“Embedding” movies within Powerpoint presentation
(without losing face)
Secretly written by Te Thamrongrattanarit
A problem
Technically, you cannot embed a movie clip within Powerpoint presentation.
When you insert a movie clip into your slide, you only create a link to that movie clip,
which is located somewhere in your computer. (Notice that the file size doesn’t grow
that much bigger even though you insert a bunch of movies) That means if you move
your slides to another computer, the link will not work anymore because the movie clip
is not in that computer. Result : The movie doesn’t play, and you lose face.
To avoid this, follow these steps
Finish your slides without inserting any movies.
Create another folder specifically for your presentation and movie files and copy
them to the same folder.
Open your presentation from that folder and insert the movies into your slide
from that folder.
When you want to move your slide to another computer, move the entire folder.
When you click at the movie during your presentation the link will look for the movie file
within that folder. Since you have moved the entire folder, it’s guaranteed that the link
will not break. Result : The movie plays, and you don’t lose face.
Another problem
Sometimes, you have made sure that no links are broken and you’ve tested your
presentation on another computer. Everything works on that computer, but sometimes
it doesn’t work on the computer that you’ll be actually using for your presentation. The
problem is that computer might not have codec needed to play your movie files. Result
: The movie doesn’t play, and you lose face although you’ve partially made sure that
you wouldn’t.
To avoid this, test your presentation with the computer that you’ll actually be
using during the presentation. If you find out that the movies don’t play on that
computer, ask tech people to convert the movie files into compatible extension. Let
them take care of this. Result : The movie plays, and tech people will be