Insert Commom Videos into PowerPoint

Generally, adding a video to your presentation goes easy with a few clicks on Insert > Movies and Sounds > Movie from File (in PowerPoint 97-2003) or Insert > Movie > Movie from file… (in PowerPoint 2007). But the video may not play in your PPT presentation due to a wrong file format. You know, PowerPoint only recognizes 4 video file formats - ASF, AVI, MPEG and WMV.

So, when you are about to insert a flash video from YouTube or Google Video, or a recorded video from your digital camera or Web camera, or a portion of a DVD movie, you’d better check whether it is a compatible file format to PowerPoint.

Here is a list of how-tos for 6 different types of video to insert to a PowerPoint presentation.

• Insert YouTube Video to PowerPoint

  Sure, you can play a YouTube video directly in your presentation using the embedding method, i.e., simply copy and paste the embed code of the video page to the target slide. Note that you must have Internet connection to make the embedding method work.

  In case YouTube is blocked on the target computer, you can download it to your local drive, convert to a supportable video format like AVI or WMV, and insert to your PowerPoint presentation. Because YouTube videos are in FLV, a file format that is not supported by PowerPoint.

  Must-read:
  Top 8 Tools & Services To Download, Convert YouTube Videos for PowerPoint
  Insert YouTube Videos to PowerPoint V.S. Put PowerPoint Presentations on YouTube

  Similarly, you can also insert a web video downloaded from Google, Yahoo, MetaCafe, Veoh, etc, with a .flv extension like YouTube videos.

  # Add flash videos from Google, Yahoo, MetaCafe, Veoh: Insert Flash Videos to PowerPoint

• Insert DVD Movie to PowerPoint

  You cannot put a DVD, or an audio or video portion of DVD, straight into any MS PowerPoint program. Coz DVD is not supported by PowerPoint.

  You should use a quality DVD ripper to rip/crop the DVD movie and convert it to AVI or WMV for PowerPoint.

  Must-read: Insert DVD Movie Clips to PowerPoint V.S. Burn PowerPoint Presentation to DVD

• Insert Digital Camera Video to PowerPoint

  If you want to use a funny video stored on your Canon or Nikon camera, you can copy and paste it to your PC. Save the camera video to AVI, and insert to your PowerPoint presentation.

• Insert VHS/Analog Video to PowerPoint

  For VHS or analog videos, you need to use a video capture app or device to convert them to digital ones. Then, save the converted videos as AVI or WMV and insert to your PowerPoint presentation.

• Insert Web Camera Video to PowerPoint

  You recorded a video clip with a web camera on your Dell. Now you would like to use it in a PowerPoint presentation. So, re-save the recorded video clip to AVI. Next, follow the Insert method mentioned at the first line to insert it to your PowerPoint presentation.

• Insert QuickTime Movie to PowerPoint

  Actually, an Apple QuickTime movie (.mov) file is not a supportable video format by PowerPoint. You cannot insert it directly to PowerPoint. You can hyperlink the QuickTime movie to PowerPoint, or convert the MOV file to AVI or WMV and insert to PowerPoint.

  Must-read: How to Add a QuickTime Movie to PowerPoint Presentation?

IMPORTANT PLUS:
To keep your video-inclusive PowerPoint presentation work on a different computer, do not forget to place the source video file and your presentation in the same file folder. Copy the folder to a USB and paste it to the target computer. Sometimes, you need to insert the video again to your presentation.