How to Insert a YouTube Video in PowerPoint 

If you are wondering how to insert a video on PowerPoint, it means that you have already realized the importance of using multimedia content in your presentations.  

But what led you to such a point?  

I mean, how did you decide to insert a video into a presentation?  

It could be a product demo, or perhaps some educational insight within a training course, or even footage that brings a distant reality into the meeting, and so much more.  

Think, for example, of a chocolate company’s marketing presentation that illustrates product placement in supermarkets with a video that takes managers on a virtual tour right from the meeting room.  

Even a construction company that must decide about one or more construction sites could take advantage of videos, or even create 3D videos to show something that does not yet exist.  

I could give you countless examples where inserting a video on a PowerPoint presentation makes perfect sense.  

You know what I mean, right?  

Anyway, if a picture is known to be worth a thousand words, just think how much a video could help your case! 

PowerPoint is a phenomenal tool, in terms of integrating multimedia content.  

Think about it – it’s not like a slide is just made of text, is it? 

PowerPoint is a tool that allows you to mix text content with images, videos, charts, tables, and so much more. 

To find out, just go into the slide master and select the drop-down menu to insert a placeholder field.  

Do you know how many types of content PowerPoint supports? 

PowerPoint supports as many as eight different types of content, including media content – your videos.  

Now is the time to insert a video into your PowerPoint presentation.  

Click on the Insert menu > Video 

You will see 3 different options:  

Insert Video in PowerPoint from Your Device 

To start with a simple example and see how it works, let’s imagine that the video is locally available on your computer.  

You will simply need to click on the insert button, and a window will open that will allow you to select your video.  

In this case, I will use as an example the video in which I demonstrate how the MLC PowerPoint Add-in button works for sending only selected slides by email. 

How?  

It’s very simple – just select the video and either click Insert or double-click it.  

The video is ready to be displayed.  

Insert Video in PowerPoint from Stock   

Have you ever noticed those advertising videos that all look the same, with those powerful soundtracks and super engaging visuals?  

Often, these are video montages made from stock material.  

But what is stock material?  

This is short video content that represents something and that you can easily edit together to produce more complex videos.  

PowerPoint makes the entire Microsoft repository available to you, so it’s up to you to have fun.  

Should we see how it’s done?  

Go to Insert > Video and select stock video.  

A window will open for you to explore all the available stock videos. 

There are quite a few, aren’t there?  

And just think, it’s all top-quality material that you can use unlimitedly and completely for free. Not bad, huh?  

Insert Video in PowerPoint from the Web 

Last option, you can insert a video directly from the web.  

Meaning, a video you can find on the Internet?  

Exactly! 

Go to Insert > Video > Online Video 

A little window will open for you where you will see all the websites you can draw from.  

Would you like to embed a YouTube video directly into PowerPoint?  

Come on, let’s give it a try!  

First, I open my YouTube channel 

Then, I select the URL address of the video to copy it (CTRL + C) and paste it (CTRL + V) into the window that opened on PowerPoint.  

Click Insert, and the video will be visible on your slides. 

Easy, right?  

Yes, it is very intuitive, but be careful – not all that glitters is gold.  

In fact, this video has not been downloaded and embedded in your presentation but is merely linked to the original that is on YouTube.  

So? What is the problem, Maurizio?  

The problem is that, if your connection goes down while you’re delivering your presentation, the video will not work, for example.  

To test this, all you have to do is right click and try to save the video.  

You’ll see that you won’t be able to do that.  

Why?  

As I mentioned, the video is not in the presentation, it’s just linked to it directly from YouTube.  

But what if I wanted to insert a YouTube video into PowerPoint by importing it?  

In this case, you would have to download it from YouTube to your computer and then follow the procedure to embed it from your device (first option of the last three illustrated).  

However, downloading videos from YouTube is not that easy. 

To do it safely, without the risk of ending up on malicious sites, you can use the YouTube Video Download feature of the MLC PowerPoint Add-in.  

I will explain it in the next video: 

All clear so far?  

Now, you have all the skills to insert videos on PowerPoint in the basic cases.  

However, there are some special cases that I would like to analyze together.  

How to Insert a Video on PowerPoint Online 

You are using PowerPoint in collaboration with one of your colleagues, and you find it faster to access it directly online, from your browser.  

You just need to insert a video on the fly – no need to open PowerPoint from your desktop, which, also depending on your computer speed, can result in a waste of time.  

Come on, open PowerPoint directly from your browser and let’s try this together.

You will notice that the interface is considerably simplified.  

Honestly, I’m not crazy about it; I strongly prefer to wait a few more seconds and open the desktop app.  

I recognize, however, that it is often the quickest solution for rapid editing.  

To insert a video on an online PowerPoint presentation, you just need to go to Insert > Video and then select the Online Video option.  

But what about the other options?  

On the online version you don’t have any alternatives, you only have this option.  

So, in the window that pops up, paste the URL address of the YouTube video you want to embed, and the result will appear in the preview.  

If it is the right video, you can proceed with the Insert button.  

You have successfully linked a YouTube video to your PowerPoint presentation.  

