In the earlier days of PowerPoint, almost every presentation I was given to prepare came to me via floppy disc. Now, we have the ubiquitous, hot-swappable USB key with tons of storage. We also have a stronger need for playing back videos from within the presentation, to make our presentations as seamless as possible. But, few presenters know how to fully prepare a video for their presentation.
Thankfully, the methods and software for downloading and editing video for presentations are simple and easy to use. One of the most popular sources of video for presentations is YouTube, who make it a pretty painless process. But, how do you get the video and how do you convert it to a useable format? It's easy! (and all the links are at the bottom)
Downloading the video from YouTube
My first choice for downloading and converting YouTube videos is YouTube Downloader, a free program that allows you to download and convert, in separate steps (the paid version does it in one, easy step, however). Here's how it's done:
1. find the video
2. open YouTube Downloader (after installing it on your computer - PC compatible)
3. copy the video's link from the address bar or from the 'share' bar below the video
4. paste the link into YouTube downloader (it actually does this automatically as you go back to the program)
5. select the 'save to' folder of your choice and click 'download'
6. go to the 'convert' tab and select the video from the folder you saved to, then use the drop-down menu to choose your desired format (hint - use .wmv for Windows PowerPoint)
Done!
Converting other video formats to be used with PowerPoint
If you download an .mp4 or Quicktime, you will need to convert it to .wmv. Simply go to Sony Media Software's site (link below) and try Vegas Movie Studio HD11 (or whatever the newest version is). Try it free for 30 days, but if you really want it, it only costs about $45.00!! Pretty awesome product for that price, trust me! Vegas Movie Studio HD will be able to read tons of formats and convert to just about any format you would ever need, but stick with .WMV (3Mbps Standard Definition, or 6Mbps HD), for a high quality, but small file.
1. drag the video onto the vegas timeline
2. highlight the file on the timeline
3. click on 'Project', then 'Render As...'
4. the pop-up window will show all the different options, but choose .WMV for Windows (as stated above)
5. click on 'Render Loop Region Only' below the render options, so that it only renders what is highlighted
Done!
Embedding video into PowerPoint
1. create a file folder on your desktop and keep your presentation there (this is best if you are using a host computer, so that the file is easy to find and has all of the videos in the same file)
2. open your presentation from the desktop folder and create a blank slide from which you want to show your video
3. click on 'insert video' to locate your video from the desktop folder
4. click the video file to highlight it (a big square will surround it on the new slide and a new control tab will appear at top right) click on 'play automatically' or 'on mouse click' (these controls change ever so slightly with every new version of PowerPoint).
5. try it out by getting into slide show mode, just a slide or two ahead of the video slide and advancing until you get to the video slide to see if it works
Tip - be sure your audio control is at least 75% up for seamless integration into sound systems.
Cheers! Buck Moore (info@b4ushowit.com)
