Playing a video during our PowerPoint presentation – especially if it's short to ensure you don't lose the audience's attention – is a powerful way to vary your presentation. The best presentations combine your talking points, powerful slide visuals, and short demos or videos to really bring home your point.
In PowerPoint, there are three ways to embed a video into your slide:
- Embed a video that currently lives on your computer
- Grab a video from PowerPoint's stock library
- Link to a video that lives online (on YouTube, for example)
Let's go through all of these!
The steps for each of these video options is very similar. Below I'll go through how they differ, so you can make the right choice for you.
How to Embed a Video in PowerPoint: Step-by-Step
- Select the slide you want to insert a video into
- Go to the ‘Insert’ tab
- Click on ‘Media’ (last button on right)
- Click on ‘Video’
- Select one of three possible options:
This device: select a video saved on your computer. It'll be inserted into the slide and embedded into the final PowerPoint file. That will result in a large file size for your PowerPoint, as the video is now a part of the saved presentation.
Stock videos: choose from a large array of stock videos that PowerPoint has.
Online videos: insert a URL to embed a video from online, such as YouTube, Vimeo, and more. This video will not be embedded into the Presentation, so it relies on the online URL remaining active and live. If the video is deleted or moved online, you'll have to relink it.
PowerPoint Slides for Embedded Videos
If you're looking for slides that'll give you a nice frame for you to put your videos into, here are a couple of options:
Desktop Frames
This clean design is great for virtual tours, staff trainings, messages from the CEO and other corporate and company messages.
Abstract Video Frames
Click on your video, go to the ‘Video Format’ tab, select ‘Video Shape’ and press the rounded corners rectangle shape.
Short Product Demos
