How to Add SWF Files into PowerPoint

SWF file has its own advantage for its small size which is really great for uploading to websites. All most all the online small games are flash games and once you download it you’ll find out the file format is SWF.


Usually the songs and videos are inserted to PowerPoint the most but there are limitations. When you take the PowerPoint to another computer, you have to make sure that computer has the same video encoder and the video should be copied as well. But if you insert SWF to PowerPoint, the SWF will be embedded in PowerPoint and you will be able to play this PPT slideshow on any computer that has Adobe Flash Player installed.


In PowerPoint 2010, Adobe Flash files can be directly added to PowerPoint just click “Insert”. But in previous versions, things are different. In this article we’ll talk about how to insert SWF to PowerPoint 2007, and you can apply this instruction to previous PowerPoint versions like PowerPoint 2003 with slight modifications.

Step 1:

Open PowerPoint options and in the “Popular” tab check “Show Developer Tab in the Ribbon”.

Step 2:

Click the icon in the Developer Tab that looks like a tilted hammer (circled in red) and select “Shockwave Flash Object” from the pop up window.

Step 3:

Draw a rectangle using your mouse on the PowerPoint, right click and select “Properties”.

Type the full location of the SWF file in the “Movie” property. The Flash SWF file could be in some folder on your hard drive (e.g. D\:a.swf) or you can fill in the URL of a SWF file that’s available online (e.g. http://www.a.com/b.swf).

Step 4:

Other settings. If your want the SWF file to play as soon as the PowerPoint slide is viewed, set “Playing” property as “True”. Similarly if you want to make it play again and again automatically, set the “Loop” property as “True”.


Now you are done. Press F5 to preview the SWF embedded in PowerPoint. If you want to insert another SWF file, just repeat the above steps.

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