Trigger a video

A trigger gives you an advantage when you want to play a video.

It enables you to start the video without having to click it to so do.

You can pull the video off the slide, so it doesn't show before you play it.

Then, using the playback tab, you can set it to play full-screen, and set up a trigger, like this pyramid shape, to start it.

In a slide show, you'd display the slide, click the trigger, and the video would start and play full-screen.

Let's take this step-by-step.

Here's the slide at an earlier stage.

I've created this shape, and now I'll insert my video using the Insert tab, Video, Video on My PC.

The inserted video covers the shape, but that doesn't matter because I'm going to drag it off the slide; I can make it as small as I want.

Now I'll use Video Tools and the Playback tab, and I'll to select the option to play it full screen.

However, there's a critical issue: I need a way to start the video.

I'm going to open the Animation Pane now because it helps explain what's going on. I'll zoom out a little more.

PowerPoint treats video and sound as effects.

So, this effect represents the video itself, and like other effects, it appears in the Animation Pane. Also, it's shown as already having a trigger- the movie is its own trigger.

In other words, it's automatically set up so that I have to click the movie itself to play it.

But, since I don't want the video to appear before it plays and I've pulled it off the slide, I need a way to start it.

Here's one option: On the Playback tab, I can change this from On Click to Automatically.

Now look at the effects in the Animation Pane.

This Play effect will start the video automatically and it will play full screen.

Let's see it in a Preview. The video plays full screen, but starts up instantly and bypasses the view of the slide.

In this case I do want to display the slide, so this shape and message will appear.

So, I need to trigger the video from the slide.

Given that, I'll remove this automatic Play effect, and set up the shape as a trigger.

I make sure the video effect is selected in the Animation Pane, then I click Trigger, On Click of, Pyramid, which is the shape.

Now the pyramid shape is the trigger for the video, and that's what I need to click to start it.

Let's try it out. I'll click the trigger, and there's the video.

Another way to use triggers with a video is to create your own media controls to play it.

Each of these controls is a trigger. I can Play, Pause, or Stop the action using animation effects.

To create the controls, I first insert a shape to serve as the control, or trigger.

For example, for a Play control, I'd use this Action button.

For the Play effect itself, I'd first remove the automatically assigned trigger for the video.

Then I'd select the video, and from the Animation gallery, choose a Play effect, part of this group that is available for a video.

With the Play effect applied, I can now assign a trigger to it.

The Play effect is selected, so I'll click Trigger, On Click of, and choose the Action button.

I'd follow the same steps, using the Add Animation gallery, to create the other controls.

Up Next: Trigger a text effect to play over a video.