How to Add Video To PowerPoint-45 Degrees Latitude Video- Kingston


Adding Video to PowerPoint

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Note: This article is primarily for PowerPoint 2003. For the 2010 version see Inserting Video into PowerPoint Presentations.

Most of us have sat through boring PowerPoint presentations which are filled with text or silly animations which show little or no creativity. You can stand out from the crowd (especially if you are one of a group of speakers) of PowerPoint presenters by inserting video clips into your slides. Virtually any topic worth talking about to a group can be made more dynamic by adding video, and it is so easy too! Of course, good video is a necessity. Adding poorly created and edited video can make a mediocre presentation even worse. Let us assume you have some good video to work with and get to work.

Since PowerPoint uses many slides which concentrate on a particular topic or message per slide, you should also have a series of video clips which bring to life the message you wish to present. The clips do not need to be long- actually 1 minute or less is preferable. Remember the saying- a picture is worth a thousand words. A video is worth a thousand pictures (actually up to 30 different pictures or frames per second!). Keeping the clips short will enable you to move through the slides faster and keep the audience's attention longer.

Remember to plan sound into your PowerPoint as most of your video clips will have an audio element too. In a small group you can use your multimedia projector speakers. Larger groups you will need accessory speakers or even connect to the meeting room audiovisual speakers if available. Always do a dry run if possible to ensure everything works before the presentation. How many times have you seen a good presentation turn bad because of technical problems?

Now for the video. PowerPoint can use many kinds of movies (mpg, wmv, avi, Quick Time). You should keep the ease of insertion in mind when you make your movie for PowerPoint if possible. PowerPoint readily accepts mpg, wmv, avi but not so easily Quick time and other formats (more on QT below). When you insert the movie clip into PowerPoint you are inserting the link from where the file is stored on your computer to the slide. The actual movie is not copied to the slide- only the link. This is important to know if you are going to place your finished project on another computer or a USB drive. Remember to copy the movie clips into a properly linked folder otherwise your movies will not play! If you are playing the PowerPoint from your own computer- no problem. The slide show will link to the movie clip file when needed.

You should keep in mind the size of the movie clips you add into your presentation. Video clips are generally large. If you plan on putting your presentation on a USB drive and transfer to another computer for the PowerPoint presentation space may be a factor. You can overcome this by keeping an eye on file size. Larger files usually mean better quality but you can achieve very acceptable results in PowerPoint using smaller MPEG-1 files.

You create video with video editing software and export the video in a variety of formats (file extensions such as avi, mpg, qt, etc.) Experiment with quality and file size. Best quality is likely achieved with avi files which are larger. You may experience sluggish play depending upon your computer-you may wish to try a smaller file size as in MPEG-1 if your computer cannot play avi files smoothly.

I personally like to export in a MPEG-1 format. I can export video in a 720x480 size and keep the file size quite small- yet reasonably good quality is obtained for PowerPoint. It is easy to import too. Simply create a slide and click Insert-Movie-From File on the toolbar. Since MPEG-1 files are small they play well on every computer.

Insert Movie to PowerPoint

You can resize the video by holding shift and dragging a corner to maintain the pixel aspect ratio (you do not want to skew the video i.e. stretch or compress the images). Refer to PowerPoint Help files to troubleshoot and fine tune the presentation (do you wish the video to play when the slide starts or do you wish to click on the video clip first?).

Using Quick time and other formats is a little trickier. Quick time is non-compliant with PowerPoint, but you can use these files if the computer you are using has Quick time Player. You must link an application to the slide in order to play the movie in PowerPoint. You will realize this as soon as you try to insert a Quick time movie into a slide. An error message will tell you the file cannot be inserted. First of all, ensure you can play the Quick time file on its own (in Quick time player). If you have the player on your computer you are all set. Next, try to insert the QT movie into the chosen slide.

Insert QuickTime Movie

When the error message displays, go to Slide Show on the toolbar, Action Buttons- and move your mouse over the icons displayed until you see Movie Action button. Select it and move the cursor into the slide and draw the icon at an appropriate location on the slide. Complete the pop-up dialogue box which will link the icon on the slide to your QT movie file. Click OK. View your slide show and click the movie icon when you get to the slide. QT Player will open in the slide and voila!

This is more work and the presentation is not as fast although if you are stuck and need to use a Quick time file it can be done in PowerPoint. Otherwise, use avi, wmv or MPEG-1 files.

Good luck and woo your audience!