Replies

I know I’m way late responding to this, but I figured I might as well since multimedia can be so touchy with PPT.

The MS Help information is fine if you want to use Insert/Object to force Windows Media Player to play your multimedia files.

However, this information doesn’t help at all if you want to play the multimedia in PPT directly (using Insert/Movies and Sounds/Movie from File). In this case, PPT relies upon the MCI Media Player to handle your media files.

To test your file for compatibility with the MCI Media Player, go to Start/Run and type in mplay32.exe Now test your media file in that media player (the MCI Media Player). Does it play? If so, it should play in PPT. If it plays in the MCI Media Player but doesn’t play in PPT, then see http://www.echosvoice.com/tshoot_video2.htm%5B/url%5D for some troubleshooting information.

If the file doesn’t play in the MCI Media Player, then you’ll want to read http://www.soniacoleman.com/Tutorials/Powe…/multimedia.htm%5B/url%5D for specifics on common codecs and resetting the MCI settings in your registry.

Finally, Austin Myers has recently released a nice little utility, PFCMedia (Plays For Certain) that will eliminate these issues. There’s a fully functional trial download.

My new problem is that my designs aren

I’d recommend putting 999 in the “stop playing after” box. See Play sounds across multiple slides (A WAV runs through it) for specifics.

Good job, Don. You’ve found the way to do this kind of thing — which is to create a dummy slide…

The PPT development team is aware that users would like an animation to trigger a transition. I know I often could use such an animal, and the dummy slide thing gets tedious!

What Rudi said.

Also see Play sounds across slides

For the most part, PPT plays sounds “as is,” so you’ll need to do your volume adjustments in sound editing software.

Don’s option to use Insert/Movie/From File will work, but you’d have to convert the file from Quicktime MOV format to something else (AVI, MPEG) that PPT can play. PPT and QT don’t really get along well together. I suspect you know this, which is probably why you’ve chosen to call the QT player as you have.

Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer to why the video players won’t open full-screen or centered or whatever.

Since this question has been here a few days and you don’t yet have an answer, you might want to ask on the MS PPT newsgroup http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/…t&lang=en&cr=US%5B/url%5D If there’s a QuickTime discussion forum somewhere, you may want to ask there as well.

Wow, I don’t remember that feature at all. (Doesn’t mean it didn’t exist, just means I have a bad memory!)

Anyway, I’m 99.9% positive that there is no such a feature in any other version of PPT.

With intermittent, non-reproducible problems, it can indeed be difficult to find the cause. But since yours is a display issue — or seems to be, at least — I’d start with changing hardware acceleration http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00129.htm%5B/url%5D since SP-1 didn’t resolve the problem.

Re I’m also having a problem (this one is intermittent) opening clip art from clip art manager, you’re going to have to give more info to go on here. We can’t see what’s happening there, and “problem opening clip art” covers a lot of ground.

Re Is this/these issue(s) something that qualify for contact with the Microsoft support team? What does it mean that I get three free “helps” — I don’t know about your three free helps. Do you have a service warranty or something that came with your computer? If so, you might try calling the support people, although it may be your computer manufacturer, not Microsoft itself. The worst that can happen is they tell you it’s not free and you have to pay before they’ll go any further…

If your service package isn’t with Microsoft, you can still contact them, but it will cost money. http://www.microsoft.com/services/microsof…vices/supp.mspx%5B/url%5D Hit the “home users” link at the bottom of that page.

Bizarre. That’s not a “fix” I’ve ever seen, but hey, if it worked, good on ya!

As for the still image when the movie is over, you’ll have to do a screen cap of the last frame and animate that in on top of the movie after it stops playing. Or animate it in before the movie ends and use “hide while not playing” so the movie disappears.

The *.PCB file holds toolbar settings, but I haven’t ever had much luck transferring the file from one system to another. http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00292.htm%5B/url%5D has some info that may be useful to you.

I don’t know about creating a shared catalog (I think the KB article Wendell posted covers that, though), but http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q160475/%5B/url%5D explains what double-clicking a CIL does and where it stores the clip.

If you just need the file to open in Show mode, you can Save As and choose PowerPoint Show (*.PPS) or rename the PPT extension to PPS in a Windows Explorer window. http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00185.htm%5B/url%5D

Note that this won’t protect the file at all, which is a common misconception. http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00038.htm%5B/url%5D

Since it’s not a path-length issue, it may be a codec issue. The acid test is to try the file in the MCI Media Player. Go to Start/Run and type mplay32.exe If the file plays in that media player, it *should* play in PPT. If it doesn’t, you may need to rerender with a more common codec. http://www.soniacoleman.com/Tutorials/Powe…/multimedia.htm%5B/url%5D has information on those.

Wow. That’s a far cry from $300 in anybody’s dollars!

http://www.echosvoice.com/tshoot_video2.htm%5B/url%5D I suspect it’s a path-length issue.