Embedding YouTube videos or getting .avi to pause?

[Isara]

Hi all:

I have a twofold problem. I'm using Impress on a new Vista machine (yeah, I know, I know...). I'm trying to embed video into my slideshow and I need it to do one of two things:

1) embed a YouTube video
or 2) NOT play the .avi when I switch to the slide. I want full control over starting and stopping the video.

I'm hoping that there's a plugin somewhere for #1, but if I have to download and convert the videos I will. But my main problem is that I really don't want to have the video autoplay when I get to the slide and I want to be able to pause it without switching slides. I didn't see any player controls for these functions.

Is there something I'm missing?

[Phil]

Hi and welcome to the community!

Indeed, video control is a major flaw in Impress. There is already an issue filed on this.
You can vote for the issue (9 votes as per today) in order to emphasize on its importance.

You may also have a look at the interesting discussion in this thread.

Concerning the YT videos, I am not aware of a plugin. How should it work? You would need to be online to play videos. That wouldn't really make sense IMHO.
You can use the Download Videos option of ZAMZAR to convert the videos.

KR, phil

[Isara]

Thanks for your reply!

I'm a museum technologist, and most of my presentations are done with an internet connection (since it's kinda hard to demonstrate Web 2.0 without the web...). Powerpoint 2007 (possibly also 2003) does allow for online embeds of videos, which is very handy, but my new machine doesn't have any Office applications on it.

I finally just uploaded my presentation to Google Docs and got around it that way, but it's kind of limited in its own ways. Still, the Flash embedding was the most necessary part to my presentation, so I'm dealing with the style formatting on Google.

[Phil]

Isara,
you're welcome!

most of my presentations are done with an internet connection (since it's kinda hard to demonstrate Web 2.0 without the web...).

OK, I agree on that!
This is quite a special use case in which it of course makes sense to work online.

PowerPoint is definitely superior to Impress concerning multimedia capabilities...

I finally just uploaded my presentation to Google Docs and got around it that way, but it's kind of limited in its own ways. Still, the Flash embedding was the most necessary part to my presentation, so I'm dealing with the style formatting on Google.

OK, that sounds like quite a good solution for you. What is your general experience with Google Docs - haven't tried it yet.

Kind regards,
phil

[Isara]

I've had pretty good success with Google Docs, which is functional, though it's not as pretty as the offline applications, but if you need to collaborate with other people, you don't want to worry about compatibility, or will be working in a number of locations and don't want to keep emailing things to yourself or using a thumb drive, it's really handy. Plus you can work offline if you install their syncing features.

I recently gave a presentation at a conference and wanted to work on the plane. Since my co-presenters and I were using Docs to define our presentations, the syncing feature was a life saver.

It does have a few little quirks, like if your internet connection slows down, sometimes you need to repeat whatever action it is you were trying to do to get it to recognize it.

But I did just publish my Google Presentation and emailed the URL to my colleagues who couldn't attend my lecture. I haven't heard any complaints about their not being able to view it (just about the content!).

Anyway, if you're interested, here's the blog post I wrote about my trials and tribulations trying to get this particular presentation to work, and here's the presentation itself.

Cheers!

[Phil]

Isara,

thanks for the links to your blog and the presentation!

Indeed, that has given my quite a good impression of the possibilities of Google Docs, and I admit I am quite amazed, especially if you wish to share it online. And the way you can embed videos is really cool!

Also the syncing feature makes it really interesting.
How does it exactly work? Does it also allow to hold the presentation offline (incl. videos)?

Best regards,
phil

[Isara]

I'm pretty sure the syncing feature won't automatically download the the videos for offline use (but I haven't tested it). I suspect that it just holds the URL of the video in the slideshow.

To use the offline features, you download a browser app which automagically syncs the Google Docs you're working on with the offline versions. So when you're offline, you navigate to the docs.google.com page and work just as you would when online. Then, when you're online again, the app updates the online version. Pretty handy, especially when traveling!!

[Phil]

Thanks again, Isara!

I'm going to check out Google Docs myself - really seems worth it!

Best regards,
phil