PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques

Video Insertion in PowerPoint - YouTube Video Download and Conversion and QuickTime Conversion

In today's multi-media era, audiences expect to not only to hear from presenters but to see the "moving pictures" that help tell their story.   With the explosive growth of YouTube, users can often find clips there that can help meet this objective.  Unfortunately, the lack of transparency on how to download YouTube video files and format incompatibilities between YouTube .flv files and Microsoft acceptable video files don't make this the easiest task.  In addition to YouTube videos, many presenters are recording their own videos that are created in QuickTime and struggling to convert these for use in PowerPoint presentations.     

So how can you solve these problems?  Here are a few recent suggestions that are worth exploring:

The Star Bulletin Tech Writer John Aksalud has written an article "How to Use YouTube Effectively" that delineates the two steps in the process to saving and converting a YouTube video for offline use in your presentations.  He provides links to 3 video download services  (Keepvid.com, Savevideodownload.com and Savetube.com) and 3 conversion services ( Pazera-Software.com, Flv-to-mp3 and Prism Video Converter) to help you with this task. 

San Francisco Chronicle author David Einstein has another technique for downloading YouTube videos in a recent Q& A column where he references typing in the word "kiss" in the YouTube video URL right after the www. and before youtube in the address.  This takes you to the Kiss YouTube site where with one click and the word kiss you can download your YouTube video in .flv format.  This video can format can in turn be converted using a tool like Videopiggy.   Interestingly the Videopiggy site says that their software will do this in one step, so it appears that the "kiss" aspect of the assignment might be avoided.

I watched a couple of YouTube video in their How To series that provides examples of server based video download and conversion services like MediaConverter.org,  Vixy.net, Convertyoube.com, Modifyvideo.com, vconvert.net and flvix.com along with examples and benefits of downloading and converting at your desktop using the services like those referenced elsewhere in this posting.  Here's one of the videos that I watched.

Meanwhile, The New York Times Personal Tech columnist J.D. Bierdorfer offers tips on how to convert QuickTime videos to a format like .avi that are supported by PowerPoint by using either QuickTime Pro or services like RAD Video Tools or MediaCoder.

Look elsewhere on this blog for other references for how best to accomplish this task.

YouTube Video in PPT

ZDNet UK blogger William Peterson has posted tips on PowerPoint and YouTube in his posting "Live Your YouTube Video in PowerPoint".  The posting compiles various ways to include YouTube video into PowerPoint for when you are connected to the internet or when you are looking to download and convert a YouTube video to a format that is compatible with PowerPoint. 

This is a topic that I've posted other links and resources here at PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques.

Paul Gibler
the Web Chef

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

YouTube Embed in PowerPoint

In a previous posting, I referenced a couple of educational videos from YouTube on embedding YouTube videos in PowerPoint.  The videos cover two options for the use of YouTube videos with PowerPoint.  The first discussed embedding a YouTube video for use while you are connected to the Internet amd the second described the tools and steps to take for downloading and converting a YouTube video for conversion and later insertion into your PPT for offline viewing.

Here's the video clip for YouTube use while online:

Since then I've come across a PowerPoint Add In that creates a short cut for inserting YouTube videos into your PowerPoint slides for online viewing.  The add-in was created by Shyam Pillai and is one of several available for download.  I've downloaded the tool and found it to be a useful shortcut for the mult-step process that was described in my earlier posting.

Lest we Forget - 9/11/01

YouTube Video Embed in PPT

My fellow blogger and Power Point expert Laura Bergells at Maniactive has a great posting summarizing and linking to 4 video tutorials on embedding YouTube video into PPT presentations using either PPT 2007 or 2003 with the videos linked and inserted in PowerPoint when you are offline or online.  I know that this is a hot topic judging by traffic to my blog on prior postings I've made on this topic linking to a step-by-step instructions at tiara.org.

I've taken the liberty of embedding one of the video clip instructions that Laura references on how to add a YouTube video to PowerPoint when you are planning to be online when you make your presentation.

I also experimented with the conversion directions in the YouTube video for offline insertions of presentation of YouTube videos using Video Downloader and ErightSoft's Super and found that it worked fairly well. 

Kudos to reponzo01, a 24 year old YouTuber for his simple and well done instructional videos.

Interested in Online Video?

Are you interested in online video?

If so you might want to see my post today on my other blog - the Web Chef's e-Bytes.  It reviews some of the latest reports on online video sharing sites beyond the YouTube phenomena.

Video Fun

Viral Video Charts had a very amusing video they titled Animator vs. Animation that I think you'll enjoy.

Hat tip to Adrants contributor Angela Natividad.

PowerPoint Humor and Spoofs

Laura Bergells at Maniactivce.com has a posting about a YouTube movie about PowerPoint. Having watched the video, I thought it would be worth embedding it here and letting more of you enjoy the humor.

Movies in PowerPoint

I like to add movie clips to PowerPoint presentations in my title/introductory slide or as part of transitional slides.  I find that a movie with sound or with embedded music can generate interest and grab the audiences attention at a point where you might need a transition from the "talking head" modality of presentation or when you're trying to send the presentation off with a bang.  I've used video clips without sound that I've attached a sound clip to that reinforces a point that I'm making.

Some resources for movie clips include:

• Digital Juice
• Internet Movie Archive
• Movieclip.biz

To insert a movie clip into your presentation is very easy.  The steps to follow are:

• Select slide
• Select Insert, select Movie and Sound, select From File (if the video clip has been saved to your computer)
• You'll receive a message how do you want your movie to start in the slide show? - automaticaly or when clicked?

Your selection here depends on how you anticipate using the video clip in your presentation.

Let us know if you have some video clip resources you'd like to share.