Creating a Power­Point video – i.e. con­vert­ing a finished Power­Point present­a­tion into a video – is a re­l­at­ively simple matter since doing so basically only means clicking on “File” in the Power­Point menu bar and then on “Export”. This allows you to save the Power­Point present­a­tion as a video on your computer. In this step-by-step guide, we will explain how to proceed in detail and what needs to be con­sidered. We will also briefly discuss how to add audio or video comments to your Power­Point present­a­tion for a more effective video.

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Why save a Power­Point as video?

Power­Point is not only ideal for live present­a­tions in front of an audience. The program also makes it easy and straight­for­ward to record video present­a­tions or create ex­plan­at­ory videos. This makes sense, for example, if you do not have the op­por­tun­ity to give a present­a­tion in front of an audience.

Power­Point present­a­tions that have been saved as videos can be shared in a variety of ways on the internet. This allows you to upload the video to your website or share it on YouTube or social networks such as Facebook or Twitter. Power­Point video present­a­tions can be dis­trib­uted just as easily via mobile mes­sen­gers such as WhatsApp, and you can also insert a link to your Power­Point video into your emails. In addition, videos cannot be changed as easily as con­ven­tion­al present­a­tions. Power­Point videos provide more control than other formats over how long and in what order users can view the content.

How to turn a Power­Point into a video - the basics

Basically, you can turn any finished Power­Point present­a­tion into a video in just a few clicks. However, it is often advisable to edit a present­a­tion ori­gin­ally designed for a live audience before creating a video from it. Of course, you can also create a Power­Point present­a­tion directly with the intention of turning it into a video af­ter­wards.

Tip

An important tool for designing uniform Power­Point present­a­tions is the Power­Point slide master. Power­Point shortcuts are also useful when creating any type of present­a­tion. Further in­form­a­tion con­cern­ing in­form­a­tion tech­no­logy can also be found in the article “Present­ing ef­fect­ively”.

One benefit of Power­Point videos is that spoken text can be recorded and added to each slide. In addition, video re­cord­ings are possible in which the speaker’s camera image can be su­per­im­posed onto a slide in a small window. Your computer must have a mi­cro­phone and/or camera in order to do this.

To sup­ple­ment a Power­Point present­a­tion with spoken text or an in­teg­rated video, you will need to do the following:

Step 1: Open the finished Power­Point present­a­tion that you want to turn into a video. Click on “Slide Show” in the menu at the top of the screen. Then, click on “Record Slide Show” in the toolbar.

Image: PowerPoint 2016 – Slide Show tab
Power­Point 2016 – Slide Show tab

Step 2: Now, you can either record sound or a video for the re­spect­ive slide by clicking on the red “Record” button in the upper left-hand corner. If you want to stop recording, just click the square next to it. To view or listen to your recording, click on the replay icon.

Tip

By clicking on the small mi­cro­phone or camera symbol in the lower right-hand corner, you can switch the mi­cro­phone or camera on or off, depending on whether you would like to record the voice or a video of the presenter to be in­teg­rated into the slide.

If you want to discard a previous recording and start a new one, click on “Clear” in the bar at the top. You can also use the pen or high­light­er function to mark important points on the slide. You can open the virtual laser pointer by right-clicking and then clicking on “Show Options”. You will then repeat these steps for each slide in your present­a­tion.

Image: PowerPoint – Record slide show
Power­Point – Record slide show

Step 3: Finally, you should save this present­a­tion in ppt format, just like any other Power­Point present­a­tion. This allows you to make changes to it at any time. To do so, click on the “File” tab, then on the “Save As” menu item and choose the desired location to save the file.

Save Power­Point as video

Saving a finished Power­Point present­a­tion in a video format is simple:

Step 1: As soon as you have opened the re­spect­ive Power­Point present­a­tion, click on “File” in the menu bar at the top and then on “Export” (instead of “Save” or “Save As”) in the sidebar that opens on the left-hand side.

Image: Creating a PowerPoint video: export process
Creating a Power­Point video: export process

Step 2: Another sidebar will open with various options for exporting Power­Point present­a­tions. Select “Create a Video”. You can also choose from two drop-down menus:

  • what res­ol­u­tion (and therefore also file size) your video should have
  • and whether and/or how the recorded timings and nar­ra­tions are used.

Once you have made your selection, click on the square “Create Video” button.

Image: Save PowerPoint as video: format selection
Save Power­Point as video: format selection
Tip

The res­ol­u­tion or quality of a video is usually directly related to the size of the video file. As a rule of thumb, the better the quality or res­ol­u­tion, the larger the file will be. A high res­ol­u­tion is par­tic­u­larly useful for users who will be watching the video on a large screen. Smaller files with lower res­ol­u­tions are often easier to handle (e.g. upload faster). It makes sense to find a com­prom­ise between maximum video quality and minimum file size.

Step 3: After clicking on “Create Video”, you only have to choose the folder where you want to save your video from Power­Point in the next window that opens. At this point, you can also select the file type in which your Power­Point video is to be saved. Usually, you will have the common MPEG4 format and the Windows Media Video format to choose from. MPEG4 has the advantage of being able to be run on a larger number of devices and systems.

Image: Save PowerPoint as video
Save Power­Point as video

Once you have saved your Power­Point video locally to your computer or online in the cloud, you have countless options. You can now upload your Power­Point video to your own website, YouTube or Facebook. You can also send it by email or post it to a wide variety of social media channels.

Tip

The Office ap­plic­a­tion Power­Point is part of the Microsoft 365 packages offered by IONOS including dedicated customer support.

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