Powerpoint 2010 contains a new feature that allows you to export your presentaion as a high quality HD WMV video, up to 720p resolution. To do this, Powerpoint uses the timings of your animations and slides to form the basis of the video. All transistions, animations and effects will be preserved in the final result, which is actually impressive.
Setup
The first thing you should do before you even start work is to set the presentation up in 16:9 landscape format. To do this, head to the Design tab then click Page Setup. Once there, change the "Slides sized for" dropdown to "Onscreen show (16:9)" and click OK. Your presentation is now setup to output to widescreen HD.
You can now go ahead and design your slides - start thinking of them as "scenes" rather than slides - so ditch those bullet points and get creative!
Audio
Any audio effects you add in Powerpoint will be included (and mixed if they overlap) in your final video. It's also possible to add a narration track to your entire video. Here's how -
Before you do this, make sure you've finished your presentation first.
Go to the first slide of your presentation, click the Insert tab and then Audio. Select a pre-recorded WAV file from your hard drive and click OK. You should now see a speaker icon on your slide, drag this off the slide and into the grey area around the slide to prevent it showing up in your video.
Now click the Animation tab and then Animation Pane. In the pane, you should see an entry for your audio. Click the dropdown list for this entry and select "Start With Previous" to make your audio start playing as soon as your presentation launches. Then, click the drop down again and select Effect Options. Under the "Stop Playing" option, select "After" and type a number that EQUALS the amount of slides in your presentation. This will make your audio narration play through all your slides. Now go to the Timing tab and make sure Triggers is set to "Animate as part of click sequence"
Hit F5 and run through your presentation, and ensure the audio stays playing all the way through to the end of the presentation. If it doesn't, go back into effect options for the audio and ensure your slide count is high enough.
Timings
Now your slides and audio are setup, it's time to match the timings of your slides with the audio. To do this, head to the Slide Show tab and click Record Slide Show, then Start From The Beginning. Uncheck Narrations and Laser Pointer and click OK to begin.
As your audio plays back, advance your slides and animations to coincide with the audio using the right arrow on your keyword or mouse. If you mess up, just quit out and start again to re-do the timings. It's worth at least one practice run to rehearse the timings.
Once your done, Powerpoint will memorise the timings of each slide and animation for your video.
Export
You're now ready to create Video With Powerpoint!
You're now ready to export the presentation to video. Head to the File tab then click Save and Send on the lower left menu, then Create Video. Under Computers & HD Displays, select Large - 1280 x 720 then In the next dropdown, select Use Recorded Timings and Narrations.
Last, click Create Video and wait for Powerpoint to make your video - it can take a while depending on how complex/big your presentation is - so go check Facebook or something while you wait.
When finished, you should have a great quality, High Definition video of your work. If anything looks wrong you'll need to go back and fix your slides, or narration timings, then run the create video process again.
Summary
You've learnt the basics for creating HD videos with Powerpoint. From this point there's much more you can learn on how to REALLY make cool videos with Powerpoint, so I'd like to invite you to join my newsletter at http://compelling.tv where you'll receive regular tips, tricks and advice on making online video with Powerpoint and other tools. It's free to join, so head over now and enter your email to join.
