How to insert Flash into PowerPoint 2003/XP

This tutorial shows how to insert a Flash movie into presentation directly through PowerPoint 2003/XP. If you use later PowerPoint version, check instructions for PowerPoint 2007 or PowerPoint 2010.

To play Flash movie in a PowerPoint presentation you have to add an ActiveX control and create a link to your Flash file. It is important to have Adobe Flash Player installed and ActiveX control registered on your computer in order to play Flash movies.

Step-by-step instructions

1. Create a new or open an existing PowerPoint presentation and select a slide you wish to insert Flash file onto.
2. Click View on the main PowerPoint menu, select Toolbars and enable Control Toolbox option. 
3. On the Control Toolbox window opened, click the More Controls icon as shown below:
   
4. Select Shockwave Flash Object from the list of available controls and click on a slide to place the control. You can resize it with your mouse pointer to adjust the size of Flash animation.
5. Right click on the control you added and click Properties in the context menu. 
6. Right click on the control you added and select Properties option in the context menu.
   
   
   
7. In the Properties window, click Movie property and specify the full path to the Flash file. You can add Flash file located on your computer (e.g. C:\MyMovie.swf) or web resource (e.g. http://www.ispringsolutions/tour.swf).
   
8. You can tune your Flash movie playback by setting it to play automatically or/and looped:
   • 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.
   By default, your Flash file gets saved as an external resource or "embedded". It means that external Flash movie will be stored as an external presentation resource and it can be viewed on any computer that has Adobe Flash Player. However, you can still make sure it does that:
   • To see if Flash movie is embedded into your Presentation, check if Embed Movie property is set to True.
9. Now you can save your presentation or view it as a slideshow: click SlideShow icon in the View tab or pressF5. Press Esc to return to normal view
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