Dear friends
I haven’t used Windows, or Microsoft Office for quite sometime now. But this morning I try to test my wife’s PhD progress slides using both apps.
Being an Ubuntu and Mac user, it isn’t a pain to spare several GB to Windows partition.
I used the following specification:
- i5 Acer laptop running Windows 7 and Win Office 2007
- i5 Macbook Air running Mavericks 10.9.2, Mac Office 2011, Keynotes 2011
- I used an mp4 video file.
After several try outs, here’s my conclusions
- Mac Office 2011 doesn’t embed videos. I can conserve the link only if I saved it in native Mac Office 2011 format, pptx or ppsx. The link will break as soon as I save it to another format. I try to open the slide using Win Office 2010, the video showed as picture instead video.
- Keynotes, however, can export your slide to pptx and conserve the links. The conversion will make a folder containing the slide and the video file. You have to copy both files in the same folder for file transferring.
- Office 2007 actually locks the link to the video file. Save it to ppt or pps, the link would still be intact. Even if you move the slide solely (without the video file) to another folder or to another Windows computer or to a Mac. The video still ran smoothly on Office Mac.
So here’s my recommendation:
- If you still stuck with Win Office 2007, just stay with it. If you choose to purchase the new version, preserve your 2007, don’t delete it. Two different Office versions can be installed in the same machine. You just need to choose which version to run.
- Make your presentation with it. Or, if you choose to make it with the later version, you can insert the video later using Office 2007.
Or play it safe, compose your slide (using any version), insert your video file, set your slides timing then export it to movie formats