Cannot Embed Flash Movies in PowerPoint 2007

Here's one of the typical questions I have been asked about no longer being able to embed Flash movies in PowerPoint 2007:

I've been working with inserting Flash movies in PowerPoint without any problems in PowerPoint 2003, but since upgrading to 2007 I've not been able to embed a single Flash movie! PowerPoint 2007 poses no problems in getting the Shockwave Flash object into the PowerPoint slide, and it even allows me to set the embed option to True, but the fact is that the Flash file does not embed at all -- it does not travel with the PowerPoint presentation. This makes sharing impossible -- have you run into this issue, or know any workarounds?

There's no official word on this yet as to what is causing the issue, but it is clear that PowerPoint 2007 is preventing the embedding of a Flash movie -- maybe this is due to enhanced security controls in this version -- or it could be due to some other reason.

You can still continue using PowerPoint 2003 to create presentations with embedded Flash movies. If you must use PowerPoint 2007, you could make sure that the Flash movie and the PowerPoint presentation are in the same folder -- and then copy the entire folder if you need to move the presentation to another computer.

Labels: 2007, embed, flash, powerpoint

posted by Geetesh @ 1:15 PM 3 Comments Links to this post

Enable the Developer tab in the Ribbon

The options that allow you to insert Flash movies in PowerPoint 2007 (and maybe later versions) are found in the Developer tab of the Ribbon.

By default, this tab is not visible (as shown in Figure 1) -- and has to be turned on. If the Developer tab is indeed visible in your Ribbon (see Figure 2), you need not enable it.


Figure 1: There's no Developer tab in the Ribbon by default.


Figure 2: Now there's the Developer tab!

Otherwise, this is how you can enable the Developer tab in the Ribbon:

1. Choose Office Button | PowerPoint Options, to bring up a dialog box of the same name.
   


2. In the Popular tab (on the left pane), check the option that says Show Developer tab in the Ribbon, as shown in Figure 3.
   
   
   Figure 3: Check the option to show the Developer tab
   
   
3. Click OK to get back to the PowerPoint interface -- you should now see the Developer tab in the Ribbon (refer to Figure 2).
   

Once the Developer tab shows in the Ribbon, make sure that you have everything else you need to insert Flash movies in PowerPoint 2007...

Labels: 2007, flash, insert, powerpoint

posted by Geetesh @ 8:34 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Assemble Everything

Before you start inserting your Flash movie on a PowerPoint slide, you should follow these good practices to assemble all the stuff:

1. First of all, make sure that you have all the four prerequisites in place.
   
   
2. Place your saved PowerPoint presentation in a new or existing folder. Copy your Flash SWF file to this folder.
   
   If you need to insert the Flash SWF file into a new presentation, then save the Flash SWF file into a new folder. Then create a new presentation and save it in this folder.
   
   
3. If the presentation is not open, launch PowerPoint, open the presentation and navigate to the slide where you want to insert a Flash SWF movie.
   
   
4. Thereafter, the process in which you insert the Flash SWF will differ a little if you use PowerPoint 2007 or a previous version of PowerPoint.

If you use a version of PowerPoint that's pre-2007, proceed here...

PowerPoint 2007 users should proceed here...

Labels: 2007, flash, insert, powerpoint

posted by Geetesh @ 3:49 PM 0 Comments Links to this post