This is a very common question that we’ve encountered on many occasions. By default, the Ruler is not visible when PowerPoint is launched.
To see the Rulers, go to the View tab, Show section and turn on Ruler.
That’s it! Now the rulers will be visible automatically when PowerPoint is used.
-Troy @ TLC
Yes! It’s true! You can now hear me and other Presentation Design professionals on a new Podcast entitled The Presentation Podcast! New episodes will be available 2 times a month and we’ll cover different topics each week!
I am constantly listening to Podcasts, so I am extremely excited about the opportunity to put together a new Podcast specific to the presentation industry. The hosts are Nolan Haims, Sandra Johnson and Myself. We will have discussions all about presentation design, best practices, running a design studio, tips & tricks and lots more so be sure to tune in!
Add The Presentation Podcast to your iTunes Podcasts and join us for the fun!
-Troy @ TLC
Can a video morph in PowerPoint? The answer is yes (but not completely).
The great thing is – a video placeholder works with Morph. Here is my two slide sample, the video on the second slide has been resized to full screen.
In the demo video below, the sample video growing to full slide size with a Morph transition works perfectly. However, due to a limitation of how PowerPoint plays videos, a video cannot play across slides. In this sample, the visual works nicely with the 2nd slide set with a shorter slide transition duration (morph) and a Play-with-Previous to have the video start playing instantly after the morph finishes. But a video with audio or content that would look awkward with a pause will not work as well (visually).
[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/unnamed-file-6.mp4[/KGVID]
Inserting video into Powerpoint is an easy task. Using the video playback bar also makes controlling the video playback easy.
The playback bar is available in slide edit view – when a video is selected, it appears. The playback bar can be used to preview the video, click-and-scrub through a video, pause a video, and see a live time code.
During a presentation, when the mouse is moved over the video, a simplified semi-transparent playback bar will pop up. Most of the same functions are available; time code and incremental incremental jumps are not on the playback bar in slideshow.
The playback bar position cannot be moved (although this functionality is definitely on my wish list for the Microsoft Dev team). When the cursor is moved off the video, the playback bar hides almost immediately (and reappears with any mouse movement over the video).
Slideshow playback control options:
The semi-transparent playback bar is not overly distracting because it’s nicely designed. Here are a few examples over different color videos. In addition, these two videos are on the same slide, side-by-side. See demo video of this slide below.
Here is a video demo of interacting with videos during a slide show.
[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/unnamed-file.mp4[/KGVID]
-Troy @ TLC
In the spirit of Easter week, here’s an awesome Easter 2016 PowerPoint Template, put together by Designer Amber, that you can download for free and use it for personal or commercial use.
Have a safe and festive Easter 2016.
[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/unnamed-file-5.mp4[/KGVID]
-Troy TLC
Keepvid.com allows you to download streaming videos from of a variety of websites, including YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and more. The process is quick, easy and very convenient.
A video version of this process is below.
To get started, you must first make sure that Java is enabled. According to keepvid.com/help, Java is sometimes required to fetch download links.
Find the video that you want to download, copy the link – URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to your video and paste it in the field to the left of the Download button.
A list of links to your video file will appear on the bottom of the page in various sizes and formats.
Formats to select from include Video formats: MP4, FLV, 3GP, WebM and Audio Formats: M4A, MP3.
Click on the actual link for your specific format and size to simply save the video file.
You now have the video (in the format of your choice) downloaded onto your computer!
– Troy @ TLC
[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/unnamed-file-3.mp4[/KGVID]
(Note: This an updated post. Original post 05/07/2014)
I’m sure you’re aware of the legalities over Copyright Infringement. Download videos that are not yours at your own risk.
What we’re doing here is creating a top and and a bottom banner by inserting a stretched video with animation. There is a video demonstration below.
The video used for this blog was sourced from Videoblocks.com. The aspect ratio of HD MOV 1920 x 1080.
Link to sourced video Abstract Purple and Magenta Sparks
To insert a video > insert tab > video > for this blog I am using the “VIDEO ON MY PC” option. This will insert the video at original aspect ratio 1920 x 1080.
