Oh yes, before I forget. My kid brother is a budding video director. He wanted me to ask you if you can handle video.

Your brother asked a good question. I sure can. I have a library of video clips to choose from. You can also grab video clips from the Internet or create your own clips using a video camera and video capture board. It's a great way to enhance a presentation.

Incredible. A mini-film festival! Move over, Hollywood.

Adding a video clip If you want to add a video clip to your presentation, you can search for one in PowerPoint's Microsoft Clip Gallery. You can choose from 21 video clips. However, to access the clips you must place the Office 97 CD in your CD ROM drive. To add one of these video clips to your presentation, follow these steps: 1. Click the Insert menu, point to Movies and Sounds, and then click Movie from Gallery. 2. In the Microsoft Clip Gallery dialog box, click the Videos tab, then click the video clip you want. 3. Click the Insert button. The video clip icon, a blacked-out video screen, will appear on your slide. You can also add video clips from other sources such as CDs or the Internet. Let's say you've found a cool video clip on the Internet that you want to add to your presentation. Here's what you do: 1. Click the Insert menu, point to Movies and Sounds, and then click Movie from File. The Insert Movie dialog box will appear. 2. In the Look in box, locate the drive and folder where you have saved the video clip. 3. Select the video clip file from the file list, then click OK. A video screen icon is added to the slide. You can resize the icon or move it to other areas of the slide.

You mentioned earlier that I can click your Speaker Icon to play a sound. So, let me guess...to play a movie, do you have some sort of Video Icon?

Jim, I think you're catching on.

I can't take all the credit. You're very user-friendly.

My mom taught me to have good manners. While I'm at it, let me show you how to make the video play automatically...

Playing video clips The default way to play a video clip during a slide show is to click the video screen icon. However, the video clip will play automatically if you give it an animation order. The following steps show you how to add an animation effect and an animation order to the video screen icon. Note: Although it's not necessary to give the icon an animation effect to make it play automatically, the Slide Show looks better when the video screen makes a grand entrance. To set up the video clip so that it plays automatically, follow these steps: 1. In Slide View, click the video screen icon to select it. 2. Click the Slide Show menu, then click Custom Animation. 3. Select the video clip in the Animation order list. 4. Click the Play Settings tab, then click the check box beside Play using animation order. 5. Click the Effects tab. 6. In the Effects drop-down list, choose an effect. For example, Crawl from Top. 7. Click OK to close the Custom Animation dialog box. Try running your slide show. The video clip will start once the animation stops.