figure 5: Movie clip being dragged and inserted onto the slide area

When the movie is inserted into your presentation, a movies Poster Frame is displayed, as shown in Figure 6, below. To preview the movie, click the Play button on the movie control bar, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 6.

Figure 6: Movie clip inserted on the slide