PowerPoint Tips Blog

Helping you with presenting, PowerPoint, and speaking

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Tips
  • E-Store
  • Training
  • About
  • Affiliates
  • Advertise
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Design / Multimedia: Music, sound & video / Control movies with buttons

Control movies with buttons

January 16, 2002 by Ellen Finkelstein 8 Comments

READ LATER - DOWNLOAD THIS POST AS PDF >> CLICK HERE <<

Adding movies to your PowerPoint slides is a great way to add a multimedia element — your CEO speaking to shareholders or employees, a product demo, or a computer tutorial.

Play, Pause, and Stop buttons give you extra control in case you want to stop to answer questions or discuss something in more detail. They also look professional.

You’ll get the most reliable results with AVI, WMV, and MPG (MPEG) files.

The first step is to move your movie file to the same folder as your PowerPoint presentation. This is very important; if you don’t do this and later move your PowerPoint presentation — for example, onto another computer — your movie won’t play!

To insert the movie file, choose Insert > Movies and Sounds > Movie from File. Select the file and click OK. A message pops and you can choose to have the movie play automatically when you display the slide or only when clicked. Choose the When Clicked button. This creates a Pause action for the movie, so that it doesn’t play until you click it.

You can change this later by displaying the Custom Animation task pane, clicking the object’s item in the task pane, and choosing Start with Previous or Start after Previous from the drop-down list.

Go into slide show view and click the movie to make sure that it plays. Then return to normal view.

Follow these steps to create a play, pause, or stop button for the movie:

  1. Choose Slide Show > Action Buttons and click a button. You can drag the palette off the menu (it’ll be there next time!) so that it stays open as you work. You can also find this palette on the AutoShapes menu of the Draw toolbar. You can use the blank button for the Pause and Stop buttons and create your own graphic.
  2. the slide show view

    the slide show view

  3. Click on the slide to insert the default size button or drag to specify your own size.
  4. The Action Settings dialog box opens. Choose the None option and click OK.
  5. Do this for all three buttons. I made the graphics for the Pause and Stop buttons with simple rectangles. Then group the rectangles with their buttons so that each button is one object. For the Play button I used the Forward or Next button.
  6. buttons created

    buttons created

  7. To add a Play action to the movie, display the Custom Animation task pane and select the movie on the slide. On the task pane, choose Add Effect > Movie Actions > Play.
  8. Click the new Play action on the task bar and choose Timing from the drop-down list.
  9. In the Play Movie dialog box, if you don’t see anything below the Triggers button, click the Triggers button to display the trigger options.
  10. Click the Start Effect on Click of option. Choose Action button: Forward or next from the drop-down list.
  11. Click the Start Effect on Click of option

    Click the Start Effect on Click of option

  12. To test the button, go into slide show view. When you click the Play button, the movie should play. (OK, actually, you can click anywhere on the slide to play the movie.)
  13. Repeat steps 5-9, this time choosing the Stop action and the Stop button. Note that the Stop button stops the movie and winds it to the end; if you click the Play button, the movie starts from the beginning.
  14. You should already have a Pause action listed in the task pane. With the movie selected, repeat steps 6-9, choosing the Pause button. The Pause action both pauses the movie and restarts it where it left off.

Test your buttons and have fun controlling your movie!

Share
Tweet
Share
+13
Shares 3
READ LATER - DOWNLOAD THIS POST AS PDF >> CLICK HERE <<

Related posts:

  1. Create invisible buttons
  2. Play music or narration throughout a presentation
  3. Add taped narration to a presentation
  4. Putting Flash animation in PowerPoint

Filed Under: Multimedia: Music, sound & video Tagged With: buttons, graphics, movies, PowerPoint, presentations, slides

8
Leave a Reply

avatar
This comment form is under antispam protection
7 Comment threads
1 Thread replies
0 Followers
 
Most reacted comment
Hottest comment thread
8 Comment authors
Word UserDavidjohnaliVineet Recent comment authors
avatar
This comment form is under antispam protection
  Subscribe  
newest oldest most voted
Notify of
Nancy Eveleth
Guest
Nancy Eveleth

For 2 days I have unsuccessfully tried to get help with Pause and Resume MUSIC. I was impressed with your instructions about pausing movies and tried to adapt to music, but I cannot. The problem is the PAUSE button. I can’t locate how to do this. This is for PPT 2007. Would you know how to do this?

Any help or leads you can give me would be so appreciated.

Thanks
[email protected]

Vote Up0Vote Down 
12 years ago
HELEN RIDGE
Guest
HELEN RIDGE

I have successfully managed to insert and play a movie in my powerpoint presentation. But when I then save the presentation and reopen it it reopens as a picture with no movie associated. What am I doing wrong?

Vote Up0Vote Down 
11 years ago
Ellen
Guest
Ellen

Perhaps the link with the movie was lost? If you’re using 2003 or 2007, remember that the video is linked, not embedded. Always put the video in the same folder as your presentation and then insert it.

Vote Up0Vote Down 
11 years ago
Vineet
Guest
Vineet

Thanks for the tutorial, it helped a lot!

Vote Up0Vote Down 
10 years ago
ali
Guest
ali

where are these in 2010 version

Vote Up0Vote Down 
9 years ago
john
Guest
john

Is there a way to put an audio pause on the second slide that the audio is playing on? I have it on the starting slide but would like to put it on the second or third slide-to pause for discussion and then hit it again to continue.

Vote Up0Vote Down 
7 years ago
David
Guest
David

A very helpul post. I wanted to be able to play a movie that was off the slide by clicking an object and couldn’t do it with an action button. This worked perfectly. I’m using PowerPoint 2013 for Windows. Thanks

Vote Up0Vote Down 
7 years ago
Word User
Guest
Word User

Mr. John, This is for you as you asked, “Is there a way to put an audio pause on the second slide that the audio is playing on?”

Unfortunately, there isn’t any other way to achieve that. You have to insert audio as an object and use show/hide object action to play/stop the audio.

Vote Up0Vote Down 
5 years ago
wpdiscuz   wpDiscuz

Free Video Training!

13 Techniques that Will Make Designing Your Slides EASY!

And get the PowerPoint Tips Newsletter with tips and resources for presenters. Plus 5 bonus tips!

BirdSend Email Marketing Tool
4-up-ads PresenterMedia PoweredTemplate High-Persuasion Secrets Power Pointers Quarter Hour


Recent Posts

Recent Posts

  • How do you format your slide titles?
  • Using PowerPoint’s cartoon people
  • Which version of PowerPoint should you buy?
  • Add a customizable, live web feed with Cameo
  • Get a designer look with abstract images to create backgrounds for slides and shapes

Connect with me!

Connect with me! Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Ellen Finkelstein, Inc. · Fairfield, IA · Tel: 515-989-1832

Privacy, Refund, and Other Legal Stuff

wpDiscuz