How to add a Video to Spice up your Presentations

Including videos into your presentations is a great way to garner the attention of your audience and get your message across clearly and effectively.  The features of PowerPoint make it easy for you to add videos to your presentations,  not only from your computer, but also from online sources such as the Cloud, your Facebook account, YouTube or from any website that provides the embedded code.

Once inserted, you can format your video in much the same way that you would format a regular graphic.  For example, you can resize the video, adjust the brightness and color contrast, add a picture frame and more.  PowerPoint even allows you to trim your videos so only a specific portion of the video will play.

Insert a Video Clip From a File

1. Click the Home Tab > Slides Group > New Slide and Select the Content with Caption Layout
   
2. Add the Title “Deer Grazing“.
3. Click the Insert Video button in the content placeholder to open the Insert Video dialog box
   
4. From the Insert Video dialog box, choose From a File
   
5. Click the Browse button to navigate to the folder where your video resides and select the video file you want to insert and then click the insert button
   
6. The video will be added to the slide and should look something like the example below.  Notice the playback and volume controls are displayed in the control panel below the video.

Insert an Online Video

it’s possible to insert an embedded video from an online source such as YouTube or Facebook by using the Insert Tab > Media Group > Video and choosing Online Video.

In the Insert Video dialog box, choose the source of the video that you want to insert.  If you have a personal Microsoft OneDrive account, you can navigate to your OneDrive account from here.  You can also search on YouTube for videos or paste the embedded code from a website of your choice.  Keep in mind that you will need to be connected to the internet when you are giving your presentation for your online video to work.

Formatting your Video

After you insert your video, you’re ready to start formatting it.  Note:  Most of the formatting available on the Playback toolbar on the Ribbon can only be used on videos inserted from a PC on your local computer.  They will not work on embedded videos.

1. Click on the video to select it .  Notice the selection handles appear around the video.  The Video Tools contextual toolbar will appear on the Ribbon with all your formatting options and the playback toolbar will appear below the video.
2. To preview your video, click the Play button on the Video Toolbar or click the Play/Pause button on the Playback toolbar right below your video.

Trim a Video

After previewing your video clip, you may want to remove certain parts of it.  You can trim from the beginning or the end of your video clip by adjusting the Start Time (green marker)  or End Time (red marker).

1. Select the video frame.  The Video Tools contextual Playback tab will appear
2. Under the Video Tools Playback tab  > Editing group, click Trim Video.  The Trim Video dialog box will appear
3. Press Play to determine where you want to trim the video.  In our example below, we are trimming from the end
4. Click the red marker and when you see the two headed arrow, drag to the desired ending position.  In our example, it is an end time of approximately 00:06.957. Replay the video to make sure you have trimmed your video as desired.
5. Click OK and your video will be trimmed.

Resize a Video

1. Click the Format tab > Size Group
2. Click in the Height box and type “5” or your desired width and press enter.  The video width will adjust proportionately.

There are several other options that you can set for your videos such as fade in and fade out timings, restricting the playback to certain segments, looping a video clip and manually or automatically starting the video playback. It’s a good idea to experiment with these options to customize your presentation as needed.

1. Click the Slide Show button on the Status Bar to display the slide with the video in Slide Show mode.
   
2. When you see the mouse pointer, click the mouse button to view your video.  When the video is finished, press the ESC key on your keyboard to exit the slide show.

Apply a Style to your Video

After you view your presentation, you may want to do some finishing touches to your video. You can apply styles and effects to your videos just the same as you can to images.  You can also change the video shape and add a border if desired.  Below we’ll add a Video style to our video.

1. First select the video and then on the Format tab> Video Styles Group click the More button to to display the Video Styles Gallery.
   
   
2. Under the Moderate section, click Compound Frame, Black to add a subtle frame. The style will be applied to your video.

Preview your slide show again and practice with the different styles such as borders, brightness and contrast and color themes as desired.

Practice: – Insert a Video in PowerPoint

Open the wildlife presentation provided for you here and download and insert the deer-movie.

1. Following the instructions in the above tutorial, click on slide 5 and insert a new slide.
2. Insert a title and the deer movie
3. Trim your movie from the end to approximately 00:06.957.
4. Resize the movie to a height of 5″.  The width should adjust accordingly.
5. Apply a style of your choice to the video
6. Preview your presentation and verify your movie plays as desired.