How to insert Flash into PowerPoint 2007 manually

This tutorial shows how to insert Flash movie into presentation directly though PowerPoint 2007. If you use PowerPoint 2003 or lower version, click here.

To play Flash movie (file with .swf extension) in PowerPoint you add an ActiveX control and create a link to the Flash file. To play Flash movies, you should have Adobe Flash Player installed and ActiveX control should be registered on your computer.

Insert vs Embed

Embed means that external Flash movie will be stored in presentation and you will be able to view it on any computer where Adobe Flash Player is installed. When you insert Flash in presentation, PowerPoint creates a link to swf file's location on your PC. PowerPoint 2007 allows linking Flash file to presentation only, but it will not let you embed Flash into your PPT 2007 presentation due to security restrictions. The only way to embed Flash movie is to save presentation as PowerPoint 97-2003 compartible copy.

It's a good practice to store Flash files and PowerPoint presentation in one folder. You can link Flash movie setting it's file name instead full path to file. So if you copy and move such folder with all multimedia to other computer, Flash animations will normally run in your presentation.

Use Handy Addin?

The more convenient way to insert Flash into PowerPoint is using iSpring Pro, handy PowerPoint add-in with "Insert Flash" feature. Download it, install on your PC and you will be able to insert Flash files as you usually insert video or audio in PowerPoint. iSpring allows you to convert PowerPoint presentations into one Flash movie (.SWF file) with all multimedia resources embedded. Widely supported Flash presentations can be easily published on web, sent via email or hosted at SlideBoom online portal.

Step-by-step instructions

1. Open new or existing PowerPoint presentation and select the slide where you wish to insert Flash file.

2. Click the Microsoft Office button and click PowerPoint Options.

Click Office button and open PowerPoint Options window

3. In the PowerPoint Options window opened, enable Show Developer Tab Ribbon option in the Popular tab, and click OK.

4. Go to the Developer tab in the main PowerPoint menu and click on the More Controls icon in the Controls section.

Select More Controls option on the Development tab

5. Select Shockwave Flash Object from the list and click OK. Use the mouse to draw the control on a slide. You can resize the control to adjust the size of Flash animation.

6. Right click on the control you added and click Properties in the contextual menu.

Place control on a slide and open its Properties window

7. On the Properties window opened, click Movie property and specify the full path to the Flash file. You can add Flash file located on your computer (e.g. C:\iSpring\tour.swf) or web resource (e.g. http://www.ispringsolutions/tour.swf).

8. You can set specific options to tune your Flash movie playback.

To start playing Flash movie automatically when the PowerPoint slide is displayed, set Playing property to True. You can add custom controls for Flash movie and set this property to False.
To loop Flash movie playback while the slide is displayed, set Loop property to True.

9. Now you can save your presentation or view it as slideshow: click SlideShow icon in the View tab or press F5. Press Esc to return to normal view.