How does one go about inserting movies into Powerpoint without massively increasing the size of the presentation?

Well, by default, Powerpoint allows you to insert MPEG/AVI files in via the Insert menu, but we all know that MPEG/AVIs are HUGE in size…

So… what do we do? We use the latest hype in Web 2.0 language – SWF/FLV files! “How do we insert those, Russ ?” you might ask. Well, that’s where this article and a few other come in handy:

1) You cannot import FLV files! But … … you CAN import SWF Video files. What’s the difference? The extension and size limitation(s). the reason FLV exists is because SWF by default can only support upto 16,000 frames. There are a few software out there that have been successful in beating this limit, by “stitching” the multiple files together. Mainly, Sorenson Squeeze and Allok’s FLV Converter come to mind (edit by jez: A free FLV converter). By using these tools, you point to the MPEG, define the parameters for the SWF/FLV file and click “Convert”.

2) Tools needed:

a) Sorenson Squeeze, Allok FLV Converter, or any other converter of your choice that you feel comfortable with in generating SWF/FLV files with.

b) Powerpoint ’00/’03/’07

c) Patience and Comprehension

d) These M$ articles:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291875 AND http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291876

Steps: (NOTE: I will be using Allok and Powerpoint 2007 in this tutorial for conversion. In my case, I had several MOV files to convert)

1) Open your favorite browser (hopefully Firefox!) and in 2 seperate tabs open the referenced M$ articles, and read them. PLEASE READ ONLY!

2) Open Allok’s and add the MOV files. From the output choose “SWF Video”, choose 30 FPS (for high quality) and click Convert. It took 5 minutes to convert 10 30MB MOV files to SWF Video.

3) Open Powerpoint ’07 and create a slide.

4) Follow the instructions on KB291876 to get 1 SWF file onto the slide.

In addition to what’s described in the M$ article, Set:

-) Embed to True (so that you don’t have to worry about the SWF file anymore, it becomes a part of the presentation)
-) Loop to False (so that the movie doesn’t loop once played or set toTrue if you want it to!)
-) Menu to True (as a backup plan, this way for some reason if all else fails in trying to control the movie, you can at least right click and click on Play etc.)
-) Play to False (if you want to control the playback options of the movie. If not, just leave it as True and control the looping)

5) Follow the instructions on KB291876 to get an understanding of the controls mechanism. Those 3 mentioned functions are what we will use. So, once you hit Alt-F11, you’ll get the Visual Basic Editor window, in there, on the left you’ll notice a “slide###” where # stands for a number. The idea is sort of like the Flash ActionScript editor, where the code you will enter only affects the slide you are on. (Before I get flaming from others, there are ways to make functions global and called accordingly… I’m not here to teach you VBA… just to get a Flash control working in Powerpoint! So please just follow along! thx! :) ) So double-click on the slide then empty the contents that appear in the middle of the screen. Then copy-paste the 3 functions from the M$ article. Take out the slide#, and replace the # in the ShockwaveFlash# with 1, so it reads as ShockwaveFlash1.Play for example. (Again, this CAN be changed… I’m not here to teach VBA… If curious, look at the ShockwaveControl’s property on the slide by right clicking and going to Properties. In the menu look at the control name on the top. You’ll notice by default it’s called ShockwaveFlash1 hence why I said put a 1) Once done, hit the Save button and wait 10 secs :) close the VBA Editor, and go back to the slide. Now follow the instructions in the article for dropping a Custom Action button on the slide. In our case, you will drag 3 buttons down. Rewind, Play and that blank square one on the very right. The idea is, when you drag the button, you will click on Macro and choose the appropriate Macro for the button to run. i.e. For the rewind button, choose Slide1.Rewind then click OK. Repeat X 2 and drag them around to your liking.

Now… if you have followed my instructions to the letter, you should have a slide with a movie in the middle, and 3 buttons.: Rewind, Pause and Play!

Play the slideshow and enjoy! :) the best part? No additional files to worry about linking when taking the Powerpoint presentation on the road!

CEO/President

“Accident” – depicting the Mac is safe with the MagSafe connector on new Mac notebookes comes disconnected with a tug, while PC can hurt if power cord has been yanked.

“Accident” is one of the TV commercial ads “Get A Mac” series by Apple, which launched during Emmy awards, and starring by actor Justin Long as a Mac and actor John Hodgman as a PC. Other “Get A Mac” ads as below.

“Angel/Devil” – depicting having fun with Mac with preinstalled photo editing and imaging tools.

“Trust Mac” – depicting Mac is free and more secure than Windows from spyware and viruses.

“Out of the Box” – depicting Apple macs are ready to use out of the box and that no downloads or extra accessories are needed.

“Touch” – depicting Intel macs run both Windows and Mac OS X operating system while PC only runs one operating system.

“Better”

“Restarting” – Mac’s hardware and software just works, reducing time for troubleshooting.

“iLife”

“Viruses”

“WSJ” or “Wall Street Journal”

“Work vs Home”

Also it seems like Bill Gates is not too happy about those ads, as a recent interview showed.
Actually he was really pissed. Read the full interview here.

[...] general embed object code here
parameter name stuff like movie source and quality here
[param name="wmode" value="opaque" /]
wmode=”opaque”>[end embed code]

the opaque part is the important thing to remember.
the other attributes remain the same
The following browsers currently support windowless mode:
Most of the old browsers dont support it, but as >90% use IE 6 + Firefox, that`s okay.

* Macromedia Flash Player version 6,0,65,0 (Windows) or 6,0,67,0 (Macintosh) or higher required for this feature.
Source: google.com

Top header flash animation used on surfconcept.de

Website: See above, but feel free to browse my site www.h4x3d.com !

Please note: I am the original author of the above mentioned file, but not responsible for the individual page content on the follow-up pages. If you have questions about possible infringed material, please contact the individual site owner!
Work samples, stats and a link to the website can be found above.
Curious about other design samples? See my full portfolio

Top header flash animation used on surfconcept.de

Website: See above, but feel free to browse my site www.h4x3d.com !

Please note: I am the original author of the above mentioned file, but not responsible for the individual page content on the follow-up pages. If you have questions about possible infringed material, please contact the individual site owner!
Work samples, stats and a link to the website can be found above.
Curious about other design samples? See my full portfolio

A gradient flash fader, which is used in my themes corporateFK and corporateFK business, as well as on klewes.com

Website: See above, but feel free to browse my site www.h4x3d.com !

Please note: I am the original author of the above mentioned file, but not responsible for the individual page content on the follow-up pages. If you have questions about possible infringed material, please contact the individual site owner!
Work samples, stats and a link to the website can be found above.
Curious about other design samples? See my full portfolio