Add an Adobe Macromedia Director video to your presentation

It is not possible to insert an Adobe Macromedia Director video file into a PowerPoint 2010 presentation. However, to play a Director video during your presentation, do one of the following:

• Create a hyperlink or action button to the Director movie, and then click the link to play the movie.

• Save the Director movie as a Shockwave Director file with a .dcr extension, and then play it in a PowerPoint 2010 presentation by using a specific ActiveX control and the Shockwave Player. To play the Director file, add an ActiveX control to the slide and create a link from it to the Director file.

  Note: ActiveX control security settings are located in the Trust Center, where you can find security and privacy settings for Microsoft Office 2010 programs. You may need to adjust your security settings to allow Active X controls to run. ActiveX settings in the Trust Center apply to all Office 2010 products. For example, if you change a setting in PowerPoint, that setting is also changed for other Office programs that use the Trust Center. For more information about Active X controls and changing settings, see Enable or disable ActiveX settings in Office files.

  • Convert the Director video to a Director Shockwave version of the file. To do this, see your Director documentation or the Adobe Web site. Download and install the Director Shockwave control, also known as the Shockwave ActiveX Control, from the Adobe Macromedia Shockwave Download Page.

    Note: The Director Shockwave control must be registered on your computer for you to play the Director file within a presentation. To see whether the Director Shockwave control is registered, on the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click More Controls . If the Director Shockwave control appears in the list of controls, it is registered on your computer. If it is not registered, download the latest version of the Shockwave Player from the Adobe Web site to register the Shockwave Player control on your computer.

    Do the following:

  • In PowerPoint, in Normal view, display the slide on which you want to play the Director movie.

  • On the File tab, click Options.

  • In the PowerPoint Options dialog box, click Customize Ribbon.

  • Under Customize the Ribbon, in the Main Tabs list, select Developer, click Add, and then click Okay.

  • On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click More Controls .

  • In the list of controls, click Shockwave ActiveX Control, click OK, and then drag to to draw the control on the slide.

    Tip: Resize the control by dragging the sizing handles.

  • Right-click the Shockwave ActiveX Object, and then click Properties.

  • On the Alphabetic tab, click the SRC property.

  • In the value column (the blank cell next to SRC), type either the full drive path, including the file name (for example, C:\MyFile.dcr) or the URL to the Director file that you want to play.

    Tip: If you put the .dcr file in the same folder as your presentation, you can type the file name rather than the full path.

    Note: The third-party products discussed in this article are manufactured by vendors independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding the performance or reliability of these products.