Always remember that the video is only linked and is not really part of your PowerPoint – if you have any problems that affect how the link works, the video will no longer work. 

How to Insert a Vimeo Video in PowerPoint  

Vimeo is, along with YouTube, one of the two most important video hosting platforms in the world.  

Have you ever thought about what the differences between the two are?  

Source: https://www.techsmith.com/blog/youtube-vs-vimeo-whats-the-difference 

So, don’t be surprised if you find the video you’re looking for on Vimeo, but not on other platforms.  

We’ve seen how to insert a YouTube video into PowerPoint, but how do we handle those that come from Vimeo? 

The option available to you is super simple and is always the same: inserting videos from the web with PowerPoint.  

Go to Insert > Video > Online Video 

In the window that opens you will notice that, among the websites available to you, there’s also Vimeo.  

Copy the URL address of the video from Vimeo 

Paste it into the search bar, and you will immediately see a preview of the video. 

Once the preview is ready, you simply need to click Insert to embed the video into your presentation.  

Always remember that this video is linked to Vimeo, so it is not an actual part of your presentation.  

How to Insert an Instagram Video in PowerPoint  

If inserting a video from YouTube or Vimeo was easy, at least as a link, everything is more complex with Instagram, because content is only accessible to users of the platform.  

Can you think of a way to record an Instagram video, download it, and then conveniently insert it into your PowerPoint presentation?  

Good old PowerPoint itself, our lifelong ally, offers you the solution! 

How?  

Launch the browser on your computer and log directly into Instagram to find a video that interests you.  

I’ll take NASA’s profile as an example. 

Once you have found and launched the video you are interested in exporting, go back to PowerPoint.  

Click on Insert > Video Recording  

Select the whole screen area with your mouse so that PowerPoint will record everything within that area. 

Source: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CdEfPJwpL2P/ 

Did you notice that little video management control panel at the top of the screen?  

As soon as you activate the red Record button, PowerPoint will start recording.  

As soon as you’re done, click the stop button on the same control panel.  

If you can’t see the control panel, hover your mouse at the top center of the screen and the little panel will appear again. It usually disappears so it doesn’t disturb the screen recording

The video will be available on your PowerPoint. 

As you can see, however, I cut out the entire video page. How can you extrapolate only the video content and remove everything else?  

To do that, you can use the focus effect technique with the shape fragment button.  

What are you talking about, Maurizio?  

Don’t worry, we’ll get there together step by step.  

Follow me.  

Draw a shape around the video you want to crop.  

Now, deselect the shape and then, in this order, select the photo in the back and then the rectangle.  

Click on the Fragment button, which I have available in the quick access bar. 

The Quick Access Bar can save you a considerable amount of time by significantly improving your productivity. If you have not configured yours yet, you should do so quickly

Once applied, the fragment will separate the portion of the video you selected from the rest. 

Delete the portion of the video you don’t need, and you’ll finally have the video you wanted directly in your PowerPoint presentation.  

How to Insert a Facebook Video in PowerPoint  

As we have already seen for Instagram, we can use PowerPoint’s screen recording feature to record a video directly from Facebook.  

Once activated, you will see the little red button in the mini-control bar at the top of your screen.

Stop recording when the video ends.  

The video will be available on your PowerPoint.  

Now, all you have to do is crop the video by overlaying a frame and activating the fragment. 

Remember to always select the video first and the shape second before activating the fragmentation function. 

Here is your video, separated from everything else:  

Delete what you don’t need and get ready to project the Facebook video you inserted in your PowerPoint presentation.  

How to Insert a TikTok Video in PowerPoint 

As you can see, TikTok can be easily opened from your computer browser; therefore, simply follow what we explained earlier for Facebook and Instagram and replicate the procedure. 

How to Make a Video Play Automatically on PowerPoint 

Have you ever seen someone bewildered by a video that didn’t start automatically as soon as the slide was shown?  

This happens because, by default, videos in PowerPoint wait for your click to run.  

There is an option to change this for any given video and set it to play automatically as soon as the slide containing it is shown.  

How?  

Follow me, it’s really simple.  

Click on the video, then enter the Playback menu 

Change the basic setup to Automatically. 

Now, the video will play automatically as soon as you show the slide in slideshow mode.  

How to Trim the Length of a Video in PowerPoint  

You have inserted a video in PowerPoint, but it is too long to show it all during your presentation, so you only need a portion of it.  

How can you trim the duration of the video by only showing a small portion of it?  

You can use the Trim feature.  

Select the video and go to Playback > Trim 

A small window with two handles will open: a green one and a red one 

Basically, you’ll just place the green handle where you want the video to start and the red handle where you want it to end. 

This way, you will have a shorter video quickly and efficiently.  

Remember, however, that the video is only masked and not really cropped: therefore, if you have done this operation only to reduce the size of your presentation, you will not benefit from it. 

Conclusions 

Videos are a valuable ally for presentations because they have strong engagement power and high impact on the audience.  

Often, playing a video allows you to create a break in a long presentation and regain attention.   

PowerPoint provides you with all the tools you need to best integrate videos, whether they come from your computer or any other repository.