PowerPoint “Paste Special” Tip – Create Images from Video
Videos are a great way to add motion and storytelling to a presentation, but what happens when you need a still image from that video? Maybe you need a thumbnail, a screenshot of a specific moment, or an image to use elsewhere in the presentation. Paste Special is the solution!
A simple copy and paste will not work, but it pastes another copy of the video – and our goal is a .png image of a specific frame of the video.
Instead, use Paste Special > PNG to quickly turn a video frame into an image.
TIP: Make this a 1-click formatting option. If you haven’t already added Paste Special – PNG to your QAT (Quick Access Toolbar), check out the on how to add this super helpful shortcut to your PowerPoint setup. This of course is if you are working in PowerPoint Windows desktop app. See the July 16, 2026 post, PowerPoint “Paste Special” Tip – Make it a QAT Button.
Let’s go through the step-by-step of creating an image from a video:
- Select the video
- Move the video playback slider to frame you want to add as an image – this frame will become your image
- Go to the Video Format tab
- In the Adjust section, click the Poster Frame dropdown
- Select Use Current Frame. PowerPoint will now use that frame as the visual preview image for the video
- Copy the video (CTRL+ C)
- Use Paste Special > PNG
- PowerPoint creates a PNG image of the selected video frame
- Adjust the new image as needed for the slide layout (resize, crop, add effects, etc.)
Note: the inserted .png image is the size of the video. As example, if the video is very small on the slide, the inserted image will also be small. If a large image is needed, temporarily make the video larger on the slide before copying it.
This is especially useful because a single video can provide many different images. Instead of searching for separate photos, you can scrub through the video to find a useful frame, set as poster frame, copy and Paste Special as PNG. Repeat as needed for additional images. You can quickly create library of still images from existing video content.
After creating your images, remember to reset the video poster frame!
To reset the poster frame on a video:
- Select the video
- Go to Video Format > Poster Frame
- In the Adjust section, click the Poster Frame dropdown
- Select Reset (back to the beginning frame)
-Troy and the TLC Creative presentation design team
