Software/Add-Ins

Video Across Slides (Sort Of)

Unbeknownst to the world, Microsoft somehow enabled video to play across slides again! This is something I have been requesting since the release of PowerPoint 2010, when video-across-slides stopped working. But don’t get too excited, there are limitations in using it today.

First the technical note: I am using Office 365, PowerPoint 2016 on Windows 10. This is untested on legacy versions or the Mac version.

Here is my sample slide deck; 5 slides with a video on slide 1 and indicator text on balance of slides.

Video Across Slides

When things are setup correct, yes we can play video across slides (yay!) as this video of the sample slides in slideshow demonstrate:

Side note: the above video was a Camtasia screen recording, because I discovered that using the Export As Video option does not show the video across slides (which makes sense with the below explanation of why I believe this is working)

Backstory:

  • Back in PowerPoint 2003, a video could be set to continue playing across slides and it would!
  • The reason was more of a limitation of PowerPoint that users were able to exploit and make a good thing. Back in PowerPoint 2003  video was not embedded and ran as a separate video player layer on top of PowerPoint. The good news was PowerPoint could keep the external video player going across multiple slides. The bad news was among other things, no PowerPoint content could be on top of the video while it was playing, because it was on top of the slides when playing.
  • Fast forward to PowerPoint 2010 and videos became embedded and content could be on top of videos! The downside was the embedded video removed the hand off to an external video player on top of the slides (but the improvements in reliable playback and styling effects were far superior options to have available!)
  • Today, video across slides works again. Here is my theory:
    • When the play across multiple slides option is selected for a video, the video uses a legacy video player and reverts back to the PowerPoint 2003 model of being a layer on top of PowerPoint. So yes, you can play a video across slides, but the video has a lot of styling limitations.

How to Set a Video to Play Across Slides:

  • Add video to slide (can be an embedded video, no legacy settings needed)
  • My example video was set to play the video automatically
    Video Across Slides
  • Open the Animation Pane
  • Right-click the video animation
  • Select EFFECT OPTIONS
  • Go to the EFFECT tab
  • Look in the STOP PLAYING section
  • Change the AFTER dialog to any number of slides needed (maximum 999 slides)
  • Click OKAY
    Video Across Slides

Limitations of Applying Styling Options to Videos That Use The Play Across Slides Option:

My Advice:

  • Don’t count on this working in the future. It was broken for years and suddenly started working (thanks to Taylor Croonquist for mentioning it!). It could easily stop working with another update (and the ultimate update would be to enable video to play-across-slides AND maintain the embedded video player for z-order control and styling effects!!).
  • But don’t hesitate to use it if needed. I was recently used a 60 second countdown video to play across a series of slides and all worked perfect (but the request was a circle shaped clock, which I could not do because of the above noted styling limitations). I tested on my show computers and was confident all would work for the meeting. If the same client asks for the same effect next year, I cannot promise it will work until we are close to the meeting date and I can test and confirm it is still a supported feature (eg. I am not sending out Sales Team decks using this feature, because it would be bad for things to stop working in the future).

Troy @ TLC

By |2025-05-12T10:16:54-07:00October 19th, 2017|Resource/Misc, Software/Add-Ins|

Alternatives to PowerPoint

In the most recent episode of The Presentation Podcast, episode 38 “Alternatives to PowerPoint,” my co-hosts and I talked through presentation software options other than PowerPoint. On a related note, I spent this week at The Presentation Summit conference in Florida. The conference is focused on the presentation industry as a whole, not specific software, and there are some interesting parallels from what I saw at the conference and the podcast discussion.

Presentation Software

Throughout the podcast, Nolan Haims, Sandra Johnson and I (Troy Chollar) discuss a lot of apps and when other software can be a good option. PowerPoint is the software we reference as the benchmark. Ironically, at The Presentation Summit this week, Microsoft was the only presentation software represented (they came with a team of 6 Project Managers and Developers – which is a fantastic opportunity for anyone in the presentation industry to have direct access and conversation with the people responsible for PowerPoint!). The product expo had many great companies represented: slide management, hardware, add-in coders, AR and VR (amazing stuff!), and more. But Keynote, Prezi (who have been at the conference in the past), Haiku Deck, Adobe, Google, and other presentation creation apps did not have a presence.

