Automatically Playing an Embedded YouTube Video in PowerPoint 2019

I have moved all my blogs to my new website:  https://helpfulofficetips.com/2019/04/13/automatically-playing-an-embedded-youtube-video-in-powerpoint-2019/  From now on, all updates will be at the new site, and all links will take you directly to that site.  Please check it out!

PowerPoint 2019 can now embed and automatically play a YouTube video during your slide show!  (Over the last few years Microsoft and Google have changed this process many, many times.  We will see how long this update and cooperation lasts.)

These instructions work as of April 13, 2019.  Tomorrow, you may be on your own.

For PowerPoint 2016 and earlier versions, click here:  https://helpfulofficetips.com/2016/08/02/automatically-playing-an-embedded-youtube-video-in-powerpoint-2016/

YouTube

Using the internet, find your YouTube video.  (Watch the entire video, start to finish, to be sure it is appropriate for your presentation.)  Pause the video (because it’s annoying when it’s running and you’re trying to think).  If you want to practice, here is the URL for a really cute Oreo commercial from India that I show to all my classes:  https://youtu.be/Oe6lBGO6OSk

Click on the word Share below the video.  The Share window will appear.  In the bottom “Share a link” portion, you will see the URL with the word “COPY.”

Click “COPY.”  Copy will place the video’s URL in the computer’s clipboard memory until you need it or copy something else.

PowerPoint 2019

Now return to PowerPoint and the slide where you want to play a YouTube video.  Go to the Insert tab.  On the far right is the word “Video” with a drop-down arrow.  Click Insert tab>Media section>Video>Online Video.



The Online Video window will appear.  Click inside the URL box and right-click>Paste or press Ctrl-V to paste the YouTube video URL.  Click Insert to insert the video-link into your slide.



Your video will appear on the slide.  Drag the corners to fit the slide, usually to the edges.  (To drag the corners, click on the top left corner and hold the mouse button down.  Move or “drag” the mouse to the top edge of the slide.  Do the same for the bottom right corner.)

Notice that when you have selected the video, new special tabs appear in the menu ribbon.  There are two Video Tools tabs:  Format and Playback.  When you inserted the video, PowerPoint selected the Video Tools>Format tab, in case you want to recolor, add a frame or crop the video.   Instead, click the Video Tools>Playback tab.  Remember, these menu tabs only appear if you have selected your video.

 

Play "Automatically" or "In Click Sequence"

The important option in the Video Tools>Playback tab is in the Video Options>Start.  Click the drop-down menu next to Start.


Three options will appear.

1. In Click Sequence:  The slide will pop-up showing a still frame with the YouTube play button in the middle.  To start the video, click the mouse anywhere (or press the space bar or forward on your pointer), and the video will begin.  
2. Automatically:  As soon as you begin this slide, the video will begin.   This is great for a self-running show, but you will not get a chance to introduce the video.
3. When Clicked on:  You will need to move your cursor to the video and click for the video to begin. You do not need to click exactly on the YouTube play button as you did in the past.

For me, I would probably click either In Click Sequence if I want to introduce the video or Automatically if I used a previous slide to set the stage.

Timings and order may be changed via the Animations Pane, but that is another lesson!

MS Office / Word / Excel / PowerPoint: Customize Your Quick Access Toolbar

I have moved all my blogs to my new website:  https://helpfulofficetips.com/2018/06/15/ms-office-word-excel-powerpoint-customize-your-quick-access-toolbar/  From now on, all updates will be at the new site, and all links will take you directly to that site.  Please check it out!

When you first open any document in MS Word, MS Excel, or MS PowerPoint, you should notice there are little icons in the very top left, called the Quick Access Toolbar.  Microsoft puts some shortcuts here, like Save and Print, but they don’t really know what you need or use the most, do they?

Open MS Word.  Your Quick Access Toolbar may already look different than mine depending on when you installed MS Office.  Give yourself a quick tour by hovering your mouse over each item to see what it does. 

The standard Word default is four icons.

• “Save” is the small diskette

• “Undo” is the back-facing arrow

• “Redo” is the circular arrow

• “Customize” is the drop-down arrow with the small bar over it – I like to call this icon “more choices.”

Those are great choices… for a beginner.  Let’s click that Customize button and see what happens.  When we click Customize, “more choices” pop up below.  You can quickly click on these items to add choices to your Quick Access Toolbar.  Click on “Open” to add the File tab>Open command to yours. 

