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.
When things are setup correct, yes we can play video across slides (yay!) as this video of the sample slides in slideshow demonstrate:
[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/unnamed-file-3.mp4[/KGVID]
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)
[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/unnamed-file-2.mp4[/KGVID]
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
- 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
Limitations of Applying Styling Options to Videos That Use The Play Across Slides Option:
- Below video demonstrates things that do not work when play across slides is set; 3D perspective, distorted aspect ratio, reflection, and more
[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/unnamed-file-1.mp4[/KGVID]
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
The Presentation Podcast Episode #40 Released Today!
A new episode of The Presentation Podcast with Troy, Sandy, and Nolan is available today! Check out the latest episode, #40 – “Mistakes We Have Made!”
Show Excerpt: Life, and being a professional, is a matter of learning from experiences – and sometimes those experiences are mistakes. Join in on a design studio conversation full of business mistakes seen, been a part of, or possibly created.
– Troy @ TLC
2017 Annoying PowerPoint Presentation Survey Results
Almost 500 people participated in this year’s “Annoying PowerPoint Presentation Survey.” Dave Paradi of Think-Outside-The-Slide has been sending out this survey for several years. The primary theme and message from the 2017 survey: “Audiences feel that too many presenters don’t care enough about their audience to spend the time necessary to create and deliver a good presentation.” Take a look at a quick summary of the results below.
Thank you for the amazing effort and sharing the results every year, Dave! The full survey results are available here.
Troy @ TLC
Presentation Guild Salary Survey – Take Part!
The Presentation Guild’s 2nd Annual Presentation Industry Salary Survey is open – add your info!
This is a great tool for the Presentation Industry, and it will only get better and more important with each year. Plus, everyone that completes the survey receives a copy free (free to all Presentation Guild members – and I highly recommend everyone with a presentation related job be a member).
Info about the 2017 survey on The Presentation Guild site here.
Go directly to the survey here. Hurry, survey closes Monday, October 23!”
-Troy @ TLC
Presentation Summit Recap
Lori and I (Troy) attended the 2017 Presentation Summit, hosted in Florida last week. Yes, we attended, no presenting this year, which was a fantastic treat as I was able to spend all of my time talking with so many great people (vs. planning, rehearsing, and being committed to presenting).
Next year will be close to the TLC Creative Services studio in San Diego, CA September 23-26, 2017. I highly recommend the conference for the great session topics, but almost more important is the networking with presentation industry talent, host of presentation industry vendors, AND direct access to the team of PMs and Devs from the Microsoft PowerPoint team that attend each year.
And at the summit this year we recorded a great group conversation for The Presentation Podcast that released earlier this week. Episode 39 – The Presenters Gather at The 2017 Presentation Summit Conference!
-Troy @ TLC
The Presentation Podcast Episode #39 Released Today!
A new episode of The Presentation Podcast with a dozen great presentation industry experts gathered for a presentation conversation. Available today! Check out the latest episode #39 The Presenters Gather at The 2017 Presentation Summit Conference!
Add us to your favorite Podcasts on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, SoundCloud and more at The Presentation Podcast.
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.
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