Resize, Rotate, and Flip Videos in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

You can position or reposition pictures and shapes, but did you know that you can make changes to any inserted video in PowerPoint 2016?. Play around with options to adjust correction for videos, recoloring video, video styles, video effects, video shapes, and video borders that can help you enhance the look of your video. These options not only make your video clips look better and focused but also provide you with ideas to make your video clips stand apart.

Additionally, you will find some very basic video editing options that can be even more significant. These include how you resize, rotate, and flip your inserted video clips. Resizing can help you change dimensions of your video clips, while slight changes in rotation values can draw attention. Flip, the last of these options though is something you will almost never use, unless you want to do something drastically different!

Whether you want to resize, rotate, or flip, the first few steps remain the same for all these options:

1. Open your presentation, and navigate to the required slide where you have already inserted a video clip. Select or double-click the video clip to bring up the two Video Tools tabs in the Ribbon. These two tabs are Format and Playback. Click the Format tab to activate it, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 1, below.
2. 
   Figure 1: Video Tools Format tab of the Ribbon

Contextual Tab

The Video Tools Format tab is a Contextual tab. Contextual tabs are special tabs in the Ribbon that are not visible all the time. They only make an appearance when you are working with a particular slide object which can be edited using special options.
2. When you insert a video on your slide, it may display a black rectangle on the slide, as shown in Figure 1, above. If your video clip does not show a black rectangle, then you can skip this step and go to Step 3.
3. If you see the black rectangle in place of the video clip, then you will have to optionally add a Poster Frame to your video clip, as shown in Figure 2, below.

What’s a Poster Frame?

A Poster Frame can be applied to your video clip if you see just a black rectangle on your slide, at the time of inserting the video clip. Because, when you are choosing to resize, rotate, or flip the video, it is good to see a Live Preview of the actual video clip being resized, rotated, or flipped, rather than seeing a black rectangle. Anyhow, applying a Poster Frame is entirely optional, and has no relation to your being able to follow the rest of this tutorial.
4. 
   Figure 2: Video clip with a poster frame added
3. Now, let us learn how to resize, rotate, and flip a video clip next.

Resize Video in PowerPoint 2016

You can resize the selected video in any of the two ways mentioned below:

• Click and drag any of the white selection handles that show on the border of the selected video, as shown in Figure 2, above.

Manipulate the Video Shape

If you have set your video to play within a certain shape like a Teardrop, a Trapezoid, or a Star, then you can also drag the yellow square that appears along with the shape’s selection handles to manipulate the video's edges.
• Locate the Size group within the Video Tools Format tab. Then, enter the required Height and Width values in digits, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3, below.
• 
  Figure 3: Height and Width values entered within the Size group

Inches or Centimeters?

Do you see the Width and Height values in centimeters rather than inches? That's not an issue since you will either see centimeters or inches everywhere in PowerPoint. But if you want to change the unit of measurement, you will have to do that globally in your Microsoft Windows operating system. The following tutorials will help you:

Change the Unit Of Measurement in Windows 10
Change the Unit Of Measurement in Windows 8
Change the Unit of Measurement in Windows 7
Change the Unit of Measurement in Windows Vista
Change the Unit of Measurement in Windows XP

You can also enter the values in inches or centimeters directly into the boxes. If you want to type in values in inches, just type n in and press Enter on your keyboard, where n represents the value you want to type. Similarly, for centimeters, just type in n cm. To learn more about advanced options to resize the selected video clip, follow the instructions within our Resizing Shapes tutorial.

To learn more about advanced options to resize the selected video, click the small arrow dialog launcher located at the bottom right corner of the Size group, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 3, above. Thereafter, follow instructions within our Resizing Shapes tutorial to proceed further.

Rotate Video in PowerPoint 2016

You can rotate the selected video in any of the two ways mentioned below:

• Click and drag the rotation handle towards right or left, as required. You can see the rotation handle, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, shown earlier on this page. Additionally, you can press the Shift key and drag the rotation handle to rotate in increments of 15 degrees.
• Locate the Arrange group within the Video Tools Format tab. Then click the Rotate button to bring up the Rotate and Flip drop-down gallery that you can see in Figure 4, below. Choose any of the two Rotate options to rotate left or right, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, previously on this page.
• 
  Figure 4: Rotate options within the Rotate and Flip drop-down gallery

To learn more about advanced options to rotate selected video, right-click the video and, choose the Size and Position option in the resultant contextual menu. Alternatively, click More Rotations Options within the Rotate and Flip drop-down gallery that you can see highlighted in blue within Figure 4, above. Either way, you summon the Format Video Task Pane. Within this Task Pane, select the Size and Properties button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 5, below.

Figure 5: Rotation option within the Format Video Task Pane

Change the Rotation option, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 5, above, to any value from -360^o to 360^o or type a zero rotation value to restore the original placement of the video clip.

Flip Video in PowerPoint 2016

As with Resize and Rotate, there are two options available to Flip the picture:

• Click and drag one of the side (not corner) white selection handles of the video, as shown in Figure 6, below.
• 
  Figure 6: Drag the side handle towards the other end of the video
• Continue dragging even when you reach the end of the video until you have flipped it as required, as shown in Figure 7, below. Remember that if you drag the selection handle too little or too farther, you may end up squishing the video!
• 
  Figure 7: Drag beyond to the other side to flip a video
• Locate the Arrange group within the Video Tools Format tab. Then click the Rotate button to bring up the Rotate and Flip drop-down gallery, as shown in Figure 8, below. Choose any of the two Flip options, as shown highlighted in red with Figure 8. Within this drop-down gallery to flip your video vertically or horizontally.
• 
  Figure 8: Flip options within the Rotate and Flip drop-down gallery

In Figure 9, below, you can see the selected video clip in its original form as well as its variations in which the video clip has been resized, rotated, and flipped.

Figure 9: Variants of the same video clip applied with resize, rotate, and flip options Flip options within the Rotate and Flip drop-down gallery