How to Use a Video Background in PowerPoint

Trying to keep audiences focused as you present? Need to make your slide designs more lively? A moving background for PowerPoint is a great way to do exactly that.

Thanks to PowerPoint’s features, it’s very easy to do. You can combine video files with PowerPoint presentations for engaging slide designs. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to make a video background in PowerPoint, fast!

How to Add a Moving Background in PowerPoint

Adding a PowerPoint video background can make your presentation more engaging and appealing. When you add a video background PowerPoint, you’re sure to:

• Captivate your audience. A video background helps grab your audience’s attention. With a video background, you can make your presentation more dynamic and interactive. This always helps to hold your audience’s interest.
• Set the mood. A video background works to create a specific mood. Consider what might happen if you’re giving a presentation about a tropical destination. You could use a video background of a beautiful beach to bring your audience there! 
• Enhance your message. A video background can also be used to enhance your message or story. Imagine that you’re giving a presentation about climate change. Here, you could use a video background of melting glaciers for urgency.
• Stand out from the crowd. Using a video background helps your presentation stand out from others. By using unique visuals, you’ll create a more memorable and impactful presentation.

Adding a video background to your PowerPoint slides lets you create an engaging and impactful deck. It helps your designs captivate your audience and effectively convey your message. Now, let’s learn how to add a moving background in PowerPoint! 

The best way to get started is with a premium PowerPoint video background template from Envato Elements. For a flat monthly rate, you can download and use as many of these designs as you want.

In our tutorial, we’ll work with the stunning Native Minimalist PowerPoint Template from Envato Elements. This one has dozens of unique slide designs inside.

With the template open in PowerPoint, let’s learn how to make a video background in PowerPoint now!

1. Select a Slide

First, you’ll want to select a slide where you want to add a PowerPoint video background. Keep in mind: a video background PowerPoint can be added to one slide at a time. If you want a video background across multiple slides, you’ll need to work through all these steps on each slide.

In the Native template deck, we’ll use slide #3 to add a video background. In the preview image below, you can see that I’ve added some content to the slide. 

Now, I’d like to add a video background PowerPoint to the slide to really bring it to life. Let’s get started. In moments, you’ll know how to make a video background in PowerPoint. 

2. Choose Videos for Background

Next up, you’ll want to choose videos for background use in PowerPoint. Here, you really have two options. Of course, you may have videos of your own that you want to use. But if you don’t, it’s time to revisit the Envato Elements offer. 

Along with thousands of PowerPoint templates, Elements has millions of stock video clips available now. And every single one of them is included in the powerful unlimited downloads offer.

To demonstrate, we’ll use the Big Sur, California, #3 stock clip from Envato Elements. It’s a beautiful, short clip showing coastal California. Go ahead and download it if you want to follow along. 

3. Compress Videos for Sharing

With a PowerPoint video background picked out, you’re almost ready to add it to your favorite slides! But first, you should consider the file size of your video clip. In the era of high-definition video, even very short clips can become remarkably large files. 

In fact, many fifteen-second clips may be over a gigabyte in size! You’ll want to avoid saving PowerPoint slides with huge video files inside. That’s because it makes them very hard to share. For example, most email clients have a rather small (usually 25mb) attachment limit. If you have a large video on your slides, you won’t be able to email your presentations to others.

To avoid this problem, it pays to compress your videos. For this, I love to use an app like Handbrake. Handbrake is a free, open-source video converter and transcoder.

In moments, it can compress even the largest video files into much more manageable sizes. And you won’t lose visual quality! Again, you can download Handbrake to follow along here.

With Handbrake installed, let’s go ahead and launch the app. When you do, you’ll see the Source Selection menu. Here, you can browse to a stored video file on your computer. You can use the Browse options, or simply drop the clip where prompted.

Handbrake scans the video, and then you’ll be on the main menu. Here, you’ll control the settings for your compressed video. By default, Handbrake uses the Fast 1080p30 preset. This is a great choice, because it creates very small files while keeping quality high.

But you can often select a lower setting. Remember, a background video can easily be much lower quality than a clip you might feature on a slide, for example. 

Select your desired quality settings using the Preset drop-down. At the bottom, in the Save As group, give your file a name, and choose a location to save it. Finally, come up to the menu bar and click Start Encode.

Handbrake spends a few moments converting your videos for background designs. You can track the progress by watching the bar in the lower left corner. Once it’s complete, you can jump over to PowerPoint and prepare to add your video background. 

4. Insert the Video

Now, it’s time to add your moving background for PowerPoint. Again, you’re working on the slide where you want to add the video background PowerPoint. Watch how to make a video background in PowerPoint.