Look at your Quick Access Toolbar now.  You will see a file folder icon has been added to your Quick Access Toolbar.  

I like to keep my File tab icons together, so while that is a good shortcut, it doesn’t really let you determine the location of the icons.  

Let’s use “More Commands” instead of selecting them from this list.  Click “Customize>More Commands…” from the drop-down menu.  This brings up the Options window and goes right to “Quick Action Toolbar” menu.

Let’s take a little tour of the Customize the Quick Access Toolbar window.  Circled red, you will see that Word defaults to the “Popular Commands” choices.  These are the items commonly added to the menu.  You’ll see that “Redo,” “Save,” and “Undo” are already shown.

In the center circled green are the “Add>>” and “<<Remove” buttons.  We added “Open” earlier, as shown on the right.  If I click “<<Remove” it will disappear from my custom toolbar.

On the right circled blue are the up and down arrows.  Since I clicked on “Open,” I can move it higher up or down the list by clicking the up and down arrows.  This is confusing since the actual toolbar goes left to right, but you get the idea.  

I would like my “Open” icon to be before “Save.”  I will click the up arrow three times.  Try it at home.  This does not make any changes to the actual Quick Access Toolbar until you click OK.  Do it. 

Got it?  Let’s make some more changes.  Go back to Customize>More Commands. 

I never hung out with the “popular” crowd, so I don’t really want only the “Popular Commands.” Click the drop-down arrow next to “Popular Commands.”  A new menu appears with choices such as “All Commands” and then by tab, such as “File Tab” or “Home Tab.”  Choose “All Commands” so we can see everything!

A list in alphabetical order appears, sort of like a genie giving you multiple choices for your wish.  The first tab is called “<Separator>.  Let’s add that.  A <Separator> will turn into a small vertical line once we press OK.  Move the word <Separator> up two clicks so that it in between our file commands and our undo-redo commands.  Here’s what it will look like:  

Scroll down to the “Qs” and find “Quick Print.”  Add it to your Quick Access Toolbar.  “Quick Print” does just what it sounds like.  It takes your document with your current print settings and sends it to the last printer you used.  

Sometimes you want to see what it will look like first, though, right?  Let’s add a Preview button.  “Preview and Print” is a command that takes us to the Preview screen.  If we like what we see, we can print from that screen.  Choose “Preview and Print.”

Add another <Separator> above Quick Print so that your print commands are separated from Undo and Redo.  Does yours look like this now?

There are a few more “File tab” commands I like, so let’s find change “All Commands” to “File Tab.”  

From the File tab choices, select “Close File,” “New from Template,” and one of my favorites:  “Publish as PDF or XPS.”  (Don’t worry about “XPS” – no one uses that Microsoft format.)

Use the up and down arrows to put them in this order:

New from Template

Open

Save

Publish as PDF or XPS

Close File

<Separator>

Undo

Redo

<Separator>

Quick Print

Preview and Print

Once it is all set up, click OK, and your Quick Access Toolbar will look like this:

 

Now when you are working in Word, you have all your (or my) most used commands available with a quick click.  Give it a month or so, then come back to the Customize button and make any changes that you want.  This is your Quick Access Toolbar, so make it just the way you want it.

Automatically Playing an Embedded YouTube Video in PowerPoint 2016

I have moved all my blogs to my new website:  https://helpfulofficetips.com/2016/08/02/automatically-playing-an-embedded-youtube-video-in-powerpoint-2016/  From now on, all updates will be at the new site, and all links will take you directly to that site.  Please check it out!

If you are using PowerPoint 2019 or MS Office 365 after April 2019, click here for the updated procedure:  https://helpfulofficetips.com/2019/04/13/automatically-playing-an-embedded-youtube-video-in-powerpoint-2019/  

(Updated for PowerPoint 2016 on September 3, 2018 for after YouTube changed its Embed Codes slightly.)

I'm getting ready to teach another PowerPoint class, so I got out my previous class notes.  I teach this class about once a year, and with every new update from Microsoft or Google's YouTube, I know my instructions will be out of date.  Sure enough...

First, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Microsoft has added an “Online Video” option for adding video.  It even has an option to search for a video on YouTube. Great, right?

It’s only great if you want that big red YouTube play icon right in the middle of your PowerPoint show.  You also have to click on the big red YouTube play icon to play your video.  This is not always the easiest thing to do if you are in a presentation hall and using a laser pointer.

My class is beginning PowerPoint, so of course, I will show them how to do it with the big red YouTube play icon, but I was sure I could still use the old instructions.  Right?

