Go Beyond Animation with Video - Office : Ultimate Tips and Tricks

Okay, animations are fine and dandy. You can use them to add some extra flair to a document, or for more practical purposes, such as keeping certain information off-screen until you want it, at which point you swing it in with a nice animation. However, animations are limited; you have to use what Powerpoint gives you, or get REALLY creative with still images. Wouldn’t it be easier to just add video?
The answer used to be “well, not really” due to Powerpoint’s shoddy implementation of video objects. 2010 has changed things, however. You now can easily embed videos from both local and online files, and you have access to a wide variety of editing options.
First things first – you’ll find the Video button on the far right of the Insert tab. You can click on it to go directly to adding a local file, or you can click the arrow beneath for additional options, such as adding a file from a website.
Once you have added a video it will appear in the slide with a little player alongside the button, with which you can pause or play the video. By default, you will need to click in order to start the video when the slide appears, but remember the Animation Pane? Well, it’s back, and can be used to edit the timing of videos so that they play at the beginning of a slide or alongside other objects.

You’ll find more options if you right-click on a video and then click Trim Video. This will open a small editing menu that allows you to adjust the length of the video and clip off parts that aren’t needed. You can also modify the video using the Format Video option. This lets you adjust brightness, crop the video, and make other modifications.