How to Animate PowerPoint Presentations So They Play Like Videos

Updated November 10, 2014 -

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There is some pretty astounding video technology available to us today.  Not just for the professionals who get technical degrees, but for the every day person.

The answer to making an incredible video with no experience at all is to first make a PowerPoint presentation and then use a screen capturing software like Camtasia, Screen Flow, or CamStudio to turn it into a video.

Here's how to do it in a few easy steps.

Create Your PowerPoint Presentation

Of course, the first step in creating a video like this is to complete a PowerPoint presentation.  Be sure to include all of the necessary elements that will make your presentation engaging and effective for your patients.

The below tools are screen capture programs that you can use to create an amazing video for your patients.

• Camtasia – A software that you can download online from http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html. The idea of this program is that when you have a microphone (or headphones with a microphone), you can start the Camtasia program, then run your PowerPoint presentation in the “presentation mode” and capture your screen and voice at the same time.  The result?  A professional video!  Camtasia costs $299 to purchase; you can try it out for free for 30 days.
• Screen Flow – For the Mac computer only, this software has more robust features as far as special effects and font options than Camtasia.  You can download version 5, as of this writing, to capture your Mac’s screen along with your voice and Keynote (that's like PowerPoint on the PC) slide presentation.  The full version cost is just $99.  Download the free version from http://download.cnet.com/ScreenFlow/3000-13633_4-187840.html.
• CamStudio – A free, open source screen capturing software available to anyone with a PC and a need to create these types of videos.  This program is slightly different from Camtasia in a few aspects, but for getting the basics turned into video, it’s a great free tool.  Read the entire front page of their site for technical updates on the most recent version.  You can download it here at http://camstudio.org/.

No matter which screen capture program you use, take some time to get to know how to use it.  You’ll soon discover that each is pretty intuitive, allowing you to easily learn the logical places to utilize in order to achieve the desired results for your video.

Next Step: Add Sound

Now that your PowerPoint or Screen Flow presentation is done and you've downloaded and learned one of the above screen capture programs, it's time to add sound while the screen capture program is recording the presentation in action.

You can either have the video consist of a nice music background, or you can speak into an external microphone and talk your viewers through each slide.  Ultimately, the sound quality is more important than fancy animation, so don't worry about the use of special effects (or the lack thereof) in your video.

Once your voice and or music has been added to the video, finalize your video from a "project file" to a finalized version by exporting it in one of the formats offered through the screen capturing software.  AVI, MOV, MPG or MP4 files are all compatible with web sites and YouTube, though we much prefer the .mov file format (QuickTime) because it's a native Apple program and it's easily viewed by the millions of iPhones and iPads out there!

Looking for a Medical Video Company?

If you’d rather not do the videos yourself and would like to learn more about our video marketing services please feel free to call us at 951.665.8360.  We'll be happy to provide you with more information about how we can bring your procedures to life through the patient-converting technology of video.