Wrong again.  The old version used the “Old Embed Code” which is no longer available from YouTube.  I googled and googled for a workaround and found several, but none that were recognized by PowerPoint.

If finally decided to try my limited HTML skills and combine the old with the new, right?  IT WORKED!

These instructions have been updated and work as of August 2, 2016. Tomorrow, you’re on your own.

1. Using the internet, find your YouTube video
2. Pause the video (because it’s annoying when it’s running and you’re trying to think).
3. Click on the word Share below the video.
4. Click on the word Embed below Share.
5. Scroll down below "Embed Options" and unclick those boxes (at least, that's what I do), especially “Show suggested videos when the video finishes”
6. Scroll back up so you can see the HTML code.
7. Here is the tricky part.  After the video name which is a bunch of gobbledygook like “Oe6lBGO6OSk” you’ll see a question mark (?).  Be sure to uncheck those Embed Options or the question mark may not show up. 
8. Place your cursor to the right of the question mark and type this:
   
   
   ;autoplay=1;
   
   
   (those are semicolons, not colons)  
9. Click the "Copy" button in the Embed Video window, and the HTML code will be copied to your Clipboard.
10. Go back to PowerPoint, click on the Insert tab>Online Video.
11. Instead of using the built-in YouTube search, click on the Video Embed Code box, and paste the embed code by Right-click>Paste (or Ctrl-V).
    
12. Now hit enter, and a black video box should show up on your slide. 
13. Adjust your frame, and as always, preview the current slide in Slide Show tab and to see if it worked.

Using Shortcut Keys to Select A Range

I have moved all my blogs to my new website:  https://helpfulofficetips.com/2015/07/20/using-shortcut-keys-to-select-a-range/ From now on, all updates will be at the new site, and all links will take you directly to that site.  Please check it out!

Microsoft has developed several standard ways to select bits of text, objects, or files in most of their products.  The methods below are specific to text but apply to other objects as well.  After getting used to them in MS Office, try using them out to rearrange your desktop, or move multiple files from one folder to another.

1. Drag:  Drag by clicking on the first part, then holding the mouse button down as you drag to the end of your selection.
2. Double-click:  Double-click a word to select the word.  Sometimes a double-clicking an item, such as tab on the ruler or a menu icon, will open a new window with more formatting choices.  In Windows Explorer, double-clicking opens a folder or file.  
3. Triple-click:  Triple-clicking a word will select the entire line of text or paragraph, whatever words fall between pressing "Enter" and pressing it again.
4. Shift Click:  Hold down your shift button.  Start at the top of your range and click. Click again at the bottom of your range.  This also works bottom to top - it is simply telling the computer select everything between my two clicks.
5. Shift Click with Cursor:  This is variation, if you don't want to use your mouse to drag.  It's especially handy in MS Excel.  Hold down Shift.  Click at the top.  Use the cursors or arrows on the right of your keyboard to move through your document.  Release shift when you have selected your range.
6. Ctrl Click:  Select multiple items one at a time, with Ctrl click.  If you get one item by mistake, Ctrl click again to deselect.
7. Select All:  Select everything in your document in most MS Office products from the Home tab>Select section>click the drop-down arrow next to Select.  On the Select menu, click Select All.  You may also Ctrl A for “All.” 

PowerPoint Photo Album Shortcut

I have moved all my blogs to my new website: https://helpfulofficetips.wordpress.com/2015/06/12/powerpoint-photo-album-shortcut/From now on, all updates will be at the new site, and all links will take you directly to that site.  Please check it out!

An office was putting on a spur of the moment open house and wanted the computer screens to show photos from the previous year.  By spur of the moment, I mean 15 minutes from now.  A problem?  Not with PowerPoint’s built-in Photo Album shortcut.

To prep, get all your photos in one folder – I don’t think there is a limit.  The office I mentioned had over one hundred.  Also, pick some music if you have any mp3 files handy.  That’s all you need.  Oh, and a PC.  This shortcut is not available on Macintosh.

Open PowerPoint and save your document as Year in Review Photos or other appropriate name.

On the Insert tab>Images section>click on the Photo Album dropdown arrow.  Then select New Photo Album. 

 

The Photo Album window will appear. 

Click on the File>Disk button, and go to your photos.  Select all of them in the folder using one of these methods:

·         Dragging through them all

·         Ctrl-click each one

·         Click on the first one.  Hold down Shift and click on the last one.  This will select the entire range.

