Microsoft Office Reference Guide

Mar 26, 2004

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Whenever I train others on PowerPoint, they all want to know about video and how to used it effectively.

A while back I did an update about PFC Media ("Plays for Certain") which is run by PowerPoint MVP Austin Myers. That version of the product addressed one of the big problems with using video in PowerPoint, namely how to make sure it will play anywhere with a ubiquitous codec.

In the past whenever someone wanted to capture and edit video in and for PowerPoint I suggested they begin with Windows MovieMaker; we covered this in an update on how to create a video attachment for email.

And MovieMaker is still a great tool to actually capture video, particularly if you are using a firewire camcorder because MovieMaker lets you control a firewire (or Sony I-link device) through software.

But what about if you have video clips and you want to put them into PowerPoint? Now you don’t need MovieMaker to edit your video, and you don’t need to use the cumbersome Insert > Object command to try to trim your video with Media Player as an object in PowerPoint.

Austin Myers’ new product is called PFC Pro, and it includes the main features of his former products as well as the ability to edit simple segments of video within PowerPoint as an Add-In. And you won’t need MovieMaker even for capture — you can do it directly in PFC Pro from within PowerPoint.

PCF Pro is now available for free for 14 days as a download. For a new user, PFCPro registration costs $129.95. However, if a person is a registered PFCMedia user, they receive a discounted price of $69.95 when they upgrade to PFCPro. A Vista version is anticipated (as a free upgrade for registered users) around time that this update is posted.

Generally I liken the process of editing video to cropping a picture from a scanner, but PFC Pro takes it a step further. Yes you can set new in and out points for a video clip, but that’s not all.

PFC Pro lets you truly crop a video — it can actually move in the borders of a larger frame (and show only the person talking) or do the usual stuff like creating it in a new smaller file size that fits your slide. No, it’s not magic, and it can’t increase the file size without pixilation.

PFC Pro also has simple file quality settings that you can use to make sure that you are outputting (encoding) video in the format and file size you need.

In another < ahref="http://www.informit.com/guides/content.aspx?g=msoffice&seqNum=170 ">update we talked about using DVD video in PowerPoint. This is tricky even without tackling the issue of copy protection; many companies have content in true DVD format and they are stumped when it’s time to reuse the content in PowerPoint — because DVD video is a non-PC format.

Myers’ tool lets you access video directly from a DVD in your computer’s DVD player within PowerPoint. Not only can you play specific segments you can also use all the features of commercial DVDs such as alternate languages and closed captioning. You can even have different segments of the DVD play on different slides or even have segments from multiple DVDs of different slides. If you have ever wanted to play a DVD in your presentation with total control then this is the add in you need.

Figure 1233

While your DVD does need to be in the DVD player, you don’t need a DVD recorder to "rip" your video from the disc and then re-encode it, which is a big time saver.

Also, because you’re actually "watching" the DVD you are not subject to copyright restrictions when you use PFC Pro (at least for the time being...).

Finally, PFC Pro also lets you grab video off any URL or server to which you have access and play it in PowerPoint’s slides as well. And it has the email feature the prior version had.

The other cool thing about Austin’s site is that it is a treasure trove of information about video. If you’ve ever gotten tired of jargon used by video pros, check out his FAQ to get the lowdown on the main terms and their definitions.

What is neat about PFC Pro is that PowerPoint users don’t have to learn a full blown editing program or become video experts to use it. While MovieMaker is an excellent tool for capturing and simple editing, particularly with Firewire devices, it is still a third party application and has a learning curve.

PFC Pro is perfect for those PowerPoint users who want the full gamut of video versatility without becoming experts or mastering another tool. Because it works directly inside PowerPoint as an Add In it has the additional advantage of having your actual content and slide show in front of you as you work with the video portions.

It’s easy to see why Austin is a PowerPoint MVP; he answers a lot of multimedia related issues on the PowerPoint newsgroups. I don’t recommend this product yet for Vista and PowerPoint 2007 – it’s not ready for those versions yet. But if you’re using Windows XP and PowerPoint up to version 2003, this product will make your video content a snap to incorporate into your presentations.

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