I am frequently asked if it is possible to convert PowerPoint presentations into movies that can be shared on websites such as YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook. Sadly, the answer is no, at least not from within PowerPoint 2007. However, there is a workaround if you have Windows Movie Maker on your system (most computers using Windows do have the program by default).
The following steps show how to convert a presentation into a movie. However, please note that any transitions or custom animations you have applied to your slides will not convert. You can add transitions between slides in Windows Movie Maker, but I would suggest reworking any slides in PowerPoint that were dependent upon animations.
- Using PowerPoint, open the presentation you would like to convert into a movie.
- Click the Office button and select Save As.
The Save As dialog box appears.
- From the Save As dialog box, navigate to where you would like the presentation to be saved.
- From the Save as type drop-down menu, select JPEG File Interchange Format (*.jpg).
A dialog box will appear asking whether or not you want to export every slide or only the current slide.
- Select Every Slide.
A dialog box will appear alerting you that each slide in your presentation has been saved as a separate file in a folder by the same name as your presentation.
- Click OK.
- Close PowerPoint.
- Open Windows Movie Maker.
- Choose File > Import Into Collections.
The Import File dialog box appears.
- Navigate to the folder in which you saved each slide as a JPG image.
- Open the folder and press [Ctrl] [A] on your keyboard to select all of the images.
- Click Import.
All of your slides will appear in the Collections area in the center of the screen.
- Press [Ctrl] [A] on your keyboard to select all of the slides and drag them down to the storyboard below.
If you press the Play button on the preview panel to the right, you will notice that your presentation is now in movie form. If all you needed was a movie, skip to Step 19. If you would like to add music or other audio, continue to the next step.
- To add music to the movie, select Import audio or music from the Capture Video category.
The Import File dialog box appears.
- Navigate to where your audio is saved, select it and click Import.
- Just above the storyboard, click Show Timeline if necessary (if you are looking at the timeline instead of the storyboard already, skip this step).
- Drag your imported audio from the Collections area to the Audio/Music portion of the timeline.
- Right-click the audio track on the timeline and notice that a shortcut menu pops up with audio options including Mute, Fade In, Fade Out, and Volume. Adjust these setting as you would like.
- Take the time to play around with the Edit Movie options. (You can add transitions or effects as needed.)
- From the Finish Movie category, select Save to my computer.
The Save Movie Wizard appears.
- Give your movie a name and select where you would like to save it.
- Click Next a few times and then click Finish.
Your movie is now ready to be uploaded to your video sharing site of preference.
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."
Great information here, and very well organized. I was up and running in no time. Stephen Spielberg need not worry just yet, but I am well on my way to what I need to accomplish. Thank you so much.
Posted by: Tom Wetzel | October 07, 2011 at 06:07 PM