·         Ctrl-A to select all.

Now click Insert and PowerPoint will place the photos in the Pictures in Album section.  You may click on the photo you want to change and use the buttons to change the order, the orientation, the brightness or contrast.

Your photos are set, so In the Album Layout section, select how many photos per page.  If you want one photo per page and for the photo to fill up the page, select Fit to slide.  Frame shape is another option, although I usually use the default Rectangle.  In the Theme box, click browse and pick any theme.  You can change this easily later, so just pick the first one that catches your eye.

Now click Create and PowerPoint does all the tedious work for you.  You may need to add some text to the first slide.  Also, if you don’t like the Design, go to the Design tab and pick one you do like.

Every slide show needs a transition from slide to slide, so pick one.  I usually use “Fade” because it is professional and doesn’t draw attention to itself.  Depending on your slides, you may want to take this opportunity to use one of the obnoxious, er, I mean Dynamic Content transitions like Orbit.  To get to the unusual transitions, click the down arrow in the Transition to This Slide section.

We will not be sitting at the computer for this show, so we want the slides to advance automatically.  From the Transitions tab>Timing section, enter 5 seconds in the After box.  (Leave the On Mouse Click button checked in case you want to advance the slides before the automatic timing.)

The secret weapon in the Transitions tab is the Apply to All button.  Apply to All  - ALWAYS DO THIS LAST AND ALWAYS DO IT AFTER MAKING ANY CHANGES!  This applies your transition and timing to every slide.  Remember, you want people to look at your slides not your PowerPoint transitions.  Uniformity is good in this case.

  

Your Slide Show is complete now if you do not want to add any music.  Click on Slide Show tab>From Beginning to see your masterpiece!

Is it a little bland without background music?  One more simple step will fix that. 

Go to the first slide.  From the Insert tab>Media section, click on the arrow below Audio.  Select Audio on my PC.  Pick a song that sets the appropriate mood. Remember, earlier you saved your music in the same folder as your presentation.  Click insert and a speaker icon will appear on your slide and it should be selected (if not, select it). 

The Audio Tools tab will appear with the Playback tab.  In the Audio Styles section select Play in Background.  This will automatically change the settings to:

·        Start automatically with the current slide

·         Play Across Slides

·         Loop until Stopped

·        Hide the icon during the slide show

Review your Slide Show again by clicking Slide Show tab>Start Slide Show section>From Beginning.  You can always end the show with a right click.

 

Once you have done this a few times, you should be able to create a one hundred photo show in about five minutes.

Oh, and the office I mentioned, visitors loved the show and thought we spent hours on it.

PowerPoint YouTube Video Won't Play: "You Must Install a Later Version of Flash Player." Really?

June 10, 2015 Update - YouTube recently removed the "Old Embed Code" feature.  To use the new embed code, please see my recent post here.

This post only applies to PowerPoint 2010, as the Insert Video from Website option is no longer available in PowerPoint 2013.  Click here for a link to a good, and extremely complicated, to add that functionality back into 2013.

I thought I had the put-a-youtube-video-into-PowerPoint thing down with my blog PowerPoint and YouTube - Automatically Starting the Video.  Then Microsoft did one of its updates.  Suddenly everyone began getting this message:

Oh, just install a later version of Adobe Flash Player, right?  Wrong.

I thought it was an issue with our office computers’ security, so I had IT come to my office.  They tried five fixes over five weeks.  Nothing.  I brought in my home laptop.  Same issue.  I uninstalled Flash Player, reinstalled Flash Player, still nothing.   I have a presentation in two weeks, so this was definitely a problem.  I emailed IT one more time and they sent me the magic fix.

In my previous blog I told you how to add the autoplay feature in the html.  Now we’re going to remove a feature.  Here is the note from my IT department:

Now, using the Old Embed Code, paste the code into the PowerPoint, but before you click ok you need to remove the two items related to Version 3 (see highlighted example). Make sure you delete from everything from semi-colon to semi-colon. 

<object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wf_IIbT8HGk?hl=en_US&amp;version=3&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wf_IIbT8HGk?hl=en_US&amp;version=3&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Now, my IT department thought the cat video was pretty funny (it was, but no, I do not condone fat cats).  I prefer a little more sophistication, so my favorite YouTube video is the Warsaw, Poland, cast of Les Miserables singing “One Day More” as a flashmob at a fancy mall.  Here is the old embed code:

<object width="1280" height="720"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DXgCrhIevwU?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DXgCrhIevwU?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="1280" height="720" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

So first, we are going to delete the version stuff:

<object width="1280" height="720"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DXgCrhIevwU?;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DXgCrhIevwU?;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="1280" height="720" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Now, let’s add the autoplay=1.

