Insert Flash Movies using the Developer Tab in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows

There are two ways in which you can add a Flash movie to a PowerPoint slide. Inserting it as a normal movie through the Insert tab works as long as all recipients of your presentation use PowerPoint 2010. If any of them use PowerPoint 2007 or 2003, you should use the procedure explained on this page.

First of all, the Developer tab of the Ribbon has to be made visible. By default, this tab is hidden. You also need to have the updated version of Adobe's Shockwave Flash ActiveX control. To make sure, you have the current version installed, go to this site (link no longer works) using Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Follow these steps to insert a Flash movie into PowerPoint 2010 for Windows using the Developer tab:

1. Open the PowerPoint presentation and select the slide where you want to insert the Flash movie.
2. Access the Developer tab of the Ribbon, and within the Controls group, click the More Controls button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 1, below.
3. 
   Figure 1: More Controls button
3. Doing so will bring up the More Controls dialog box, as shown in Figure 2, below. Select the Shockwave Flash Object option, and click the OK button.
4. 
   Figure 2: Select to place a Shockwave Flash Object control
4. The cursor will now turn into a crosshair. Drag and place an instance of the control on the slide, as shown in Figure 3, below.
5. 
   Figure 3: The placed Shockwave Flash Object control
5. With the Flash movie inserted, you need to set the properties. To do so, select the the inserted Flash control and within the Developer tab of the Ribbon, click the Properties button within the Controls group, as shown in Figure 4, below. Alternatively you can right-click the inserted Flash movie and choose Properties.
6. 
   Figure 4: Access the Properties
6. Doing so will bring up the Properties pane, as shown in Figure 5, below.
7. 
   Figure 5: Properties pane
7. In the Properties pane, select the Movie option and type the name of your Flash SWF, as shown in Figure 6, below. No path is required since the presentation and Flash movie (SWF) are placed in the same folder. Also make sure that the EmbedMovie option remains set to False, since PowerPoint 2010's security options don't respect the True value for EmbedMovie.
8. 
   Figure 6: Properties pane with a link to the inserted Flash movie
8. Close the Properties pane to get back to the PowerPoint interface and save the presentation.