Another interesting parallel that I noted was that for a conference full of professional presentation designers, there was continuous excitement over discovering new features and ways to use PowerPoint. That excitement of discovery ties in directly with a new LinkedIn an article that I posted, “The ‘New’ PowerPoint” about how people do not realize features that have changed and been added, literally making PowerPoint a new software app compared to previous versions.

The key takeaway is: yes, there are other presentation software options available. However, those other options do not have a large user base or large profile at presentation industry events. Microsoft’s PowerPoint continues to be the industry standard for presentation software – and there are plenty of new features to make it better than the “old” PowerPoint.

– Troy @ TLC

 

 

 

By |2017-09-27T15:09:38-07:00September 28th, 2017|Software/Add-Ins|

NXPowerlite Asking Users for Feedback

Currently the dev team at Neuxpower are soliciting user input as they prepare the specs for v8. I sent in my suggestions a few weeks ago and had a great note from them about a number of my thoughts are already in the specs, and  few that will be included (yay!). Everyone that is familiar with NXPowerlite should take advantage of this open request for feedback!

Click here for the Neuxpower NXPowerlite survey.

Troy @ TLC

 

By |2017-08-01T10:50:16-07:00August 2nd, 2017|Software/Add-Ins, The PowerPoint® Blog|

IOS PowerPoint Morph & Zoom Test File

PowerPoint’s Morph (transition/animation effect) and Zoom (new custom shows) have had an amazing adoption rate and become something we use in projects on a regular basis. The addition of support for both effects on mobile versions of PowerPoint has happened fairly recently.  Amber on the TLC Creative Presentation Design Team created a fun, small file size, sample presentation setup with Morph transitions and Zoom custom shows for us to test and see how they work on our mobile devices.

Use this link to download our test file and open on your mobile device to see if Morph and Zoom are included/working on your mobile version of PowerPoint – Download test PPTX file here

After downloading, it is important to open with Microsoft PowerPoint on the device, not a PowerPoint viewer application. For iPhones (IOS), this means click-and-hold the file name to bring up a list of applications it can be opened with. Select the Microsoft PowerPoint icon.

Download > click-and-hold to select “Copy to PowerPoint” > the mobile version of PowerPoint opens > Presentation opens > click the Play icon to view as a slide show.

 

Here is a quick video capture showing the visual effects that should be seen on the mobile PowerPoint apps.

[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/unnamed-file-1.mp4[/KGVID]

 

Troy @ TLC

By |2019-10-28T10:11:46-07:00April 19th, 2017|PowerPoint, Resource/Misc, Software/Add-Ins, The PowerPoint® Blog|

Quickly Open The Windows Task Manager

Keyboard shortcuts are fantastic time savers. Recently, I was reintroduced to a Windows keyboard shortcut while I have been watching the PowerPoint performance on some animation/image/video heavy presentations. What I want is the Windows Task Manager to be open on one screen so I can see how the computer is processing the presentation.

windows task manager

The fastest way to open this dialog box is with a 3 key, keyboard shortcut: CTRL + SHIFT + ESC

windows task manager

 

-Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-29T15:21:13-08:00November 30th, 2016|Software/Add-Ins|

Online Time Calculator

This one of those great, free, online apps that just makes life easy for certain projects.

Online time calculator

There is not much to the webpage (in design or content) – which means no annoying ads. So, what would this simple online time calculator app be good for? – Math! For example:

You have 9 videos and need a total run time – drop in the 9 times and it provides a total. Reorder to get the best combination to have a break at the 10 minute mark. If you have 9 presenters, 90 second transitions, a 2:00 minute opening video, and anything more – drop in the times for each and get a total run of show. If you have 10 autorun slides, each with a 1 second transitions, and you look at the animation pane for the animation duration – drop in all the times and you get a total presentation duration.

This is a simple and good resource to have when needed. I recommend bookmarking the Time Calculator webpage for any future needs.

-Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-29T15:06:40-08:00November 28th, 2016|Software/Add-Ins|

NXPowerlite Black Friday 50% Off Deal

nx-1

TLC Creative Services has been a long-time user of NXPowerlite to quickly optimize presentation files to manageable sizes – without losing image quality (see this post on the TLC’s custom NXPowerlite settings). Microsoft’s internal image compression has improved a lot over the past few generations of PowerPoint, but I still find 3rd party tools do a better job. No sponsorship here, just letting everyone know that the NXPowerlite Black Friday sale is a good deal to take advantage of if you do not have an add-in to optimize presentation files.

