Embed Online Video From YouTube To PowerPoint Easily

Makers of online video have a strong affinity for YouTube, and why not? After all, YouTube is the number one video sharing site catering to an overwhelming share of video related traffic. But more importantly it is also turning out as an important ‘search engine’ – albeit in the US mainly – as the time passes.

PowerPoint on the other hand is the number one choice for presentation makers. However, many presentations look mediocre, with the same things done over and over again. So when the opportunity comes to do something new like embedding one or 2 online videos from YouTube or other video sharing sites to PowerPoint, it is lapped up with eager anticipation.

Earlier we’ve seen how to convert from PowerPoint to YouTube, but in this article it will be about embedding video from YouTube to PowerPoint.

One could insert YouTube video in PowerPoint in the latter’s 2007 edition but the way to do was too clumsy to really become popular. Also there was no way you could do such things like trimming the online video once inserted in PowerPoint. All these are now much easy to do in PowerPoint 2010, which is due for commercial launch on June 15 next.

I’ve been using the beta version of PowerPoint 2010 for nearly 6 months and I’ve found it to be very useful for many PowerPoint to video works. Interested readers may refer to several of my past articles on the features of PowerPoint 2010.

In this article we’ll look at 2 ways of embedding an online video from YouTube to PowerPoint 2010. In the first case it is pretty straightforward where the video from YouTube or any other video sharing site that gives you the embed code is installed lock, stock and barrel. Easy though this technique is, you can do very little to the video in terms of editing it for your need.

The second way of embedding YouTube video to PowerPoint is in fact a 2-step approach. First the online video is downloaded in MPEG-4 format on to your computer. And then you can embed it in your PowerPoint slide. In this case, after embedding you can edit the video as you want including trimming the video.

The video below shows 2 different ways of inserting online video from YouTube to PowerPoint. It is then followed by detailed steps that explain the same.

Directly Inserting Video From YouTube To PowerPoint

This one is simple, especially in PowerPoint 2010. All you need is the full embed code of the online video, and it shows up in your PowerPoint slide.

Remember, you can insert videos from other video sharing sites as well in PowerPoint 2010, like Metacafe, Dailymotion, Yahoo Video, and so on. In each case the full embed code is needed, and not just the video URL.

The steps to do this are briefly mentioned below:

YouTube embed code (highlighted) for PowerPoint 2010

1. Open PowerPoint 2010. Click Insert > Video > Video from Web Site. In the pop-up that opens, paste the full embed code of the YouTube video. Refer the 2 images above.

 

2. PowerPoint 2010 may ask for the latest Windows Media Player in your computer. If you don’t already have it, get it from Microsoft’s download site. If you’ve any problem, consider the steps described here.

 

3. This is how it looks (see picture below) after your YouTube online video is embedded on to PowerPoint 2010. It doesn’t look inspiring. There are thick black borders; the YouTube player control remains; and each time you explain the slide you need to be connected to the Internet for the video to show up. As if those were not enough, you cannot edit the video if you want.

Embedded YouTube video looks uninspiring in PowerPoint 2010

Downloading YouTube Video, Then Embedding

The way to avoid the problems enumerated above is to first download the YouTube video on to your computer, and then embed it on to your PowerPoint slide. The steps are as under:

1. Go to this CNET page and download YouTube Downloader on to your computer. The software’s interface is simple (see the image below).



2. As you can see (note the ‘2 radio buttons’), you have the choice of both downloading YouTube video and then converting it to your preferred video format. Usually, if the downloaded video is in MPEG format (as in my case above), you do not need to further convert it. MPEG can be directly embedded on to PowerPoint 2010 slide.

 

3. To download YouTube video (or any online video from other video sharing sites), open YouTube Downloader, select the YouTube video URL, keep ‘Download video from YouTube’ selected, choose Download Options, and finally click Ok.

 

4. Lastly, for embedding the video in PowerPoint 2010, click Insert > Video > Video from File. After you’ve embedded, the video appears as under in PowerPoint. You can see the video appears clean, and also you can do all the video editing inside PowerPoint 2010 as you feel necessary.

Online video downloaded from YouTube and embedded in PowerPoint appears good

Conclusion

Being able to edit an online video brought in from video sharing sites like YouTube to PowerPoint 2010 is a great advantage. I’m sure many video makers will extensively make use of it. In a coming video I’ll take off from this article to show how you can do trimming to the video for your needs.