Scale the video to fill the width and height of page.
Scale the video from the bottom/center tab of the video to shorten the height. This creates a scaled video banner.
Duplicate and send the other video to the bottom of the page. Select both videos > Animation Tab > Click Play > Click the Animation Pane > Start with Previous. This allows both videos to be played at the same time on the initial startup.
With both videos selected Click on > Video Tools Tab, then Playback Tab > Start Automatically > Loop until Stopped.
This allows both videos to play automatically and loop in Slide Show Mode until stopped.
Pro for stretching a video: By using a stretched video, the user can display the video in numerous shape and scale options, creating a unique styling display.
Cons for stretching a video: Stretching a video may work for most abstract displays, however it will not retain the original scale ratio of the object being displayed and will result in ruining the original image.
Christie @ TLC
Video Demonstration
[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/unnamed-file-4.mp4[/KGVID]
Savevideo is a great online tool that can be used to download videos as mp4 files. Although the site does not support Youtube videos, it does support a number of other popular sites, including Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter, Vine and Dailymotion (just to name a few). There is an extensive list of supported sites in the drop down menu under Supported video-sites.
To download a video using this simple tool:
Copy and paste the url for the desired video into the field and click Download.
(NOTE: Be careful not to click any other download buttons on the site, as they are likely advertisements.)
The download bar will turn green to show the video is in process
A list of available sizes will appear below the download bar.
Right-click the link that says Download video file next to the desired version, and select Save link as… Choose the location for your video file, and click Save.
Michelle @ TLC
Using auto advance for transition is easy, but calculating when a video will end in order to add in the correct auto advance timing is tedious.
However, it turns out that we do not need to actually figure out how long a video is because PowerPoint cannot use the auto transition feature to override a video that is playing and advance, even if we want to (the solution is to trim the video to the shorter duration or manually advance the slide).
Slide has video, presenter wants presentation to automatically go to next slide when video is done – easy.
On video slide, set to auto advance after 2 seconds. This assumes the video is the only animation and it is going to start playing automatically.
PowerPoint will go to the video slide, then the video will start playing and trigger to auto advance to next slide after 2 seconds, but it cannot do so until the video is done playing, so it waits for the video to finish. When the video play animation is done, the slide automatically advances to the next slide! We use this feature to help us easily setup what could be a complex request.
See the video example below:
– Amber @ TLC
When it comes to exporting video in PowerPoint, or any other program, there are many factors that play a role in the final quality.
One of those factors is the concept of interlaced or progressive.
In order to understand the answer, we first need to know what progressive vs. interlaced really means.
Here is the simple explanation:
Interlaced video was made popular with television and over the air TV transmission (in the dark ages, before Cable TV). Interlaced video sends half the data and bandwidth, so it made TV signal transmission easier. For video editors, it made digital editing and processing faster because you were working with half the amount of data.
With current technologies of HD and beyond, computer monitors, television monitors and projectors, the idea of interlaced (or 1/2 quality) video is virtually a thing of the past. So 720p and 1080p stand for “progress video” at that resolution. 720i & 1080i means the video is interlaced at that resolution. If there is not an “i” or “p” after the resolution it is assumed to be progressive “p.”
Because progressive video has more data than interlaced video (entire picture in each frame vs. half the picture in each frame), it appears sharper and richer in color.
This technique, however, is not ideal for broadcasting, due to the amount of data that needs to be transmitted. This brings us to Interlaced video. For the most part, interlaced video is used by TV broadcasters. It outputs from two adjacent frames one after the other, blending odd and even lines to form each image.
Quite a difference, right? To answer the original question “Is all PowerPoint video progressive?” – the answer is yes. PowerPoint’s video export only has profiles for progressive video, with 3 different resolution options. There is no practical need for interlaced video on any computer playback. If you are sourcing a video for a presentation and one of the options is progressive or interlaced, choose progressive.
-Troy @ TLC