Usage Tips
PowerPoint 2007 Movie Sound and Links
PowerPoint creates links from two types of files:
- Media Files: These include audio and video clips — common formats can be identified by file extensions such as AVI, WMV, MPG, MP3, WMA, WAV, etc.
- Other Files: These are documents such as Word documents (DOC, DOCX), Excel sheets (XLS, XLSX), Acrobat (PDF), etc.
The linked files are not contained within the PowerPoint pptx presentation file. Whenever you insert a media file or link any other file it is invariably linked to the presentation. In fact, PowerPoint avoids embedding any files within the presentation. If you decide to move or copy the presentation to another computer system, you’ll discover that PowerPoint cannot locate the linked files.
Insert Audio or Video: Local Files
- Embed Video, Embed Audio, Insert Video, Relative Path
You cannot embed (directly into the pptx file) video in PowerPoint 2007. Best practice is to start with the video and presentation in one folder THEN insert it. You must port all associated files.
If a video or audio codec is not installed on your computer or is not supported by your version of PowerPoint, the video file you’d like to use just won’t work – users of QuickTime and PowerPoint 2010 or 2013 know this very well. Videos should be in a format that PowerPoint / Windows Media Player recognizes, thus converting them to either WMV/ASF or MP4 will help.
Add video from local file:
- Insert, and then Movie in the ribbon
- select the video
Insert Audio or Video: Youtube or Flash
- click the Office button.
- PowerPoint Options
- Show the Developer Tab in the Ribbon
- Click the OK button.
- Go to YouTube and locate the video you would like to insert into your PowerPoint presentation.
- Copy the URL for the video.
- Back in PowerPoint, select the Developer tab and from the Controls group, select More Controls.
- The More Controls dialog box appears, Scroll down and select Shockwave Flash Object.
- Click the OK button.
- Your cursor should now look like a cross, an indication that you can draw a box. Draw a box on your slide and size it as desired to contain your video.
- With the box you have just drawn selected, click Properties on the Developer tab.
- The Properties window appears.
- Locate Loop and select False from the drop-down menu. This step will keep your video from looping.
- Locate Movie and paste in the URL for the video you would like to use.
- Find in the URL where it says watch? and delete it.
- Change any instance of = in the URL to a /. Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bmhjf0rKe8 would be changed to http://www.youtube.com/ v/0Bmhjf0rKe8.
- Close the Properties window.
- When you play your slideshow, your video will appear just like it would on YouTube, ready to be played
In Office 2007 it may not be possible to have a video of any other format than Flash if the source is an online stream. The only exception would be a possible use of embedding Windows media player which may not work as expected.
Office 2010 can embed videos, but earlier versions like 2007 cannot and knowing that they can't embed them, won't play them. Unless it's 2007 with SP2 applied.
Enhance
What is Classic Menu for Office
Brings your familiar classic menus and toolbars back to Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 and 365. You can use PowerPoint 2007/2010/2013/2016 immediately and efficiently, and don't need any trainings or tutorials when upgrading to Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 and 365.
Hacking
My PowerPoint has embedded audio and video that only works on my computer
The pptx file is actually a compressed archive using pkzip containing a number of xml and mostly image media. Using the vim editor it is possible to open the pptx file and navigate though the various xml files, select one, and successfully make an edit. One notable example of a useful edit is to correct the path to what is called "External" media such as embedded video and audio within the PowerPoint presentation.
vim powerpoint.pptx
The vim editor shows a list of xml files contained within the pptx that you can navigate up and down via the keyboard. We will select a specific xml, in this case called:
ppt/slides/_rels/slide2.xml.rels
An embedded sound within the PowerPoint only works when the presentation is launched from the source computer or LAN. To make it portable, all specific paths need to be altered so that they are relative. Take note of this network path:
Target="file:///H:\My%20Documents\MHA%20Program\Capstone\week%2010\pack\Hospital_AlarmFatigue05.wav"
When the PowerPoint presentation is launched from another computer outside of the creator's own private network, the media file will not execute. In other words, there will be no sound.
Using the vim editor the original pptx file is opened, then the slide with the media is selected via cursor navigation and the XML is edited.
Target="file:///Hospital_AlarmFatigue05.wav"
Then the XML is saved, the container saved, and quit the vim editor. The pptx is not corrupted and the PowerPoint presentation is able to use the audio file as long as it is present in the same directory as the pptx file, no matter what computer (within parameters).
As a reference, the XML code format for the path was:
Target="file:///\Hospital_AlarmFatigue03.m4v" TargetMode="External"
Anything with the TargetMode "External" refers to a media that is not directly embedded in the pptx file itself. Microsoft did not design the pptx container to include audio and video clips until later versions of PowerPoint. This is a major fault in Microsoft PowerPoint that has frustrated users for decades. Imagine the marketing department creating an impressive PowerPoint presentation only to have it fail when ported to the boardroom computer now absent are all audio and video components.
Software to correct the hard-coded full path to external resources, a task that cannot be accomplished within PowerPoint, is available at a cost. However, vim is FOSS and with it the same task can easily be accomplished by the process described earlier.
Within PowerPoint there is an option to view the External audio and video:
Office Button -> Prepare -> Edit Links to Files
Apparently although this tool allows us to the objects, it was intended for OLE specific objects and will not allow us to directly edit the path. When the necessary "break link" button is grayed out we use vim.
Tip: This feature is available in 2007 and earlier, however in Office 2010 it is hidden and can't be used unless the classic menu is installed.
Tip: even relative path External media will not execute from the PowerPoint when within a pkzip container. The zip archive must first be extracted before relative path External media will execute.