Embedding Flash Animation: Timer, Clock into Powerpoint

If you're a flash user or if you've got a .swf movie you want to include in PowerPoint here's how you do it: 

(Put timer, clock, countdown in to Powerpoint)

1. Create and save your movie in Flash as a .swf file.
   
2. Take note of the path where you saved it.
   
3. In PowerPoint 97 or 2000, create a new slide.
   
4. From the VIEW menu, scroll down to TOOLBARS and choose VISUAL BASIC.
   
5. From the Visual Basic Toolbar, click on the CONTROL TOOLBOX icon.
   
6. From the CONTROL TOOLBOX, select MORE CONTROLS icon.
   
7. From the scrolldown list, choose SHOCKWAVE FLASH OBJECT.
   
8. Your cursor will change to a cross hair cursor. Draw out a rectangle on your slide (size can be re-adjusted later).
   
9. Right click on the rectangle you just drew and choose PROPERTIES.
   
10. Under the Alphabetic tab, make the following changes:
    
    

• EMBED MOVIE - Change to TRUE
  
• LOOP - Change to FALSE (leave TRUE if you want movie to loop).
  
• MOVIE - type in the absolute path of your file (eg. c:\your_directory\movie_ name.swf)
  Tip: if the .swf is in the same folder as the PowerPoint file then all you need to type is the movie_name.swf
  
• Run slide show to see movie run. Make any size adjustments as necessary.
  

Note: we've recently discovered that if the flash movie is scripted to stop playing rather than loop or repeat then this command appears to be passed to PowerPoint - this results in the play command being reset to false. The simple solution (if you've got the source flash file) is to remove the offending command, alternatively you'll have to save the presentation with play set to true and not run it again until ready to present - it'll only run once and will need resetting before it'll work again!