NXPowerlite Black Friday

The Windows Desktop version is regulary $50. Purchase Friday, November 25th at 50% off. $25 is a great value and a smart addition to any designer’s toolbox. Go here for the Neupower sale page.

nx-3

-Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-29T15:12:23-08:00November 23rd, 2016|Software/Add-Ins|

Video Demo of Zoom

PowerPoint is adding a new feature named ZOOM.

zoom 1

Zoom leverages the Morph transition and Sections to create a new way to quickly develop non-linear presentations with a new dynamic visual effect. Here is a quick demo of how easy it is to create custom shows within a presentation using Zoom.

[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/unnamed-file-2.mp4[/KGVID]

 

– Troy @ TLC

By |2019-10-31T22:13:10-07:00August 11th, 2016|PowerPoint, Software/Add-Ins|

NXPowerLite PowerPoint Add-in

PowerPoint file size too big? Sometimes that’s okay if it has embedded videos, or just has a lot of slides. But if your 11 slide presentation has no videos and is 30+ MB, it is time for some file optimization. PowerPoint has built in tools to optimize images and multimedia – and they continue to improve. But for image optimization, I prefer to use one of the 3rd party add-in options, the NXPowerLite PowerPoint Add-in.

For TLC Creative Services, we have NXPowerlite installed on all computers and use as needed. As stated on their site, what this add-in does is, “Shrink Your Files.” I’ve put together a quick explanation of how we use this at TLC.

NXPowerLite

In this example, we’ve added a HiRes image to a PowerPoint Presentation. Our simple 10 slide presentation is a 29.1 MB file.

NXPowerLite PowerPoint Add-in-1

The images within the presentation are 15MB, because they are far larger than HD projection, most are “print” quality resolution. By using the NXPowerLite PowerPoint Add-in, we can optimize these images in order to reduce file size.

NXPowerLite PowerPoint Add-in-2

Step 1: Save your presentation.

Step 2: Go to the ADD-INS tab > OPTIMIZE WITH NXPOWERLITE

NXPowerLite PowerPoint Add-in-3

Step 3: Select YES at this pop up dialog (unless you do not want to save over this file because you did not do Step 1 yet, then cancel, save the presentation and come back to this step when you can select YES).

nxpowerlite-4

Step 4: Custom the NXPowerLite SETTINGS.

NXPowerLite PowerPoint Add-in-5

Step 5: This should be a one-time process as NXPowerlite will remember your custom settings.

  • JPEG quality =9 on all three options
  • Resize Images For Display At = 1920×1080 on all three options
  • delete Cropped Areas in Pictures = NOT checked
  • Flatten Embedded Objects = NOT checked
  • Click OK to save these settings and close the Settings dialog box

NXPowerLite PowerPoint Add-in-6

File Naming

Before we Optimize the file click on the File Naming tab. Here you can customized the text prior to Optimizing the file.

1) File Naming Tab

2) You can add custom text that will be added to your Original file name

3) The custom name will be added AFTER your file name

4) The custom name will be added BEFORE your file name

NXPowerLite PowerPoint Add-in-12

 

Here’s an example of the Outputted files

1) Backup of the original File name with the Custom Text BEFORE

2) Backup of the original File name with the Custom Text AFTER

3) Optimized file gets outputted with Original File Name

nxpowerlite-11

 

Back in the NXPowerLite dialogue, confirm the presentation is selected and click OPTIMIZE.

NXPowerLite PowerPoint Add-in-7

When NXPowerlite is finished, it displays the original and the optimized file size. In your project folder will be both the original (name now appended) and the new optimized version.

NXPowerLite PowerPoint Add-in-8

Looking at the new optimized file, all of the images have been adjusted to HD (1920×1080 display resolution) and are approximately 6 MB (with no visible quality loss for the slide show)!

NXPowerLite PowerPoint Add-in-9

From the entire TLC team, thank you to the NXPowerLite PowerPoint add-in for making our jobs a bit easier and quicker!

 

– Troy @ TLC

 

By |2016-08-10T08:00:49-07:00June 29th, 2016|PowerPoint, Resource/Misc, Software/Add-Ins|
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