Animated GIFs Don't Play in PowerPoint 2008

Have you created PowerPoint presentations that contain animated GIFs in previous versions of PowerPoint -- only to find that the animated GIFs no longer play (or animate) in PowerPoint 2008?

That's because this is a known bug in PowerPoint 2008 that Microsoft is aware of -- until then you can use the workaround explained on this page.

Essentially, you have to use the Insert | Movie option rather than the Insert | Picture option to get your animated GIFs to play.

Getting the Source Animated GIF file

You first need to source the original animated GIF. If you only have accessto PowerPoint 2008, you'll have to get the original animated GIF. On the other hand, if you also have access to PowerPoint 2004, you can save your slide that contains an animated GIF as a web page (HTM / HTML) file -- in a sub folder of the the folder that contains the exported HTM / HTML file, you'll find the source animated GIF file. However this trick doesn't work with PowerPoint 2008 since it exports a static GIF instead of an animated GIF in the web output.

Once you have your original animated GIF, follow these steps:

1. Delete the existing animated GIF on the slide, and then choose Insert | Movie. In the resultant dialog box, navigate to your source animated GIF, and click Choose.
2. PowerPoint will prompt you if you want the movie (animated GIF) to play Automatically or When Clicked. Choose as required -- however Automatically does work best.
3. Now with the animated GIF on your slide still selected, choose View | Formatting Palette.
4. This brings up the Formatting Palette, click the Movie disclosure triangle, and check the Loop Until Stopped option.