A subscriber asked how to start playing a video while using a remote.
Let’s say that you want to play a video but you don’t want it to play as soon as you display the slide. You want to explain the point on the slide first, then play the video to validate your point.
Furthermore, let’s say that you are using a remote and don’t want to have to walk over to your laptop and click on the video itself. A remote lets you click the slide, but not any specific object on the slide. (There are remotes that do give you that control, but most don’t.)
Here’s the technique to use if you want to control when the video starts without clicking the video itself.
- Insert the video. Choose Insert tab, Video. If a drop-down menu appears, choose Video from File or Video on my PC. Navigate to the video file, choose it, and click Insert.
- Click the Video window to select it. On the Playback tab that appears, check that the start is set to On Click (this is the default). If you go into Slide Show view now, you’ll see that you have to click the video window (or its Play button) to start playing the video.
- Click the Animations tab. In 2007, click the Custom Animation button. In 2010 and 2013, in the Advanced Animation group, click the Animation Pane button. This opens the (Custom) Animation pane.
- You’ll see the video listed in the pane. Many people don’t know that sounds and videos are listed as animations, but that’s how PowerPoint determines the order in which they play; they are part of the animation sequence. You’ll also see the word “Trigger” above the listing. A trigger requires you to click an object to make something (usually animation) happen. In this case, you must click the video window to play it. Hover over the listing, click the down arrow, and choose Timing.
- In the Pause Video dialog box’s Trigger section, choose Animate as Part of Click Sequence, as shown below. This means that you can click anywhere on the slide to make the sound start.
- Click OK
- Go into Slide Show view. Click with your remote using the same button you would use to advance to the next slide. (You can also click anywhere on the slide with a regular mouse.) The video will start playing.
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Thanks a lot!
In Office 2016 you need to choose “effect options” in order to access the Timing menu.
And what’s the trick for activating a link remotely?
At http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/pptblog/link-to-other-presentations-and-return-to-the-original-presentation/, look at the first comment, which asks the same question, and my answer.
Ellen
Thank you Ellen!
Thanks for the tip! Really useful!
Great stuff, It works with Office 16 as well (same as office 13). Cheers
Ellen, thanks a lot for the great tip. I have another question: I have a longer video inserted in PowerPoint and I want to pause it during my presentation, emphasize a few points and then resume it again. Is this somehow possible without using the keyboard, just the presenter?
Vadav, you can actually insert another Pause animation (choose Add Animation on the Animations tab and choose Pause in the Media section.) Then, the next click will pause the video. But only once. the click after that will go to the next slide. If you know how many times you want to stop and start the video, you can set them up this way.
Hi Ellen. Great post! Was wondering if it possible to do this with PowerPoint for Mac? I generally use my mac to create the PowerPoints, but the actual presentations may be on either a Mac or Windows. Thanks!
Eddie, that’s a good question. I don’t have a Mac but it’s my understanding that the Mac versions of PowerPoint don’t support triggers :(, so it might not work.
On the Mac we try to use Keynote. It does this automatically for you instead of having to dig around.
I loved Powerpoint until I found Keynote.
I’ve come up with a different way to do this, so that the presenters themselves can trigger the video without having to mouse-around to the PLAY button or hover over a floating menu in the video window looking for a triangular “play” button.
Make a copy of any slide with video in it.
Set the video in the FIRST of the two slides to PLAY ON CLICK. (it will never be clicked anyway)
Set the video in the SECOND (copy) of the slide to AUTOMATICALLY PLAY, and add a little light grey text box near the video to say “Video now playing”, so that the presenter will know they’ve started the video playback (in case of lag… prevents multiple clicks by the presenter)
That way, a click ANYWHERE will give the presenter a chance to say “Here’s the video I want to show you all”.. and just click the wireless pointer device.
I can play a Youtube video using my mouse but using my laser clicker only advances the slide – not start the video. If the mouse works why won’t the clicker?
A very neat trick for playing a video on PP. I definitely try this with my laser pointer!