Edit the Control Properties (PowerPoint 2007)

Created: Saturday, August 18, 2007, posted by Geetesh Bajaj at 1:56 pm

Updated: at



Important Note: Make sure you read this post on not being able to embed a Flash movie within a PowerPoint 2007 presentation.

Now that you have inserted the control in your PowerPoint 2007 slide, it’s time to bring in the Flash movie within the control. You need two things:

  1. A PowerPoint slide with the Shockwave Flash control inserted.
  2. A Flash movie placed in the same folder as your PowerPoint presentation.

If you don’t have a sample Flash movie, get it here.

Get started with editing the control properties:

  1. Right-click the control and choose Properties (see Figure 1).
  2. Access the properties
    Figure 1: Access the properties
  3. This will bring up the Properties window that you can see in Figure 2. Select the (Custom) option so that you can see the three ellipses (…) towards the right — click on these ellipses. If you don’t find the (Custom) option, ignore these steps, and proceed to Step 6.
  4. Properties window
    Figure 2: Properties window
  5. This will bring up the Property Pages dialog box that you can see in Figure 3. If this dialog box covers your Flash control or the slide, you can move it away a little.
  6. Property Pages dialog box
    Figure 3: Property Pages dialog box
  7. In the Movie URL text box, type the name of the Flash SWF file that you placed in the same folder as the presentation. You can also type an entire web URL within this text box if you want to access a SWF live from the Internet. Check the Play option, and do check the Embed option too (unless you typed in a web URL in the Movie URL text box). There are several other options in this dialog box that you can tweak as required, but do remember that the Background Color option makes no difference!
  8. Click OK to get back to the slide and play the presentation. Once you play the presentation you may want to resize and reposition the inserted control.
  9. Not applicable for everybody: If you branched out from Step 2, select the Movie option in the Properties dialog box, and type the name of your Flash SWF (see Figure 4) — no path is required since we already placed everything (the presentation and the SWF) in the same folder. Also make sure that the EmbedMovie option remains set to False.
  10. Properties window
    Figure 4: Properties window
  11. Make sure you set the EmbedMovie option to False since PowerPoint 2007’s new security options don’t respect the True value for EmbedMovie. Look at this post too: Embedded Flash Does Not Work On Another Computer
  12. Save the presentation.

Maybe you don’t want to make any more changes, or you might want your Flash movies rewound after playing. Or maybe you don’t want to follow so many steps, and prefer an automated one-click process. In that case, look at FlashBack.

Edit the Control Properties (PowerPoint 2007)


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11 Comments

11 responses to “Edit the Control Properties (PowerPoint 2007)”

  1. Avarice says:

    Thanks, this has go to be the best Flash inside PowerPoint tutorial anywhere!

  2. Another typical Geetesh explanation. All the details you need to get the job done, no extraneous information, clearly presented.

    Doesn’t the UN or somebody nominate people like this as world treasures?

  3. Anonymous says:

    Great instructions. Finally, I was able to use my Flash objects! Thank you so much.

  4. well, nice into, but how to insert flash which load parameter from external txt file? like titles or some info displayed inside of flash?

  5. Geetesh says:

    Make sure you don’t embed the file in the PowerPoint presentation — then place both the SWF file and the external text file in the same folder as the PowerPoint presentation and insert the Flash control thereafter.

  6. BEckstein says:

    THanks so much! Simple to follow detailed instructions that covered any situation I may have had. Thanks again!

  7. Sophware says:

    Thanks – this helped me and a colleague at Atrion Networking Corp.

  8. Jeremy says:

    Very good instructions. Thanks for going to the trouble to make them so clear and simple.

  9. hitamputih says:

    OMG, this is so great. you really save my day. Simple and well placed instructions. Cant thank you enough. Keep up the good work Geetesh :)))

  10. kwaters126 says:

    I have the swf file in and my buttons are working , changing the state etc. However I have mouseover tooltips that are linked to .xml data and the popup are not appearing. The folder the .swf is trusted. Not sure where to go from here.

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