<object width="1280" height="720"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DXgCrhIevwU?;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0;autoplay=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DXgCrhIevwU?;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0; autoplay=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="1280" height="720" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Now click Insert tab>Video>Video from web site to put into PowerPoint.

It may take a few seconds.  Stretch it out to the size you want, then double click the big black rectangle to play.  And enjoy the music.

PowerPoint and YouTube – Errors and Autoplay

June 10, 2015 Update:  YouTube recently removed the "Old Embed Code" function.  For my newest post regarding this issue, click here.

August 31, 2013 Update:  I had written this blog in January 2013, and at the time everything worked.  I was about to redo my presentation, but this time the video wouldn't embed.  PowerPoint gave me an error message that it couldn't embed the video using THIS embed code (which worked fine seven months ago).  Ah... Microsoft.

After lots of Googling (and no Binging) I found this answer on a Microsoft Answers site.  Anyone can find it as long as keep reading and scrolling down and down and down.

Short answer: in the html embed code, make these changes twice.

www.youtube.com becomes http://www.youtube.com

version=3 becomes version=2

And now back to my original blog about AutoPlay:

I am doing a beginning PowerPoint workshop at the University.  I am going to show a group how to embed a YouTube video.  Of course, the video only starts on a mouse click, even though you select Start Automatically in the Playback tab>Video Options>Start drop down.  Now what?  Google, of course.

The first thirty suggestions I found merely suggest using a different product than PowerPoint (no, I’m not going to use your link and download something unknown to my computer) or use a “free” download to hack YouTube (also, not a great idea).

Then, ta da… a site that shows helpful html code for YouTube.  When you embed a video in PowerPoint (another lesson for another day), you have to copy the html code.  I always “Use Old HTML Code,” by the way.  This site “YouTube Embed Code:  Everything You Ever Wanted to Know” shows you the sneaky, and fairly easy codes to add.

For my situation, all you have to do is go to the end of the link in the first line of code and add:

; autoplay=1

to the code.

Long story short, I found an ultra adorable video of a little boy and his dad having fun with Oreos.  I want to embed it.  I click Share/Embed/Use Old Embed Code.  I copy the code.  In PowerPoint, go to the Insert tab>Media section>Video>Video from Web Site window and paste the code into PowerPoint.  Just before the first quote and right-angle-bracket, I’m going to change the original code from this:

<object width="960" height="720"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Oe6lBGO6OSk?version=2&amp;hl=en_US">

to this: 

<object width="960" height="720"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Oe6lBGO6OSk?version=2&amp;hl=en_US;autoplay=1">

Click Insert. It works.  If only I’d known this about ten PowerPoint shows previously.

And if you’re curious, click here to see the cute video.  Does anyone know the language?  

MS Office: For Command Shortcuts at your Fingertips, Customize the Quick Access Toolbar

How often in Word or Excel, do you look for a quick way of opening a new file, saving your current file under a different name or previewing your document before printing?

All these commands, and more, are available to you after your customize the Quick Access Toolbar.  This is the small line of icons on the top left of your screen whenever you open an MS Office program.

Your Quick Access Toolbar will look different than mine.  This is my custom toolbar from MS Word.  To customize yours, click on the drop-down arrow at the end of the icons.  This will give you the Quick Access Toolbar Menu.  Click on More Commands to get all your choices.

This will open the Quick Access Toolbar Menu, listing the “Popular Commands” by default.  I always switch to “All Commands.”  This gives you all available commands in alphabetical order.

For Word, my shortcuts are always:  New, Open, Save, Save As, Close, Undo, Redo, Quick Print, and Preview and Print.  I use a separator, a small vertical line, between the file icons and the rest.  Once you add your shorctus, use the up and down arrows on the right to move each icon where you want it.  Click OK when you are finished.

Do this for each MS Office program.  For Excel, I use these shortcuts:

From left to right:  New, Open, Save, Save As, Close, separator, Undo, Redo, Fill Down, Fill Right, Paste Value, separator, Quick Print, Preview and Print.

Customize with your favorites – or if you always forget where a command is, put it here.  If you use more than one computer, you will have to customize each program on each computer separately.  I haven’t figured out how to share the toolbars yet.  Let me know if you know that trick!