YouTube Flash Movies in PowerPoint

Enhance Your PowerPoint Presentations by Adding YouTube Flash Movies

1. First Steps to Add a YouTube Flash Movie to PowerPoint

Step by Step Walkthrough with screen shots

1. Start a new PowerPoint presentation or open an existing one.
2. Select the slide that will contain your YouTube Flash movie.
3. Choose View > Toolbars > Control Toolbox from the menu. A new toolbar will appear.
4. Look for the icon in the bottom right corner of the Control Toolbox toolbar that looks like an hammer and wrench. This is the More Controls button.
5. Click on the More Controls button.

2. Insert a Shockwave Flash Object

1. Scroll in the alphabetical list of objects that appears and click on Shockwave Flash Object. Your mouse cursor will change to a + (plus sign).
2. Drag your mouse to form a rectangle on the slide. When you let go of the mouse, you will see a box with a large X through the rectangle. This is the container for your YouTube Flash movie.
3. Use the selection handles to resize the box if necessary.

Next, we need to get the complete file name of the YouTube Flash movie, including the path to the file. The term path, with reference to a file name, means the complete folder structure that contains the file, including the file name.

3. YouTube Flash Movie File Path

1. Using My Computer, locate the folder containing the YouTube Flash movie file. Flash movies have a SWF extension on the end of the file name.
   • Note - DO NOT click on the movie file in the list of file names. That will cause the movie to open. We only need to know the file name right now.
   
   
2. In the Address text box, click your mouse at the end of the text.
3. Type a backslash ( \ )at the end of the current path followed by the actual file name of your YouTube flash movie. For example - C:\WR Documents\YouTube Flash Movies\my_youtube_flash_movie.swf
4. This is the complete file name path to your YouTube Flash movie. Copy this text.
5. Close the window. The file name is now copied to the clipboard, waiting for the next step.

4. Back to the Shockwave Flash Object

1. Restore the PowerPoint window to full screen, if necessary.
2. Right click on the large rectangle with the X in the middle (the container for the YouTube Flash movie) and choose Properties from the shortcut menu.
3. When the Properties dialog box opens, click (Custom) at the top of the list.
4. Click on the ... button beside (Custom). This is called the Build button.

Note - If you are missing the (Custom) entry at the top of the Properties dialog box, this article on Problems Inserting Flash Movies in PowerPoint will take you through the steps to make the necessary entries manually. Otherwise, proceed to the next step.

5. Insert the YouTube Flash movie URL

1. Paste the path to your .SWF file into the Movie URL text box. This is the file name path you copied in Step 3 above.
2. Add a check mark beside Embed Movie. Choose any other properties that you would like for your YouTube Flash movie.
3. Click OK.
4. Save your presentation.

6. Test Your YouTube Flash Movie

• To test this one slide only, press the keyboard shortcut key combination Shift + F5.
  
  
• To run the complete slide show, choose Slide Show > View Show from the menu, or press the F5 key on the keyboard.