Microsoft Office PowerPoint treats Flash animations like videos that can be embedded in or linked to in a presentation. On the Insert tab in PowerPoint, click the "Video" button on the far right and you can select the Macromedia Flash animation file you want to play in your slide show. Note, you must have Adobe's Flash player installed on your computer to play Flash animations in PowerPoint. You can download the Flash player from Adobe.com (see link in Resources). PowerPoint's video tools also allow you to link to Flash animations online.
Launch PowerPoint, click the "Insert" tab and then click the arrow underneath the "Video" button. You'll see three options; choose "Video from File."
Browse to the location of the Macromedia Flash animation on your computer. The file will have a SWF extension. Double-click the file to insert it into your PowerPoint presentation.
Click to select the inserted animation. Two new tabs will appear on the right of the Microsoft Office ribbon. The Video Tools tabs give you Format and Playback options. Playback options are limited for Flash animations, but you can choose when the video starts -- either on a click or automatically when you reach the slide -- and set the animation to rewind when it's done playing. Formatting lets you choose the size, borders and shape of the Flash animation.
Click on the "Insert" tab and click the arrow under "Video." Choose "Video from Web Site."
Browse to the website with the Flash animation you want to play. Find the embed code for the animation. For example, on YouTube you would click "Share" underneath the video to see the embed options.
Copy the embed code from the website. If you're using YouTube, check the box to use the old-style embed code before copying the code. Click in the box where the code is displayed and press "Ctrl+A" to select it all and then "Ctrl+C" to copy it.
Switch back to PowerPoint and click in the dialog box. Press "Ctrl+V" to paste in the embed code. Click "Insert."
- The embed code should start with "
- When you click "Play" in PowerPoint for a Web video, you may need to click "Play" again within the animation to start the video. PowerPoint just launches the Flash animation and lets you interact with it; you have to control it from there.
- You must have an active Internet connection to play embedded Flash animations during your presentation.
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