Inserting Videos
You can insert video files into your presentation slides. For example, you could take training videos that you have created and insert them into the presentation. You can create movie files with several different types of software, and if you have a digital camcorder, you may even have software that allows you to save your movies as one of the files types accepted by PowerPoint. PowerPoint likes the “.avi,” “.wmv,” and “.mpeg” file types but can also use others, although you may have to embed them as objects.
When you insert a movie file, you can either insert a movie from your installed clip art, or you can insert the movie from a file location on your computer. If you are using PowerPoint 2010, you can also choose to insert a movie from a Web Site. It’s important to note that when you insert a movie into a presentation slide, the file is linked to the PowerPoint presentation and not embedded. So if you need to move the presentation to another computer, you may need to move the linked files as well.
You can insert a movie by clicking the “Video” drop-down button (“Movie” drop-down button in 2007) in the “Media” group (“Media Clips” group in 2007) on the “Insert” tab in the Ribbon. To insert a movie or animated clip from your Clip Art collection, select the “Clip Art Video” command (“Movie from Clip Organizer…” command in 2007) to open the “Clip Art” task pane and view any available animated movies that you can click to insert into the slide just as you would a piece of clip art.
You could also select the “Video from File…” command (“Movie from File…” command in 2007) from the “Video” button’s drop-down menu to insert a movie file that you have saved to your computer. In this case, you would see the “Insert Video” dialog box (“Insert Movie” dialog box in 2007) appear, where you can then select the movie file that you want to insert into the PowerPoint slide.
If using PowerPoint 2010, you can also select the “Video from Web Site…” command from the “Video” button’s drop-down menu of choice in order to display the “Insert Video from Web Site” dialog box. In this dialog box you paste the “embed code” that you copy from a web site’s video file directly into the dialog box. You can then click the “Insert” button to insert the video into the presentation slide.
If using PowerPoint 2007, after you insert your movie, PowerPoint will ask you if you want to play the movie automatically when you advance to the slide during your presentation. Click “Automatically” to have the media play by itself, or click “When Clicked” to only play the movie when clicked.
If using PowerPoint 2010, you can select when to play the video by clicking the “Playback” tab within the “Video Tools” contextual tab in the Ribbon when the video object is selected. You can then use the “Start” drop-down in the “Video Options” group to select “Automatically” to have the media play by itself, “On Click” to play the movie when clicked, or “Play across slides” to play the video across several slides.
Once you have inserted the movie file, you can click on it and move and resize it as you would a piece of clip art. If using PowerPoint 2010, you also have many formatting options available on the “Format” tab within the “Video Tools” contextual tab in the Ribbon. For videos that are embedded from a file on your computer, you will have many of the same options available as when formatting shapes or pictures. On the “Playback” tab within the “Video Tools” contextual tab in the Ribbon, you can also set additional playback options in the “Video Options” group if the commands are supported for the selected video clip. For videos embedded from a file on your computer, you can also use the “Editing” group. You can also click the “Play” button in the “Preview” group on either tab within the “Video Tools” contextual tab in order to preview the video while in “Normal” view of your presentation.
If using PowerPoint 2007, you can view video options in the “Options” tab in the “Movie Tools” contextual tab in the Ribbon. You can click the “Preview” button in the “Play” group to play the movie while previewing the slide in “Normal” view. In the “Movie Options” group, you can use the “Slide Show Volume” drop-down to select a volume level for the movie file’s playback. You can click the “Play Movie:” drop-down to select how you would like the movie to play. You can also check any of the additional checkbox options for movie playback that you would like to apply to the movie clip.
