Adding videos into your PPT slides adds a new dimension to your presentation. Any video, as long as it is relevant and short, can magnetize your audience.
Inserting videos into your presentation slide is easy. But have you given a thought about the kind of video format supported in PowerPoint? What if the video doesn’t play — or worse, the video doesn’t play when you are in the middle of your presentation. You may put yourself in a lousy situation.
What Kind of Videos Does PowerPoint Support?
You should always choose the video format wisely. Make sure to check the version of PowerPoint installed on the machine you are going to use during presentation. For instance, when an MP4 video is added using Mac PowerPoint 2011, it may fail to run on PowerPoint 2007 on Windows.
Microsoft hasn’t documented the list of supported video files in PowerPoint because of the various version of the program available. So here is an attempt to keep a record of video format supported by Microsoft PowerPoint 2011:
| PowerPoint Supported Video File Format |
|---|
| AVI – Audio Video Interleave |
| 3GP – Also known as 3GPP |
| MOV – QuickTime Movie |
| MP4 – MPEG-4 Part 14 |
| M4V – Similar to MP4 |
| MPG – MPEG-1 |
| DV – Digital Interface |
| QTFF – QuickTime File Format |
| 3G2 – Also known as 3GPP2 |
| GIF – Graphics Interchange Format |
| MS-CRAM – Microsoft Video 1 |
| M-JPEF – Motion JPEG |
Because iTunes videos are compatible with PowerPoint, H.261, H.262, H.263, and H.264 video standard should play perfectly fine, though it’s best to stick with a video format that is used almost everywhere — AVI and MP4 video format, for example.
