Learn about PowerPoint and video.
Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version: PowerPoint
Content on this page is not recent and has been retained for historical reasons.
Insert Video Objects (Video with Play Controller)
Links and Link Problems
Video Playlists
Full Screen Videos
The DVD Factor
Between the Mac and Windows
Video Editing with Windows Movie Maker
Copyright Implications
Running Smooth Videos
PowerPoint also allows you to insert video objects within a slide. The advantage of inserting such video objects is that you'll get a video controller along with the video itself while PowerPoint is in slide show mode. Thus you can stop, pause and play the video right within PowerPoint.
Normally, video objects play when clicked. If you want the video to play immediately with the slide:
Play Media Clips in PowerPoint 2002 by Using Windows Media Player
PowerPoint Add-in to Insert Movies Using Windows Media Player
Whenever you insert a movie (or a movie as an object) within PowerPoint, it is invariably linked to the presentation. In fact, PowerPoint cannot embed any movies within the presentation. That's probably sound reasoning in the first place because embedded movies would balloon up PowerPoint file sizes like nothing else!
Now for the bad part, PowerPoint is not too good at remembering link locations. As far as the presentation and the video files are on the same system, you will not face any problems. However, if you decide to move or copy the presentation to another system you'll discover that PowerPoint cannot locate the video files. It won't even offer to find the links for you. The solution is quite simple, assemble all your video files in the same folder as your presentation even before you insert them into PowerPoint. And yes, only insert the videos into a presentation that has been saved at least once.
You can create a playlist of your videos in Windows Media Player and get PowerPoint to play the entire sequence of videos. An invaluable idea if you want to play a series of videos within a presentation seamlessly and you don't have the time to get the videos rendered together in a video editing package.
Since a playlist can include either audio or video, the playlist object will appear and behave like a Movie object in PowerPoint for video. For sounds, it will appear as a black rectangle on the slide (where Windows Media visualizations will appear for audio).
PowerPoint 2003 allows playing of full screen videos in a presentation:
You'll also find options to loop the movie or rewind it after playing within this dialog box.
Playback of DVD content is an often requested feature for PowerPoint that is not natively possible. A third party product from Visible Light called Onstage DVD for PowerPoint allows you to insert and play DVD content within PowerPoint.
Not surprisingly, PowerPoint for Mac has no problems playing any type of QuickTime movie since that format is native to the Mac OS. However, this can create problems if the presentation is ported from the Mac to the Windows version of PowerPoint, and this is something that happens all the time.
Luckily, PowerPoint 2004 for Mac ships with a Compatibility Wizard that undertakes what one would term pre-flighting in the print world. Unfortunately, no such equivalent wizard is available in PowerPoint for Windows.
You might want to explore Windows Movie Maker, a video editing application that is part of Windows to do basic video edits like adding credits to video or inserting transitions between different video clips.
Windows Movie Maker can only export to the WMV format which PowerPoint has no problem accepting.
There's one factor that can never be stressed enough and that's about copyright. Never assume that you can use a video clip in a presentation if it is not yours or licensed to you. To use a video clip that is or contains copyrighted work, you need to receive explicit permission from the owner of that content in writing.
What do you do if your video clips don't run too well within PowerPoint? Videos do require more system resources than most other media and some steps can go a long way in helping you run smoother videos. Here's some help. Do remember that you don't have to follow every idea listed here. Some ideas are from my friend, TAJ Simmons.
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