Add a button to play your video clip

You can add a button to your slide that, when

clicked, plays a video clip in Windows Media Player.

This is a great way to play video clips only when you

are ready for them. For example, if you are delivering

a presentation about an event and you are not sure if

you will have time to play your video clip, you can

insert a button onto the slide that plays the video

only when it is clicked.

The button you create is an action button. In this

case, the action is to play a specific video file using

Windows Media Player. To launch the video clip, you

must know the path to the file. In Windows Vista, for

example, the default folder for video and movies is

named Videos, which is located in your user profile

folder. Its path is usually C:\Users\Name\Videos,

where Name is your user name.

In PowerPoint 2007, the ability to run programs via

an action button is disabled as a security measure.

Therefore, when you run the action button, you will

need to tell PowerPoint that it is okay to run the

program.

1 Click the Insert tab.

2 Click Shapes.

3 Click the Movie action button.

4 Click and drag where you want

to position the button.

PowerPoint creates the

button and displays the

Action Settings dialog

box.

5 Click Run program

( changes to ).

6 Type the path to your

video file.

7 Click OK.

PowerPoint assigns the

play video action to the

button.

8 Press F5 to open the

presentation in Slide

Show view.

The presentation opens in Slide Show

view.

9 Navigate to the slide that contains the

action button.

10 Click the action button.

11 If you see a security warning, click Enable.

Note: PowerPoint blocks links to external

programs because those programs might

install viruses. You know that your video is

not malicious, however, so you can safely

click Enable.

The video plays.

Did You Know?

You can also browse to the file you want to

open instead of typing the path. After Step 5,

click Browse. In the Select a Program to Run

dialog box, click Programs and then click All

Files. Now navigate to the folder in which the

video file resides, click the file, and then click

OK. Then proceed with Step 7.

Try This!

You can use a different player program by

preceding the video file path with the path

of the file that starts the program, followed

by a space. You can find the path to the

program by clicking Start, All Programs, and

then right-clicking the program for which

you want to find the path. Click Properties

and then click the Shortcut tab. The location

appears in the Target field.