PowerPoint 2008 for the Mac: Inserting YouTube Videos

by AJ George

Over the last two weeks I've shown you how to insert YouTube Videos into PowerPoint 2007 when presenting both with and without an internet connection. This week I'm going to show you how to do the same thing, but in PowerPoint 2008 for the Mac.

1. Find the YouTube video you would like to insert into your PowerPoint presentation.
   
   
2. Copy the URL for the video.
   
   
3. Navigate to www.mediaconverter.org (there are other free media converters, but I've tried and had success with this one) and click enter a link.
   
   
4. Paste in the URL for the YouTube video and click OK.
   
   
5. Click go to the next step.
   
   
6. Select an output file type and click OK.
   
   Choose either mov or wmv. Mov files will play on Macs but will not play on PCs. Wmv files will play on PCs, but not on Macs. If you will be presenting on a PC, select wmv and read the note at the bottom of this post before inserting your video into PowerPoint.
   
   
7. Click start to begin the conversion.
   
   
8. When finished, click download and save the file to your desired location.
   
   
9. In PowerPoint, ensure that you are working on the slide where you would like insert the video.
   
   
10. From the Standard toolbar, select the Media tool and choose Insert Movie (if you do not see this toolbar, from the Menu bar, choose View > Toolbars > Standard).
    
    
    
    The Insert Movie dialog box appears.
    
    
11. Navigate to your saved YouTube video and click Choose.
    
    
12. Select whether you would like your video to start Automatically or When Clicked.
    
    
    
    
13. When you view your slide show, simply click the video to play it. Click the video again to pause or stop it.
    
    
    

Note: If you will be presenting your slide show from a PC, you should have converted the YouTube video to wmv (the rest of these steps would still apply to you). There are several programs that will allow Mac users to play wmv files on their systems, but I have tried and had success with Flip4Mac, which you can download for free here. You may need to restart your computer before the software will allow you to watch the wmv files and insert them into your PowerPoint presentation.

Related Posts:

PowerPoint 2007: Insert YouTube Videos (with internet)

PowerPoint 2007: Insert YouTube Videos, Part 2 (without internet)

PowerPoint 2010: Inserting YouTube Videos

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About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and  "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials." You can follow AJ on Twitter at http://twitter.com/andrayajgeorge.

Comments

[Caroline Leal]

Thank you so much! You saved my life with your very detailed explanation!

[Meredith]

Phenomenal tutorial. Such a huge help! Thank you!