Teaching Online at UTAS

It is possible to save out a video from a Powerpoint Presentation directly from within Powerpoint.

Before you do – here are some key things to check. It is always a good idea to play back the presentation by going to the Slide Show tab & then click Play, Start Presentation, or From Beginning (depending on your version). Check for any instances where mouse clicks are required – these will need to be changed to automatic.

1. Check that your slide progression is set correctly. The video will convert using whatever slide timings & animations currently set. To check and/or edit your slide timing – go to the Transitions tab & for each slide check the top-right part of the window to check that each slide is set to ‘automatic’ & that a suitable time is entered.

2. Check that any video & audio located on your slides are set to play automatically (or that the timing of their start time is set correctly). To do so click on the object & then view the ‘animations’ tab. The settings of the object is shown on the top-right.

3. Animations that require a mouse-click can also be changed to be timed/automatic using the ‘Animations’ tab. Click the ‘Animations Panel’ button on the Animations tab toolbar to show the side-panel containing a list of all timed objects for that slide. It will help you to locate & correct objects that need to happen at certain times (ie, if you want something to appear halfway through a narration – you can set the object to appear at a specific time using this panel).

4. Save the presentation as a powerpoint file (cntrl-s or File – Save) before you save out as a video – saving as a video will take a long time & you don’t want a sudden powercut or crash to wipe your hard work!

To save out a video version:

Go to the ‘File’ tab and click the ‘Save As’ option on the left-side of the window.

When you see the save options go to the file type dropdown menu & choose MPEG-4 or MP4 as the type.

Give the file a name & location then click ‘Save’.

It will take a long time to save – even for a short presentation. You may see a progress bar along the bottom of the screen. DON’T quit the program until you see the progress bar finish.

If there is any problem with the video you will see a popup notification to let you know, on success it will just finalise on its own without letting you know it was successful.

Remember – always watch the video it produces as there may still be residual issues with the timings/media objects. This MP4 can then be used in other editing software or uploaded to video sharing sites (it will also load fine into Echo360 or MyLO as is).