Adding Movies to a Slide

Besides adding static graphic images, you can also add movies to a slide so that they play as part of your presentation. You can add two types of movies: simple graphic animations (animated GIF files) included with PowerPoint or movie files that you can download off the Internet or capture with a digital video camera.

Adding an animated cartoon to a slide

PowerPoint includes a library of simple animated cartoons that you can place on a slide for added visual emphasis. To include one of these animated cartoons on a slide, follow these steps:

1. Click the slide (in either Slide or Outline view) to which you want to add an animated cartoon and then click the Insert tab.
   
   
2. Click the downward-pointing arrow underneath the Movie icon in the Media Clips group. A pull-down menu appears, enabling you to choose whether to select a movie from a file stored on your hard disk, or to select a movie from PowerPoint’s clip organizer.
   
   
3. Choose Movie from Clip Organizer. A Clip Art window appears on the right side of the screen, as shown in Figure below.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Click a cartoon. PowerPoint displays your cartoon on the slide. (You may need to move or resize it.)

You won’t see the animated cartoon in action until you view your presentation by pressing F5.

Adding a movie to a slide

PowerPoint slides can also display a movie. When you store a movie on a slide, you can resize its size and move it anywhere on your slide. As soon as your slide appears, you have the option of having the movie play automatically or wait until you click the mouse first.

PowerPoint can use movies stored in common Windows video formats such as AVI, MPEG, ASF (streaming video), and WMV files. If your movie is stored in a different file format, such as QuickTime, you have to convert the file first before you can add it to a PowerPoint presentation. To add a movie to a slide, follow these steps:

1. Click the slide (in either Slide or Outline view) to which you want to add a movie and then click the Insert tab.
   
   
2. Click the Movie icon in the Media Clips group. The Insert Movie dialog box appears.
   If you click the downward-pointing arrow underneath the Movie icon, a pull-down menu appears. Choose Movie from File.
   
   
3. Click the movie file you want to add and then click OK. PowerPoint displays a box on your slide where your movie will appear along with a dialog box, asking whether you want the movie to play automatically or when you click the mouse, as shown in Figure below.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Click Automatically or When Clicked.
   
   
5. Move the mouse pointer over the movie. The mouse pointer turns into a four-way pointing arrow.
   
   
6. Hold down the left mouse button and drag (move) the mouse to place the movie where you want it to appear on the slide.
   
   
7. Move the mouse pointer over one corner of the movie until the mouse pointer turns into a two-way pointing arrow.
   
   
8. Hold down the left mouse button and drag (move) the mouse to resize the movie.

You won’t see your movie play until you view your presentation by pressing F5.

Fine-tuning a video presentation

Select the video and go to the (Movie Tools) Options tab to fine-tune a video presentation. The Options tab and the Movie Options dialog box offer all kinds of commands for making a video play the way you want it to play. Click the Movie Options group button to open the Movie Options dialog box. Here are different ways you can fine-tune a video presentation:

Controlling the volume:
Click the Slide Show Volume button (on the Options tab) or the Sound Volume icon (in the Movie Options dialog box) to control how loud the video sound is.

Playing the video automatically or when you click:
Open the Play Movie drop-down list on the Options tab and choose Automatically or When Clicked to tell PowerPoint when to start playing the video.

Hiding the video until you give the order to start playing:
You can hide the video until you start playing it by selecting the Hide during Show check box (on the Options tab) or the Hide While Not Playing check box (in the Movie Options dialog box).

Continuously playing, or looping, the video:
Play a movie continuously or until you go to the next slide by selecting the Loop until Stopped check box (on the Options tab or Movie Options dialog box).

Playing the video at full-screen:
Make a video fill the entire screen by selecting the Play Full Screen check box (on the Options tab) or the Zoom to Full Screen check box (in the Movie Options dialog box). Be careful of this one. Videos can look terribly grainy when they appear on the big screen.

Rewinding the video when it is finished playing:
Rewind a video if you want to see the first frame, not the last, when the video finishes playing. Select the Rewind Movie After Playing check box (on the Options tab) or the Rewind Movie When Done Playing check box (in the Movie Options dialog box) to make the start of the video appear after the video plays; deselect this option to freeze frame on the end of the video when it finishes playing.