Inserting Media Clips
The quickest way to add a media clip (p. 34) to your PowerPoint presentation is to select one of the AutoLayouts from the New Slide dialog box that includes a media clip such as Text & Media Clip or Media Clip & Text.
To access this dialog box, shown in Figure 13.1, select the New Slide button or choose Common Tasks, New Slide from the Formatting toolbar.
Figure 13.1. The New Slide dialog box offers two AutoLayouts that include media clips.
→ For details on choosing and using layouts, see "Understanding Slide Layouts."
Figure 13.2 shows a sample slide with a media clip placeholder.
Figure 13.2. You can add a media clip by double-clicking the placeholder.
Double-click the media clip placeholder to open the Microsoft Clip Gallery, shown in Figure 13.3.
Figure 13.3. PowerPoint opens the Microsoft Clip Gallery.
The Microsoft Clip Gallery stores clip art, photographs, sounds, and movie clips that you can use in your presentation. Accessing the Microsoft Clip Gallery from the placeholder displays only the Sounds and Motion Clips tabs, not the Pictures tab.
Tip
You can also insert a media clip into an existing slide by clicking the Insert Clip Art button on the Drawing toolbar and choosing the Sounds or Motion Clips tab. Alternatively, select Insert, Movies and Sound, Movie from Gallery, or Sound from Gallery. If you use any of these methods to insert a media clip, the dialog box is called Insert Clip Art, Insert Movie, or Insert Sound rather than Microsoft Clip Gallery.
→ For more detailed explanations on using clip art, see "Inserting Clip Art."
The Microsoft Clip Gallery contains numerous categories of sound and video files. To insert a media clip from the gallery into your presentation, follow these steps:
Click either the Sounds tab or the Motion Clips tab, depending on the type of media clip you want to add.
Click the category whose selections you want to view. The Clip Gallery displays a series of individual clips relating to that category, shown in Figure 13.4.
Figure 13.4. Narrow down your media clip search by category.
Tip
Use the navigation buttons, Back and Forward, to navigate the Clip Gallery if the first category of selections doesn't suit your needs.Click the selection you want to insert in your presentation. A menu with several buttons appears, as shown in Figure 13.5.
A message box asks if you want to play the file automatically in the slide show. Click Yes if you do. Otherwise, you need to click the file to play it.
To later change how the clip is played, you can choose Slide Show, Action Settings to specify mouse click and mouse over effects. You can set additional play options on the Multimedia Settings tab of the Custom Animation dialog box. Access this dialog box by choosing Slide Show, Custom Animation.
→ For details on using action settings to animate your presentation, see "Using Action Settings."
→ To learn about the advanced options in the Custom Animation dialog box, see "Creating Custom Animations."
Figure 13.5. This menu provides several media clip options.
Tip
You can also insert a sound or video file by choosing Insert, Object and choosing the appropriate object from the Insert Object dialog box. This uses the Windows Media Player to play the clip rather than the PowerPoint Player. In general, use this method of inserting a media clip only when PowerPoint doesn't support the clip format you want.
Working with Media Clips in the Microsoft Clip Gallery
When you are in a Clip Gallery category, you can find out additional information about each clip, recategorize it, or add it to a Favorites folder.
Click the media clip to display a floating menu with four buttons. These buttons are
Insert Clip Inserts the selected clip into the PowerPoint presentation and closes Microsoft Clip Gallery.
Play Clip Plays a sound file or previews a video clip in a preview window, as shown in Figure 13.6.
Figure 13.6. Use the preview window to see what a movie clip looks like.
Add Clip to Favorites or Other Category Enlarges the menu to display a drop-down list that lets you add this clip to a Favorites category or any other existing category (see Figure 13.7). Click OK to close.
Figure 13.7. You can add media clips to other categories or a favorites list.
Note
Whenever you add a clip to the Favorites category, it's available under this category button when you start Microsoft Clip Gallery.
Find Similar Clips Enlarges the menu, as shown in Figure 13.8.
Figure 13.8. If one clip isn't quite right, look for other similar clips.
Click the Artistic Style or Color & Shape button to find and display clips that match these criteria. Or select one of the related keywords to display clips that match that keyword.
Importing Media Clips
PowerPoint also includes the capability to organize and categorize media clips you already store elsewhere on your computer by importing them into the Clip Gallery. To import a file, follow these steps:
Click the Import Clips button from the Microsoft Clip Gallery. Figure 13.9 displays the Add Clip to Clip Gallery dialog box.Select the folder in which the clip is located from the Look In drop-down list.
Click Import. The Clip Properties dialog box displays (see Figure 13.10).
Figure 13.10. Describe the clip in this tab.
On the Description tab, you can enter a descriptive word or phrase about the clip.
On the Categories tab, you can select the categories in which to display the clip.
Tip
Click New Category to add another category if none of the existing categories suits your needs.
→ To learn how to set up a new category for clips, see "Creating a New Category."
On the Keywords tab, you can add or delete keywords associated with this clip.
→ For information about how to organize your images, see "Recategorizing Clip Art Images."
Getting Media Clips Online
If the existing media clips don't suit your needs, you can download additional clips from Microsoft's Web site.
To download online clips, follow these steps:
From the Microsoft Clip Gallery, click the Clips Online button. PowerPoint displays a dialog box verifying that you can connect to the Internet.Tip
To access online clips and other Web-connected PowerPoint features, you must have Internet access—either through a company intranet site or through your own account with an Internet service provider.
Click OK to proceed. The licensing agreement for the Microsoft Clip Gallery Live Web site opens (see Figure 13.11).
Click the Accept button to accept the licensing agreement and continue (see Figure 13.12).
Click the Sounds or Motion tab in the upper-left corner to access sound or movie files.
Note
Note that downloading other media clips from the Web can violate copyright laws. Be sure to verify that you are using clips legally in your presentation before distributing to a wide audience. Clips that you retrieve from the Microsoft Clip Gallery are approved for use in any PowerPoint presentation, but you can't resell them as part of another clip collection.
To download clips, select the check box beneath each clip to place it in the selection basket, as shown in Figure 13.13.
Figure 13.11. Download sound and movie clips from the Microsoft Clip Gallery Live Web site.
Figure 13.12. Click on the appropriate tab to display sounds, motion, clip art, or pictures.
Figure 13.13. Choose the clips you want to download.
Click the Selection Basket hyperlink when you're done to display the basket of selected clips (see Figure 13.14).
Tip
Click the Empty hyperlink to delete clips from the selection basket.
Figure 13.14. You can download clips into the selection basket.
Click the Download hyperlink to continue to the next step (see Figure 13.15).
Microsoft Clip Gallery Live downloads the clips and displays them in the Microsoft Clip Gallery (see Figure 13.16).
Figure 13.15. You can choose whether to open or download the clip.
Figure 13.16. Select your new downloaded clips from the Microsoft Clip Gallery.
Note
To download an individual clip, select it to preview in the box below the Browse Clips by Category drop-down list. Click the clip in the preview box to open the File Download dialog box and download the file.