Video export your way

Problem

PowerPoint will export videos; some versions even give you a bit of choice as to the resolution but if you need more control?

PowerPoint doesn't go there.

Solution

But with a bit of VBA, it's simple to get more control All you really need to do is:

• Open the presentation
• Press Alt+F11 to open the VBA editor
• Press Ctrl+G to open the Immediate window
• Type this into the immediate window:

• ActivePresentation.CreateVideo _
  "c:\temp\StarBores.wmv", True, 5 , 1024,30,85

• Press Enter
• Wait while PPT makes the video at 1024 pixels high.

Change any of the stuff after CreateVideo to suit your taste:

• Change the filename to anything you'd like.
• TRUE means "use the existing transition timings and narrations"
• 5 means "change every five seconds (if no transition time specified or if using FALSE above instead of TRUE)"
• 1024 is the Vertical Resolution
• 30 is the Frames Per Second
• 85 is the Quality (MS doesn't tell us exactly what this means or what the acceptable range of values is)

At low resolutions, the export is almost instantaneous for small presentations. At higher resolutions, it can take a while; if you try to launch the WMV while PPT's still working on it, Media Player will tell you that the file's open in another application. No harm done. Once PPT's done exporting, it'll open in media player and you know you're good to go.

See How do I use VBA code in PowerPoint? to learn how to use this example code.

But I don't want to touch VBA!

In that case, pay a visit to Shyam Pillai's site where he has a Video Tools add-in for PowerPoint.

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