Find the ribbon, which is the series of menu tabs across the top of the PowerPoint window. From the ribbon, click on Insert. When you do, find the Media group on the right side of the menu. There, click on the Video drop-down. From the list of options, select This Device.

The Insert Video menu launches in PowerPoint. This is a file browser, where you can navigate to your newly compressed PowerPoint video background. Click on it when you find the file, then choose Insert. 

PowerPoint imports your video and place it on the slide. Its thumbnail is editable, just like an image. Pull on the corners to resize the video clip. Since it’s in the background, I like to make sure that it covers the entirety of my slides. You can click and drag on the center to move it into position. 

5. Adjust the Opacity

Just like that, your moving background for PowerPoint is in place! But there’s a problem. All the content on the slide is now invisible! Fortunately, the fix is easy.

The first step here is to click on the video background PowerPoint to select it. Back on the ribbon, find the Video Format tab and click on it. From the Arrange section, open the Send Backward drop-down. A list of options appears, and here, you’ll choose Send to Back. When you do, the other content on your slide returns to view.

However, you may want to reduce the opacity of the video. This is optional – you can always leave the video background just like this. If you do, be sure to make adjustments to text and other content to make sure it stays clearly readable.

This is often as easy as changing font colors to offset with the moving background for PowerPoint.

To adjust opacity, you can’t adjust the video directly. Your best bet here is to add a shape overlay atop the video. This gives you full control of how transparent the video is. 

Return to the Insert tab, this time clicking on the Shapes drop-down. From the available options, let’s pick a basic rectangle. With it selected, click and drag with your cursor to draw a rectangle that fully covers the slide.

Next, find the Shape Format menu on the ribbon and launch it. Here, use the Shape Fill drop-down to select a color for the shape. Keep in mind – by default, shapes in PowerPoint are 0% transparent, which means they appear solid. By adding transparency, a solid shape becomes a “filter,” giving a certain colorful appearance to the content behind it. 

With the shape selected, return to the Shape Format tab and click Send Backward. Finally, right-click on the rectangle shape and choose Format Shape.

In the Fill group, pull on the Transparency slider. In real time, you can see your video background appear. It’s best to experiment here, seeing what setting looks best. This varies, depending on the style of your slide and the video you’re using.

Again, this is a bit of a trial-and-error process. After you reduce the opacity of your shapes, you might need to adjust text colors to ensure everything stays readable.

6. Control the Playback

That’s it! In moments, you’ve learned how to make a video background in PowerPoint! This is a great way to wow your audience.

You do have the option to adjust playback settings, which are found by clicking on the video background and choosing the Playback tab on the ribbon.

Here, you can control how the video starts playing when you share your slides. You can also choose to loop a clip, where it plays over and over. For more about these options, turn to our full tutorial:

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  How to Use a Looping Video Background in PowerPoint

  

  Andrew Childress

  21 Mar 2023

The Best Source for Video Background PowerPoint Templates (For 2023)

Envato Elements is the winning source for stunning PowerPoint templates in 2023 and beyond. As a member, you can download as many designs as you want! You’ll enjoy thousands of options for every topic and style. 

Plus, Elements includes stock photos, fonts, music, and more. And don’t forget to browse the vast library of stock video for your next PowerPoint video background!

Find PowerPoint Templates

When you turn to premium templates, you’ll enjoy key benefits. These are advantages that you won’t experience with free content that you might find online. Choose Elements and you’ll find:

• Stunning, expertly crafted designs. Envato Elements templates are built by creative designers. You’ll enjoy their expert sense of style on every slide! These template layouts help your videos for background look their best. 
• Flexible placeholders. Content placeholders make it easy to add video backgrounds and more. With premium templates, you won’t need to build slide layouts from scratch. Instead, you just drop in your own content, and you’re all set. 
• Compelling visuals. Slides from Envato Elements feature unique and creative layouts. The visual aesthetic is simply unmatched by free designs from around the web.

As you can see, Envato Elements is the best creative investment you can make in 2023. It’s a great way to start building PowerPoint video background designs of your own! Join today and start creating your own amazing slide decks in moments. 

You Just Learned How to Add a Moving Background in PowerPoint

PowerPoint constantly amazes me with its capabilities. Now that you know how to add a moving background in PowerPoint, you have yet another skill to enhance the engagement of a slide.

Now, it’s time to put how to add a moving background in PowerPoint to practice. Open an existing slide, add a video to the background, and press play. You’re sure to love the results.