Ozer 2:1 Embedding video into POWERPOINT - Column

Emedia Professional, Feb, 1999 by Jan Ozer

two wise men, Yigal and Ari, summoned Yosef to the Holy Land for him to teach them how to create and use digital video. So Yosef bid shalom to Barbara, his loving wife, and Whatley, his daughter, who wrenched their clothes and mourned and offered burnt offerings for his speedy return. For his quest, Yosef journeyed over three continents and two seas, enduring much hardship (coach) and great danger.

Upon his arrival, there assembled an impressive gathering of wise (wo)men from the four corners of the Promised Land. There was Dror from Haifa, Irit from Jerusalem, and Lauren from Migdal HaEmek. Prophets came from 3Com and IBM ... all to hear the words of Yosef and share his vision of the great digital video future.

One topic of great interest was the process of embedding video playback into PowerPoint, so the wise (wo)men could send prophets from their tribes to spread the word to the infidels. After a great feast, with fish from the Sea of Galilee, olives from the Dead Sea, and Maccabee beer, the group sat rapt in attention when the discussion turned to video and PowerPoint.

Yosef puffed his chest out in pride. "Surely," he thought, "these great teachings will be recorded forevermore in the legends and lore of these tribes, bringing great honor and riches to my family." He began, "Through great danger and sacrifice, I discovered the truth of integrating video into PowerPoint. Rich men from the Far East have offered chests of treasure, but I traveled here to reveal these only to you." Then he reached into his robe and pulled out a parchment with the following commandment: "To embed video into PowerPoint, use the `Insert Movie' command."

Lightning flashed, shofars blew, and women fainted at the clarity and beauty of the word. But then a small voice arose from the back of the tent, asking, "When I use this command, does the video file get saved with the PowerPoint PPT file, or do I have to save it separately?" Yosef stood dumbstruck at the brilliance of the question. Mind-deadened by some strange fog (jet lag), he couldn't respond intelligently. He searched over the Insert Movie command, but found no control to save the video file with the PPT file. "I don't know," was his quiet reply. "I don't see a way."

The next question came among hushed whispers from another corner. "Yosef, I have many videos to insert into PowerPoint, and some of great duration. Can I insert a file so that playback controls appear, so my prophets can pause and resume playback of the video files?" Yosef rocked back at the question, swaying as if hit in the head with a donkey jaw. He frantically searched the Insert Movie command, but found no way to insert playback controls. His eyes dropped as whispers from the crowd got louder. "Who is this imposter?" they were saying. "Where is the real Yosef Ozer, learned scholar from the Peach State?"

Over the mounting din, Yosef shrieked, "I am the real Yosef Ozer, learned scholar from the deep south, son of Yaakov, husband of Barbara, and father of Whatley. I will give you a demonstration!"

The crowd hushed as Yosef pulled a Dell Inspiron 3200 from his robe and connected it to the InFocus projection system. He loaded PowerPoint as the huddled group moved towards the screen, at once curious and ominous. Then he ran the slide show and clicked on the movie. It wouldn't play at first, and then, worse yet, it started to play, then stopped and started and jerked as if possessed. A chattering and wailing emerged within the crowd as they closed in on Yosef. "He is the devil," one bearded man cried, "leading us down the unrighteous path." "Stone him," another shouted.

Then a booming voice descended from the heavens. "The Dell crashed," she said, "because Yosef created the presentation in 1024 x 768 resolution, but had to switch to 800 x 600 to play back using the InFocus system." "Why use Insert Movie," she continued, "when the Embed Object command lets you save the video assets with the PowerPoint file, input playback controls, and play the video in a separate window, avoiding the crash you just experienced, in short, meeting all the needs of your users and saving you from embarrassment?"

As the crowd bowed their heads in wonderment (and started taking copious notes), Yosef skittered from the back of the tent, escaping with his life, but without his pride. So he traveled back over three continents and two seas, and then on to Redmond Mountain, seeking the Prophet of PowerPoint, the Wizard of Windows.

Yosef wailed, "why create a control called Insert Movie and make it the least-featured approach for inserting videos into PowerPoint? Why not provide the option to save the video files with the PPT file, insert playback controls, or play back in a separate window to avoid potential playback problems?"

And a high, nasal voice whined down, "It's a feature."

Author's Note: A PowerPoint product planner later discounted the embedding route because it loaded a separate program (Media Player) to play the files, which took slightly more time and increased playback memory requirements. However, he agreed that these concerns were probably irrelevant to the Pentium Age. He also acknowledged that features like linking the file into the PPT file, the availability of playback controls, and playback in a separate window were desirable options for native PowerPoint playback. While they won't make it into the first version of PowerPoint 2000, they may show up soon thereafter.